August 20, 2005

Customer Service Reps--It's Your Ass on the Line Too

People who make their living in customer service ought to believe what they say to customers. Otherwise, they probably shouldn't say it. What's interesting to me is that, through the net, a trail of what you say using Internet communications will follow you. So, say, if you work for Walmart and you're among the (what must be an unwieldly number) of customer service reps handling the online channel, and you're communicating with customers putting your own name on the line, or "online" as the case may be, you should be sure you're getting paid enough to make that sit well with you. Or get another job. Or adopt yourself a more common name than your own if you have a common name.

Ted Dumont, for example, might become Ted Dunn. I don't know, I'm just talking off the top of my head here, because I will bet you that the same Ted Dumont that likes Counting Crows is the same Ted Dumont that is responding in a way that pisses me off on behalf of his employer, ICH. Or maybe IHC's Ted is someone else who adopted Ted Dumont's name as his Service name. Or, maybe Ted's a bot.

So I'm just suggesting that in the era of blogging, I hope customer service reps are well compensated for putting their identities on the line.

Freaky.