Empathy: the Heart of the Call Flow

Inside this massive industry known as call centers, I was then an insignificant entry-level agent three years ago, seated in front of a workstation, complete with headset, phone and a personal computer. I was part of this global network where Caucasian customers are busy on their lives on the daytime side of the world, while this nighttime side made an employee like me wide awake just to earn good money. I was taught to sound confidently for every call I take, to read my spiels impeccably, and to deny that I am someone far from my customer's skin color, or that I stand on a piece of this earth far away from their enormous continent. I was taught to toughen my onion skin, while being violently darted with a rich spectrum of insults, from irate shouts to ruthless badmouthing. Learning these things allowed my attitude toward people to mutate, and I began seeing each call a potential sale, and forgot that I am talking to a human being and not to credit cards or wallets with hefty cash. Worse, my experience then unleashed some little monsters within me, causing them to inspire me of getting even with customers who refuse to buy, who curse me or those who waste my time. It did not matter, since at the end of the long wait for the 15th and 30th, a 5-digit salary blinking in an ATM display was a blissful reward.

After 6 months and a sure, stable job, I resigned. And I have begun practicing my conviction that whoever needs this kind of job, I will help them surpass the nightmares and stay sane and humane in a this mechanistic world of call centers.



I designed a diagram which universally adapts all call handling processes many call centers utilize. I called it the Call Flow. It follows a step by step process that happens in each call. Say, every call starts from an introduction, where an agent introduces himself and his company, then warmly greets the caller. This is followed by either asking the customer's personal information or immediate concern . As with personal information, the agent must verify how the customer's name is pronounced and spelled. While asking concern entails the mastery of probing: asking series of open-ended questions, (starting with who, what, when, where, why and how) and close-ended (answerable by yes or no). Probing helps the agent to take the big picture of the caller's need. At times, agent needs to put the customer on hold or maybe to transfer her to another department. The agent must provide reasonable explanation for this particular action. After the whole process, the agent must end the call properly, with the same warmth all throughout the call.

Ask a call center agent about these steps, and they will agree that these are unmistakably part of their every night routine. A call must be professionally handled, with graceful demeanor and with unwavering niceness, otherwise any ill-mannered behavior is a a surest way to lose the job . But then, even if every agent is taught of being nice to their callers and avoid being rude so one can make a sale or have good reputation, there is still a missing piece. It's called empathy and its a way far from just fitting someone else shoes.

Literally, the word empathy means passion, but it has evolved since then. The word is more synonymous to compassion, or feeling the pain of another. Now, this is more than fitting the shoes; it's about sharing the same painful sore ankles and toes while wearing those shoes. It's about the same feeling you and the other both experienced, regardless of what the shoes are made of. And its about the freedom when both of you remove those shoes and choose to be barefoot instead.

In two years I have had students who eyed call center jobs. Aside from giving them the tricks of the trade, I strongly reiterated this very lesson once they enter the world of calls: always empathize. Put empathy as the heart of every call. See that every caller empowers you more to be patient, to be caring, to be compassionate. A caller might be the rudest person on Earth, but never be blinded by what the person does or says. A situation like this calls for an agent to intend Loving-kindness for someone whose world has quarantined by the belief that no one is concerned. Let a gentle voice, a firm tone, a friendly word and a Loving thought enrich each call. It humbly reminds of our own human need, which is for another human to feel our deepest need for Love.

It's very easy to get lost in a call, say, a customer who shouts offensive words, or insults you of different sorts, and find yourself reacting crabbily against. This story is a common story, and has fired many agents since. For some, this story has frozen their spirits and fueled their tempers, and they have perpetuated the culture that "your enemy is on the other line." I would admit that throughout my call center days, I had an ample share of impolite acts, like rising the tone of my voice, pushing the mute button and curse the caller, putting the customers on hold until they hang up or transferring a rude customer to a Spanish-speaking agent . All of these are bad acts that have allowed me to transform my grudges against my former job into deep gratitude of hard lessons learned. Being a call center agent had printed huge numbers on my pay slips, and left more ineradicable impressions of Love in my heart.

This is why I deeply value the role of call centers in our society. In this increasingly complex world where people are wired through different means of communication, there is a growing need to talk, to share, to ask and to connect. I am led to believe that call centers are growing not because of market demands that companies create, but perhaps this abysmal need to express deepest intricacies of one's soul. Understanding this reality, I remembered the call handling technique of a very good friend who majored in Nursing. Before signing a contract, she was asked during her interview after a mock call on how she suavely managed an irate customer (which her interviewer acted). Prior to job, she was virtually clueless of anything about the industry, since she was a nurse. Her shrewd answer referred to her vivid experiences in mental institutions, and an irate call is just like a conversation with a mental patient. She did not know what call center is, nor she knew about selling and customer service. But she learned a great deal of listening, caring and being compassionate to her patients. She's still a call center agent, and for each call she handles, she has found her heart growing with more empathy for callers who might be just needing someone with the heart to listen.

Taking calls every shift sounds like a boring routine at one end and quarrelsome at the other. Let it be, for every call an agent takes, whether it's simple or difficult, is a call for the heart to Love more. We will never stop on just doing the business alone; we will become someone who inspires Love in a job that originally aimed to listen and to care.