In most cases, customers dial into call centers when they have a complaint and wish to speak to an executive. Unfortunately, when you dial in, the recorded voice always gives you every other option that exists before you can finally reach an executive. In all the cases I know, complaints always correspond to one of 6/7/8/9 on your phone keypad. So you have to wait till the end of the recorded voice message to finally get through to an executive.

In case of Tata Sky, they first ask you to either dial 1 for English or dial 2 for Hindi. I chose 1 for English. This was followed by another menu to identify if I was an existing customer or a new customer. Then came a long list of items – dial 1 for account balance, 2 for recharge, 3 for additional packages, 4 to purchase a showcase event; and finally Technical Support comes in at 5. After dialing 5, you need to wait for another 10 minutes – listening to different Tata Sky offers – before someone attends your call. Finally, when you get through, you are greeted in Hindi no matter what option you may have chosen initially. Frustrating isn’t it?

These systems are designed for poor customer experiences. Anybody who is calling in to complain is already unhappy with the service. Shouldn’t companies be trying to serve them quickly? Why not have Technical Support or Complaint Registration as the first option in the menu? Having it in the end ensures it is the last straw that leads to an angry customer.

I have noticed that a few call centers use Average Handling Time (AHT) as a metric to judge the performance of their executives. Average Handling Time is the average duration of calls attended by the executives. The metric presumes that shorter the duration, better is the executive’s ability to handle a complaint i.e. lower AHTs imply that the executive is doing a great job. Consequently, several executives hang up on the customer midway through the call to improve on their performance metric. I recently encountered this problem with the Vodafone call center and the experience is extremely frustrating. This attitude runs counter to Vodafone’s pug ad in which they’ve painted themselves as committed to helping their customers.

The point I am making here is that certain metrics though seemingly logical may end up hurting your business. Metrics such as AHT are useful only when the employees aren’t aware of it. Otherwise, it can be manipulated and harm the business.

Twitter’s  ’Trending Topics’ suffers from this same problem.

Just compiled a list of quizzes taken by a friend of mine over the last few days.

• Anamika just took the “What nickname best fits you? (Girls Only!!)” quiz and the result is *Lexy*.
• Anamika completed the quiz “What is your Euro-persona?” with the result British.
• Anamika completed the quiz “How Well do you know Men?” with the result Excellent!! (100%).
• Anamika completed the quiz “Which Friends Character Are You?” with the result Rachel.
• Anamika completed the quiz “What Should You Get Pierced?” with the result Cartilage.
• Anamika completed the quiz “Which Sex and the City girl are you?” with the result Charlotte.
• Anamika took the Where in India should you live? quiz and the result is Mumbai
• Anamika just took “Looking for Mr/Ms RIGHT?” quiz.
• Anamika just took the “What Indian/Pakistani bride will you be?” quiz and the result is you will be a Traditional, Stunnig, simply gorgeous!.
• Anamika just took the “What kind of bride will you be???” quiz and the result is Pretty Bride.
• Anamika just took the “How crazy are you???” quiz and the result is Manic Depression!.
• Anamika just took the “What is your deepest, darkest fear?” quiz and the result is You fear that you will go crazy..
• Anamika just took the “WHICH KIND OF ZOOZOO ARE YOU??” quiz and the result is COOL ZOOZOO.
• Anamika just took “Find Out Your Element Sign” quiz.
• Anamika just took Pizza Personality Quiz.
• Anamika just took Ice Cream Personality Quiz
• Anamika just took the Birthday Colors quiz
• Anamika just took Color and Your Sexuality Quiz
• Anamika took “Symbol Personality” quiz.
• Anamika just took the quiz What does your birthday mean? with the result Your birthday means that you are an early morning person.
• Anamika just took the quiz What is Your 80’s Song? with the result Your 80’s song is: Every Rose Has Its Thorn by Poison
• Anamika just took the quiz Are You a Kisser or Hugger? with the result You are a KISSER!
• Anamika just took the quiz What one word best describes you? with the result Phlegmatic
• Anamika just took the quiz What is LOVE to you? with the result “Can miles truly separate you from friends… If you want to be with someone you love, aren’t you already there?”
• Anamika just took the quiz When Will You Get Married? with the result According to the Wedding Algorythm, You Will Marry In: 1 YEAR AND 9 MONTHS.
• Anamika just took the quiz What is Your 90’s Song? with the result Your 90’s song is: Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana
• Anamika just took the “Who will you be in 10 years?” quiz and the result is You will be a successful men/women .
• Anamika completed the quiz “what kind of soul do you have” with the result Crystalline.
• Anamika took the “What’s your love song ? (JUST FOR GIRLS!!)” quiz and the result is See you again – Miley Cyrus.
• Anamika took the “Who’s your celebrity look – alike? ( FOR GIRLS ONLY)” quiz and the result is Hilary Duff.
• Anamika took the “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?” quiz and the result is You’re a Genius!.
• Anamika took the “What sweet are you?” quiz and the result is Your not a sweet at all your a health nut xD.
• Anamika took the “What kind of soul do you posess?” quiz and the result is Innocent soul.
• Anamika took the “What type of girl are you?” quiz and the result is Girly Girl!.

One thing’s for sure, I know her so much better now, and I can figure what work is like at the firm she is employed with. No marks for guessing it’s one of those financial services giants.

Meanwhile, if you like a good quiz, check the one on Workosaur.

Any mails that I send or receive on Gmail get sent with a negative timestamp. Check the screenshot below.

I am a web worker but I don’t use the Internet for music and movie downloads. I was using MTNL 2 MBPS (Rs. 199 upto 400 MB and Re. 1 per MB thereafter) but my monthly bill has shot up to Rs. 8990. This means I consume 9 GB each month through normal Internet usage. And that hurts my pocket. Unfortunately, there’s no unlimited consumption package for the 2 MBPS line. So I have, today, downgraded to an unlimited 256 MBPS package. Goodbye Speed. I need you but I can’t afford you.