It Takes A Certain Sort

Training - The Collarbone Nurse

Now, the initial stage of working in a call centre, or its posh politically correct name, a 'Contact Centre' starts with the training. Oh my god, training!

Quite correctly, they will not let us near a customer till we are 100% with the software we will be using, the company stance on all issues, the products we are taking calls on, inside and out, the resolutions for queries that we are able to use and the escalation procedure.

I remember the one fun story we were told during training with the TV company. Just as a big sports event aired in the main city, some bright spark broke open a manhole cover for one of our main cables that fed half the city. They poured a bin full of petrol into the chamber and set it off!

Mayhem, quite apart from the danger and the health and safety issues, the customers of half a city lost their TV and every service that ran through this cable. What the reason was is immaterial to them, they had lost their event! It took nearly half a day to re-route the service, an unappreciated miracle, but the fibre trunk cable took nearly a week to repair and test! The unseen stuff that happened was never recognised nor appreciated by the customer. I never realised how 'married' an entire country was to the TV!

For the TV/Broadband company training lasted two weeks, with a test every two to three days. Fail a test and 'good luck with the job hunting'. You then spent two weeks plugged into a mentor's line in a team just listening to calls, then its live for a week with the mentor listening to you.

I remember my first call. The customer said that they had been waiting for over an hour and deserved to speak to someone with their mother tongue. I looked at the clock on the computer and said, 'You have been waiting for six minutes, wait again!" and hung up the call. I have never told a customer that we know how long they waited before or after. But this was my first encounter with racism, and my mentor and my supervisor agreed with my actions!

With the health insurer, training lasted two months. There was just so much to learn! There were tests every day. If you failed one, you could retake it in the morning on the next day. If you failed a second time, well again, 'Good luck with the job hunting' and an early shower! The first part of the training was to learn ALL the packages, inside and out. What is covered, what is not and what is part covered, the available benefits and how they are calculated. Then it was the excesses on each of the policies at various stages, escalation procedures and what happens if the members cover or hospital/consultant bills are outside the benefits available on their scheme.

Our next training block was the company, all its arms from sales to nursing homes, travel insurance to health screening. It was amazing what we were involved in! A lesson in making the most of a market and how to develop and introduce new sectors so that the competition would always be forced to follow you.

Strength is being the market leader!

Now, for me, the most difficult part, 'medical knowledge.' We needed to know enough to understand the members and the consultant's secretaries, be able to assist, guide and empathise, but not so much as a member may take what we say as gospel medical advice and act on it. I can see the legal cases of families saying 'But, the insurer told us!' One thing we knew and understood was that could happen which was why all calls were recorded and available to us on the internal internet and to the members on their request.

This was quite a gruesome week or so. You know that expression you use when you hear too much from a friend, 'wow, too much information!' that was us by the end of the second day. The truth is however, we needed to know to be able to communicate with all parties in PMI (Private Medical Insurance)

There were some fun moments when we started to learn the importance of confidentiality and what it meant to the company.

An example of the need for confidentiality was this person who will remain nameless. An international footballer had a claim refused because he did not sign the necessary form. His agent wanted to sign it on his behalf but the authorising team was having none of it. The team member who dealt with this person's group scheme contacted the footballer's agent to explain who was purported to have said something like 'Honey, he is paid for the brains in his boots. I will sign the form' Enough said. The claim was paid.

The final part of the initial training was all about the companies support services available to both us and the members. The most important of these being the Care Management Department. This group was made up of nurses, doctors and clinical experts. One of their team came down to us for a couple of days to explain their role. Basically, their word was final. They could over-ride policies, cover, amount of cover, care available to members outside of their scheme, ex-gratia payments and underwriting. You didn't piss these guys off, they were demi gods.

I think the hardest decisions for them and for us to pass on to members was palliative care. This is where a member had a terminal illness that had reached its final stages. Ours was a fantastic company, this is where the rule book was thrown away and limits were cancelled. Nothing was held back from these guys. Anything they needed medically and psychologically was there for them. 100% cover. Everything and anything. We had been known to repatriate family members and pay for hotels in some circumstances. These people passed on with as much dignity and as little pain as was possible.

I was proud to work for this organisation.

Now, the nurse who trained us told how hard as nails the team members were. She said she was called a bitch even by her team for one incident. Her son played rugby at school and had an accident on the pitch. He was complaining about pain in his upper body and she told him to stop being a wimp. She reluctantly gave him some pain relief tablets available non-prescription from the chemist. The next morning he was in agony and had swollen up like a balloon. He had a broken collar bone and went to hospital. I think he went as far away from his mum as possible!

Now I don't know if this was a true story or a myth, but if you had met this nurse you, like us, would have been scared of her. Your decision!

Training was now finished and we went to the main call centre to listen in. Then after a few days we were encouraged to take our first live calls. I can tell you when the call came to me, my pulse was at such a level I know I have not got a heart condition.

We were now released to the world and were placed in our teams where we were monitored, mentored, trained and advised how to meet our stats.

The lovely thing about working here is that there were a few of us, including myself, who could not reach and maintain the statistics that we were employed to meet. In normal circumstances if these had not been reached and maintained within three months, it was time to leave!

But, in my case and a few others the quality and standards of our work, and feedback from members and departments from within the company was so good that as long as we were seen to be trying, the company broke its rules and we stayed and became permanent team members.

I have never workedfor such a respectful and caring organisation before or since.