Sligo people "not sufficiently skilled" to work in call centres

robinbird

The CEO of EIr Carolan Lennon has put the blame for the companies appalling customer service squarely on Sligo people. She says that locating a call centre there was a mistake as the locals did not have the ability to do the job.

"Probably this is a mistake that we did make in choosing Sligo...... I think that was a challenge, it took us longer to train them".

Minister of State and Sligo-Leitrim TD Frank Feighan has since said he would write to Eir, as he does not believe the comments made about Sligo are accurate.

In a statement, he said: "I have been receiving phone calls all morning from irate staff at Eir and from the business community in Sligo who are concerned about the consequences of such comments on future investment from call centre companies in Sligo. I don’t believe the comments made about Sligo to be accurate".

https://www.joe.ie/news/eir-staff-sligo-709978

cj maxx

He might be right. The parents signed up to eir , got a router posted to them and when I rang them about starting the contract they said they knew nothing about us. Clowns of a customer support

biko

Lennon said Eir is “committed to Sligo” and its Rathedmond care centre, and all its employees throughout Ireland.

“When I spoke of mistakes made in relation to Sligo, I wish to clarify that I was referring to mistakes I, and my management team made in underestimating the complexities of building a care centre on a greenfield site.

“We have a talented team in Sligo and we also have every support we could ask for from the IDA and regional authorities, which we are grateful for.”

Sounds like back-pedalling but it's odd how they couldn't get a call centre to work, it's not rocket science.

Fair funny though..

El Tarangu

fnjaljkfdlkdfalk'mfdlkdfasklm

- just a selection of the angry emails that Eir have received from locals

endacl

Doesn’t matter where they put it if they avoid situations leading to customers having to call customer service.

Doesn’t matter how crap your seatbelt is if you never crash.

Atlantic Dawn

Eircon.

robinbird

biko wrote: »

Sounds like back-pedalling but it's odd how they couldn't get a call centre to work, it's not rocket science.

Oh. Furiously back pedalling but can't unsay what was said. Also amusing that the CEO of a company that provides broadband is partly blaming its dreadful customer service on.... crap broadband.

Having worked in call centres this is more likely the staff not being given the support and information by management to do their job. Based on the very high attrition rate it must be a very toxic work atmosphere.

Will be interesting to see if staff there have any response to being thrown under the bus in this way.

robinbird

Deleted User wrote: »

I've never met anyone from Sligo, but anyone from mayo that I've met, which is kind of up that direction, would lead me to believe that there's probably some truth to the claim..

Curiously I don't think I've ever met anyone from Sligo either. Maybe they are not sufficiently abled for inter county travel.

Atlantic Dawn

Why have they not offshored this kind of work like Vodafone have?

Kraftwerk

You'd want to be some useless to lower Eir standards in fairness.

AllGunsBlazing

Eir have been a right shower to deal with going back a long time. Before the name change I was trying to cancel a phone line sub as I was moving to upc. They flat out refused citing some excuse about my previous internet provider still leasing it, which was total bs. Eventually I gained sense and just stopped paying the bill - which wasn't long resolving the matter.

Basically you deal with this company at your peril and their call centre workers are employed specifically to thwart and frustrate, not assist.

dd973

Mental Health in Sligo set to improve exponentially...

Slideways

They probably can’t understand the townie accents from hill

Wanderer78

Pay peanuts.......

Dempo1

It surprises me that few have grasped the new concept of customer care with all communication companies, in essence they simply don't actually want to communicate with their customers with every trick in the book deployed. Their greatest aTool, handed to them on an EU platter was GDPR, Can you confirm your DOB, can you confirm your Address (o dear your missing a line in that, goodbye), can you now confirm your blood type etc etc.

From absurd Bots to incomprehensible chat options it's just extraordinary.

With regard to EIRS ghastly, classless and clearly uneducated CEO, her performance and comments yesterday whilst shocking, not entirely surprising, what was disgraceful apart from her slight on Sligo was her getting away with it and blaming the pandemic generally. Eir alleged customer service has been in the toilet ever since that French chap took it over, its actually his proven business model, he doesn't and hasn't given a S**** about customer care for years.

The T****** of a CEO will probably get a bonus and despite the Meek intervention from Leo & Eamonn, nothing, absolutely nothing will change.

colm_mcm

cj maxx wrote: »

He might be right. The parents signed up to eir , got a router posted to them and when I rang them about starting the contract they said they knew nothing about us. Clowns of a customer support

This is more likely to be a process/system failure than a staff issue.

firemansam4

I would presume her comments are more aimed at saying that there is an insufficient pool of experience around the Sligo area for call centre work, rather than it being just a slight about Sligo people not being able to do the job.
But I could be completely wrong about this.

If that was the case then it begs the question as to why they choose Sligo as a location for a call centre in the first place if there was a lack of experience for that type of work in the area.

Dempo1

firemansam4 wrote: »

I would presume her comments are more aimed at saying that there is an insufficient pool of experience around the Sligo area for call centre work, rather than it being just a slight about Sligo people not being able to do the job.
But I could be completely wrong about this.

If that was the case then it begs the question as to why they choose Sligo as a location for a call centre in the first place if there was a lack of experience for that type of work in the area.

That's a fair assumption but unfortunately not what she said initially, she kind of reminded me of a S******* calling into the ghastly liveline claiming her world is upside down because of those horrid people from Sligo, (wash your hands)

Del2005

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Why have they not offshored this kind of work like Vodafone have?

They did have it off shore and people complained about terrible service, so they moved it to Sligo and people still complain about the terrible service.

There is one common denominator for the terrible customer service, Eir.

daheff

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Why have they not offshored this kind of work like Vodafone have?

They did, but had to bring it back as the service levels were so bad......

daheff

colm_mcm wrote: »

This is more likely to be a process/system failure than a staff issue.

Who designs the processes and implements the systems???
I wonder would that be the hired help........

Necro

Mod:

Thread moved to CA, reminder to read the charter before posting

Purple Mountain

firemansam4 wrote: »

I would presume her comments are more aimed at saying that there is an insufficient pool of experience around the Sligo area for call centre work, rather than it being just a slight about Sligo people not being able to do the job.
But I could be completely wrong about this.

If that was the case then it begs the question as to why they choose Sligo as a location for a call centre in the first place if there was a lack of experience for that type of work in the area.

The sting in the tail is, they're only operating out of Sligo for about 6 months.
So she has erased years of previous customer experience from her brain.
I transferred over to eir about 4 years ago.
My heart was actually broken trying to get them to actually send me the correct first bill.
I wasted hours on going into the store, on the phone, email etc etc. Eventually they got a credit control department onto me who told me they just get a list of customers to ring and their amounts "owed". When I explained why I didn't owe the money, he said basically he doesn't have access to that information. Then they rang me again the next month. I thought my blood pressure would sky rocket.
In fairness, the agent in the local shop was helpful and knew what he was talking about but beyond that, jesus wept.
Interestingly, I had an ongoing dispute with PayPal this year that shone a light for me on their ability to handle a customer dispute, which was probably fraud but noone acknowledged that for me.
I fought tooth and nail with them for my refund spending hours gathering evidence and sending correspondence but I refused to give up even though I wanted to rip my hair out.
Those 2 companies give me the shudders.

Necro

firemansam4 wrote: »

I would presume her comments are more aimed at saying that there is an insufficient pool of experience around the Sligo area for call centre work, rather than it being just a slight about Sligo people not being able to do the job.
But I could be completely wrong about this.

If that was the case then it begs the question as to why they choose Sligo as a location for a call centre in the first place if there was a lack of experience for that type of work in the area.

Nah her comments were nonsense.

There have been a number of call centres in Sligo throughout the years going back to TalkTalk, then to MBNA and also Toucan.

Eir's own customer care policies are at fault here, and likely their training procedures for new staff.

She said they pay 21k to 23k with sick pay and maternity benefits and bonus, which is not bad for starting work or if the person has no qualification or skill, individuals have progressed from call centers to planners, contract negotiations, to managements.

I agree she came across as dreadful I would say she is difficult to work for

I worked for Meteor many moons ago and they were probably the most agile, well run and commercially astute company I have ever worked for. They had some great people who were excellent at sorting out problems and making sure the place ran well.

Then they were bought by Eircom, who were the absolute polar opposite. Idiots who were there because of time served rather than actually being good at their jobs, all with a civil service and strong trade union mentality.

They didn't really like it that Meteor was so forward looking and well run, so they set about dismantling everything Meteor had and absorbing it into the Eircom way of doing things. It was madness.

If Meteor had taken over Eircom, the company would be completely different today.

RoboRat

Eir customer service needs a massive overhaul, starting from the top. Those comments are ridiculous, if the staff are not up to scratch it's generally down to 2 issues. 1. Bad management who are not setting the right standards or providing the right training. 2. Hiring the wrong people which is down to point 1 or crap pay.

The other problem is that often management see customer service as a necessity without understanding its role. A good customer service dept will be a huge asset to the company, especially the marketing department. Good customer service can grow a business faster than any marketing campaign and it can also kill a business. A good customer service department will listen to the issues and not just resolve the problem, but make recommendations to operations on how to improve service, thus reducing future issues and stream lining the processes. Too many companies only see costumer service as a token gesture to costumers, or at best, a point of contact for issue resolution. The top companies see it as a whole lot more and a vital part of the organisation, after all, data is key to business success and what better data is there than your current customers feedback.

PukkaStukka

I had to persevere with a protracted wait to speak with an Eir customer care rep over a billing issue last month. Once I got through, I couldn't have asked for better and agent was spot on in realising the problem and taking the necessary action on my behalf. During that call I struck up a conversation with the rep who was based in Sligo and the topic of Eir's perceived poor customer service performance. The rep's opinion was succinct and to the point: too many problems, too few people to deal with them at all levels. Their IT systems are supposedly inflexible and creating some of the problems. The common denominator across this is poor management and as usual those lower down the ranks feel the customers wrath and scapegoatery from above. The CEO's performance at the Oireachtas and on Prime Time was abysmal with a whiff of something like intransigence. She should stop making excuses and deal with the situation properly.

TBF Customer service isn't a terribly difficult thing to train people into doing. Most likely they have a crap CRM software, and haven't put in the investment in keeping it up-to-date. The main issue with Customer service is tracking of information, and if the CRM software is crap, then, everything else will suffer. It doesn't take much training to teach people how to manage customer inquiries, and deal with irate customers. Nah. There's something else going on.

osarusan

Eir have genuinely the worst customer service I have ever experienced. A 30 minute+ wait whenever you called them, any time of day. Not reponding to emails or messages on their social media. Truly atrocious, and it was going on for years before I left them, and long before Sligo came into it.


The only business that I would definitely advise others to avoid if asked.

EDIT: What is the story behind this particular Oireachtas committee hearing though? Why Eir instead of any number of private companies in all areas that are equally crap in their own way.

JDxtra

Carolan Lennon shouldn't even be CEO of the local Spar shop.

The problem is with the CEO and management at eir. Not the coalface staff in Sligo who have their ****e system to deal with.

What a ****.

Mrs OBumble

Necro wrote: »

There have been a number of call centres in Sligo throughout the years going back to TalkTalk, then to MBNA and also Toucan.

Dud any of them stay there? Or is there a trend ....

Glurrl

The management of eir are not sufficiently skilled at doing thier job

Necro

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Dud any of them stay there? Or is there a trend ....

Certainly a trend with Eir being chronically awful for years dating back before the Sligo centre.

keano_afc

Wasn't it a fella from Sligo who got a job in Eir just so he could cancel his own broadband?

Glurrl

“If an agent faces a systems issue today, we have to courier their computer back to our IT team meaning an issue that could have been resolved in a few minutes pre-Covid now could take a day.”


They should get themselves a few spare computers to use in this event

_Kaiser_

Glurrl wrote: »

“If an agent faces a systems issue today, we have to courier their computer back to our IT team meaning an issue that could have been resolved in a few minutes pre-Covid now could take a day.”


They should get themselves a few spare computers to use in this event

Or set it up that the agents log into a virtual desktop so that everything can be managed there and all the agent has is a terminal.

doublejobbing 2

mariaalice wrote: »

She said they pay 21k to 23k with sick pay and maternity benefits and bonus, which is not bad for starting work or if the person has no qualification or skill, individuals have progressed from call center to contract negotiations, planners, to managements.

I agree she came across as dreadful I would say she is difficult to work for

21k is not bad?!

Bonus, LOL.

Let me guess. They fob the employees off with free pizza once a month

Ash.J.Williams

cj maxx wrote: »

He might be right. The parents signed up to eir , got a router posted to them and when I rang them about starting the contract they said they knew nothing about us. Clowns of a customer support

that could be higher level than a sligo call centre

doublejobbing 2

doublejobbing 2 wrote: »

21k is not bad?!

Bonus, LOL.

Let me guess. They fob the employees off with free pizza once a month

So what should someone who say scraped a pass in a higher cert in business and has very little work experience be getting?

I personally know someone who started out in a call center after they dropped out of college, eventually got into management, then scheduling and planning, then contract negotiation, and now has a very senior position.

All because they did not blow off a call center job because of the poor pay.

runawaybishop

mariaalice wrote: »

So what should someone who say scraped a pass in a higher cert in business and has very little work experience be getting?

I personally know someone who started out in a call center after they dropped out of college, eventually got into management, then scheduling and planning, then contract negotiation, and now has a very senior position.

All because they did not blow off a call center job because of the poor pay.

The CEO said they found it hard to get staff, you don't think the pay has something to do with that? I'd want a hell of a lot more before I worked in a call center for eir with their reputation.

runawaybishop

runawaybishop wrote: »

The CEO said they found it hard to get staff, you don't think the pay has something to do with that? I'd want a hell of a lot more before I worked in a call center for eir with their reputation.

I am not saying its a great job or well paid however people have to start somewhere they are not going to stay there forever.

PhilOssophy

I would say there are 2 reasons people don't want to work in Eir call centre
1. People on the other end of the line (who would want to listen to that all day)
2. Crap pay

pjdarcy

doublejobbing 2 wrote: »

21k is not bad?!

Bonus, LOL.

Let me guess. They fob the employees off with free pizza once a month

You could probably buy a detached 4-bed in Sligo for 21k

Captcha

cj maxx wrote: »

He might be right. The parents signed up to eir , got a router posted to them and when I rang them about starting the contract they said they knew nothing about us. Clowns of a customer support

That sounds like a crappy IT system rather than the person that would normally try to help you ffs

colm_mcm

daheff wrote: »

Who designs the processes and implements the systems???
I wonder would that be the hired help........

I doubt it’s the minimum wagers in Sligo that are. I would suppose that head office in Dublin would have the final say.

Eir would have gotten a lot of financial assistance from the IDA for this.

Tombo2001

Reminds me of when I got let go by Abrakebabra as the manager felt 'I wasnt up to it'. This was a job that was midnight to 6am, paying (late 1990s) 4 euros an hour, serving massive hordes of drunk people.

Captcha

Necro wrote: »

Nah her comments were nonsense.

There have been a number of call centres in Sligo throughout the years going back to TalkTalk, then to MBNA and also Toucan.

Eir's own customer care policies are at fault here, and likely their training procedures for new staff.

I started my career in Toucan Sligo (back in 2006 or 2004 cannot remember)... 18k got into a sales role there and went to 30k... Now working in Dublin (well home now) for just over 100k

No education other than Junior cert

Floppybits

mariaalice wrote: »

So what should someone who say scraped a pass in a higher cert in business and has very little work experience be getting?

I personally know someone who started out in a call center after they dropped out of college, eventually got into management, then scheduling and planning, then contract negotiation, and now has a very senior position.

All because they did not blow off a call center job because of the poor pay.

I have to agree with you. A call centre is a great starting off point, I would advise anyone looking to go down the IT route to do a few months in a call centre. I started my IT career in a call centre and right through out my career the experience I had there dealing with customer issues have helped when managing IT projects and gives you are great perspective when working with developers and being able to look at an application and say you will need to make that a bit simpler or you need to change this.