Timed calls...

[Augustus]

Back when I started working for Hillarys it all used to be timed calls - on the hour every hour. The calls were being booked by Leicester shop so they knew the area well enough not to make it too silly.
I did sales on Mon/Tues and the rest of the week fits. This worked out pretty well most of the time but when you had a gap it was a pain. Or if things were booked too far apart then it was a rush !


But on the whole the way things are done now is pretty good.

P.

[scotton]

Have to agree with motters and madman a few things go astray but I would settle for things as they are its not going to go back to local areas and were stuck with it. If you think there is a conflict you have usally the night before to sort it out. We cann't sit here complaining about not running our own businesses and then wanting others to sort it. If I see anything by looking at postcodes a quick call to clg or diary maintenance sorts it out never had anyone on either side not willing to help.

[niceday4selinblind]

the diary only gives detailed info for the next day
but you can obtain all the info from the nice
people in diary maintenance to enable you to
mix & match

[hgv]

seen some good good notes here but seen some bad ones..
in trainning we where trainned to sell blinds and get the likes and wants and a way to sell blinds, how can we when we are rushing rushing to get to that timed apt ? as ive 9 postcodes

[farmer]

Whats up, its our business, pick the phone up and talk to the customers. We do, probably lost 2 customers in years.
Customer realises that they aint talking to drones at HQ.
Phone calls save dosh.
Hillarys wanting to save dosh.....why shouldnt we. Sort it yourselves and get on with it.

[BEZBOZNY]

Dear All,

I am right in the thick of this topic. I work in CLC, the Contact Centre to you, we call it Customer Leads Centre here. It is great to be able to read your thoughts and suggestions here on this fine forum.

The process was that we would only ever narrow your slots down to two hours for customers who are otherwise going to have to shop elsewhere. This was to prevent losing potential customers for you. We would listen to a customers requests and put them in as notes for you to 'try' to help you all make the preferred time for your appointment but always explain to the customer that this could not be guaranteed, it was up to the Advisor to plan his route etc.

A statement and new process was actioned today. Only three hour slots are to be offered (not sure if this is just for the busy period or not). We will take the customers notes and promise to forward them on to their Advisor but again, we can not guarantee that you will be able to meet their requirements and that they do need to be available for the full three hours. Where possible we will try to locate a 3 hour window where they are going to be in for the whole time.

If you would like to PM me and ask anything in particular please feel free. I do listen, I do care and I am behind you all 100% so feel free to get in touch.

It was a pleasure seeing some of the 'customer focused' replies to this post, I get to hear some great stories from some extremely happy customers about how good some of you are. I do forward these on to you all where possible, just to brighten your day up a little.

I just wanted to let you know, we are listening/reading.

Click on the folder looking thing to the left to PM me!!!

Thanks.

BEZBOZNY

[Bear]

Well Hi Bezbozny

A live HQ person with feelings---Watch yer back- theres someone creeping up behind you with an axe!!!!
I wonder what your thoughts are on 4 calls in a three hour slot especially as I run across conservatories or multi-blind jobs which alone can take 1.5 hrs which means maybe 2 of the remaining calls in the slot are missed or postponed or lost??

FSM's, who never do real "work", think 4 calls in 3 hours is a wizard wheeze, but if they have to cope with city-driving in rush hour to squeeze in another loser wanting 3 for £99- or if we get a fit that turns out to be
24 drillings into steel and then have 4 sales to fit into 2 hours then the day is ballsed up, clients are p****d off, I am tensed up, and the job loses its attraction.

Its like being in the army --
Do Call centre have any idea of geography for rural/urban mixed areas?
Last Monday I had 11 appts -- 9 sales and 2 fits .

I only got 6 of the 9 sales calls done because of distance and time killing the day.

4 calls in 3 hours is unrealistic---told FSM thing that, but was told "It's only you that can't do it--I'll have to get another Advisor"

See why we are grumpy?

[BlindWizard]

It's not only you.

I started last year and did christmas with 4 calls in 3 hours. Told FSM that I will not do this year.

If they threaten me that will be the last straw so FSM better have room in their boot for my blue bag. Attitude, cheap blinds, bad quality, commission not being paid and with cheaper blinds lower earnings are all making me consider about moving on. Shame enjoyed it when I started.

[BEZBOZNY]

Hello Bear,

By 'fits' I trust you are refering to the temper tantrums you must be experiencing due to loaded diary ;D Sorry, couldn't resist.

With regards to the 'slots' problem this is something you need to communicate to your FSM or higher. We are simply given the Diary to book in to and have no control over the amount of slots in the Diary itself. We have no facility to check how your route may look when booking appointments, it would be nice to be able to see how your route is looking when we book an appointment in your Dairy, but, like I said, at present we do not have that facility.

PM me if you want me to help in any way, other than this fairly general response.

BEZBOZNY.

[JoY]

Bezbozny?

Do you know how many of the 900 + advisors have an email address? And can you get these addressess without getting into trouble?

200 members as I write...... and growing by the hour it seems!! Fantastic!


_________________

OK.............201 now!!! Hello Twyford, and welcome ;D

[desmorse]

The first time extra slots were added I made it clear to my FSM that it was the most stupid idea ever to come from Hillarys (it was before the 3/£99). I had a full day conservatory fit booked in, then suddenly I was expected to sneak out every 2 hours to do a sales call for the extra slots. It just won't happen, I told him, book what you like, I'll pick and choose which leads I do and ignore the ones where I don't have time.

My diary has never corrupted like that again. I must admit though, I do work 3 evenings and Sat & Sun, because it suits me, so they probably don't want to piss me off too much

[nonails]

Hi Greyvanman

Hang around a while sunshine --someone is working( as we speak) on another way to p*** you off.

When you start getting delusions of being needed or useful round here , you'll get an axe in the back your head--as was stated so nicely earlier 2day!!
Have a good weekend anyhow
Nonails

[desmorse]

I've no doubt about that, Nonails. There's a whole department at Nottingham running a brain storming session entitled "101 great ways to piss off advisors". Where else do you think the £99 offer came from?

I may have won the 4 slots/3 hours battle, but am under no illusions.

[BEZBOZNY]

Hereticus,

Here is my ideal booking system. The customer calls in, we take their details and process as normal (we are talking excellence here ). When we get the customers account up we can see who he/she has previously dealt with. We get to the Diary screen and the first Diary that comes up is the Advisor he/she has previously had which is highlighted in case we need to move to other diarys to accomodate his/her time constraints. This would make it easy to ensure repeat appoinments go back to the Advisor they should go to. Ok, so we are now on to the next screen and about to book a slot. We then see details of the appointments already in that slot with a multimap (online street map facility) page and a location of those appointments so we can see roughly what your route is with the ability to see all comments i.e pls call after 4pm. This way we can see the distance you have to travel, likely traffic spots, previous suggested resrictions in your appointments in that slot and book accordingly.

In the grand scheme of things there could also be an option to utilise GPS and multimap to track locations and progress on routes, but I think this may be an unwelcome step too far (far too big brother for everyone im sure).

That's just the way I would like the Diary system to be. Also all contact numbers should be mobiles, are you sure your Diary has your mobile number for us to call, from what I can see there are quiet a few of you still listed without mobile numbers!!

Thanks.

[hereticus]

Bez.......glad to have you particpating in this forum and being so active in your posting but also in helping us to expand and improve on the site. Motters and his team of moderators have done and are doing a fantastic job but no harm having another techie on board.

You have described the diary system as you would like it and I agree entirely but it all seems so simple and obvious that I don't understand why it hasn't always worked that way. The obvious question is to ask whether these issues are actually being addressed internally and progress being made towards such a system.

One thing you missed though - your multimap screen should also show the location of the agent's home, so that you know the starting and finishing point of each working day. It should also show the locations of fitting appointments pre-booked into the diary, not just sales appointments, so that you can see the parts of the day's route that have already been fixed.

I've noticed that a couple of your recent postings have taken objection to the tone of some comments. Please don't be influenced by these - we all have to let off steam occasionally and anything too personal or offensive will be quickly removed by the moderators. Please stick with us - yes, there is a lot of moaning (much of it justified and understandable) but we are also seeing some positive thinking and new ideas coming through. One persons problem is another persons opportunity, and someones moaning can spark anothers positive thinking.