'It took just 2 days for the client to... reach out to me': Chat support team manager writes honest analyses of their employees and sends it to their client

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Dec 15, 2023 3:00 PM EST

One business decided to let their customer support chat staff man the phones without any training… what could go wrong? 

This story is about the help desk workers who specialize in using the chat feature. Instead of calling up a company, these days, a lot of places will let you instant message with an employee instead. This feature is incredibly convenient. You can get help with your issue while you're at work without having to get up and make a long, drawn out call. You can also get help while still using your phone for other things. And it's discrete, no one has to hear how you're having issues when the overhear your conversation. Overall, I think it's a great advancement in technology. And while I can't speak for customer service reps, it must be nicer to have cranky customers shouting at you using caps locks, instead of deafening you with their voice. 

You can check out this great story below, and then read this story of a car dealership who decided to cap their salespeoples' commissions, only to swiftly regret the choice. 

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  • 01
    My former employers lost their client (and business) because of me M OC A few years back in 2018 I had decided to switch employers. I worked from home as a chat support specialist and eventually a supervisor for a major tech company. I had decided to switch to a small time customer support agency that was just starting a new chat team. They had better pay and benefits, because they only had a small number of employees compared to the former.
    via u/jasper4505
  • 02
    The description of the position I was to be hired for was another salary based supervisory role for their brand new chat team for the client. I'd basically be doing the same things as my previous job, but also spearheading this small department, while simultaneously training other co-workers with zero experience in chat support. This was going extremely well and our client was ecstatic at the results of
    via u/jasper4505
  • 03
    the new chat program. They had personally sent me an email over my progress. The company I left was, and still is, known world wide to have the friendliest and professional customer support out of any other company. And so it was easy to apply what I learned to this new position.
    via u/jasper4505
  • 04
    After about two months of doing this the person I directly reported to, the regional supervisor, was retiring. Our new regional came in, and was friendly at first, but decided that he didn't want to waste his time on chat, and directed me to phone support.
    via u/jasper4505
  • 05
    Which was not in my job description, nor what i was hired for by any means. He cited that the client was unhappy with the results, which was in stark contrast to what they had told me directly. Even after forwarding him the email, he was still not doing anything about it.
    via u/jasper4505
  • 06
    So, I complied. It took just 2 days for the client to have reached out to me, personally. After explaining to them the situation, they were livid. My new regional had lied to me about his contact with the client, and had essentially ignored our clients attempt to contact him about this issue. I had continued to
    via u/jasper4505
  • 07
    work in the supervisory role for phones until the first quality review of my employees came up. For team leads and direct call center employees both, this is where I review their interactions and grade them based off their strengths and weaknesses.
    via u/jasper4505
  • 08
    Our regional wanted me to even include the chat support team who were neither hired or trained for phones. He refused to give them training. On every single employee who was hired for chat support, i had filed all of them as unable to be completed, and in my notations, I included that this is
    via u/jasper4505
  • 09
    not the position they were hired or trained for and thus an analysis could not be accurately completed. And I sent this to both the regional manager, and our client as well, since at this point I had a direct contact email.
    via u/jasper4505
  • 10
    I was responded to the same day by whoever it is within our client who oversees all of outsourcing. The only words I got back were "We will deal with this." The client held a meeting the following week with my employers. I'm not sure what was said in that meeting, but word got back to everyone that the client had dropped us for breach of contract. Because this was a small office and our companies ONLY client for several years, this was bad.
    via u/jasper4505
  • 11
    After that, me and my team were offered a position with the company directly doing the things we were HIRED to do, but required us to move about 4 hours north, so unfortunately none of us decided to accept that offer. I collected unemployment until I found a new job. Now the company is out of business and is currently being sued by some other employees for unpaid wages. This new case has been going on since 2019.
    via u/jasper4505
  • 12
    EDIT: for clarification purposes because it seems to confused some people, It's just one office of less than 300 employees. The name of his position was "Regional Supervisor." It was pretty stupid to name him that, but thats what he was called, even though he worked the only office that existed. I'll assume it was to make the role look more attractive than it actually is. That's a common happenstance.
    via u/jasper4505
  • 13
    A-Wise-Cobbler If it was the company's only client how was the CEO / Owner not directly involved when the client couldn't get in touch with the new regional head. Seems like an easily salvageable situation.
    via u/A-Wise-Cobbler
  • 14
    jasper4505 OP Thats not where my knowledge lies. But I assume they were in the meeting too. I don't think they'd have that meeting would happen without them. So I'd assume the owners probably didn't satisfy the needs of the client during that meeting.
    via u/jasper4505
  • 15
    PomeloPepper Ah yes, the old "I don't know how to do your job, but I'll tell you how to do it and not listen to anything you say."
    via u/PomeloPepper
  • 16
    Atomic_Bottle Such a classic in the field of management. Managers should almost never be hired from outside the company. Promote your good workers, then hire for their position.
    via u/Atomic_Bottle
  • 17
    cherryblossom1994. The new guy was on a major power trip. You did the right thing because there was no way a person like that would take accountability when the client was and complaining. You covered your always should as you
    via u/cherryblossom1994
  • 18
    celestial517 You could have set up a company and take over the business directly 32 Reply Share jasper4505 OP Mind explaining that? I'd love the knowledge on that. I never studied business like that so I wouldn't have ever known it was an option
    via u/celestial517
  • 19
    theoriginalstarwars. If a small company has a regional supervisor it is either way too top heavy or not a small company.
    via u/theoriginalstarwars
  • 20
    jasper4505 OP. It's semantics, really. I'm not aware of any other office this company had besides this one. And it was an office of sub 300 employees. This was the official title he held, even though this was the only office he worked.
    via u/jasper4505
  • 21
    mordan1 Definitely sounds like there was a lot more going on behind the scenes than we get here. Reply Share 12 jasper4505 OP I'm also wondering if there were other factors that i wasn't aware of. This might have been the straw that broke the camels back.
    via u/mordan1
  • 22
    [deleted] When I chat with a large company that shares the name of a large jungle, it seems like the associates are probably chatting with at least three other people because every response takes forever. Are people who work on chat required to have multiple conversations going at once in most companies? 13 Reply Share jasper4505 OP Absolutely! My former employer that shares a name with a common fruit, during blackout season, we would take up to three chats at one time.
    via u/[deleted]

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