Devoted to the call center industry, the agents on the phones, and their managers

In an effort to help customers whom no one else would, the staff of our now-defunct call center tried some creative approaches.

For example, we learned how to game our own call center's policies. Not allowed to make outbound calls during busy times? Pressing Line 2 to dial out instead of hanging up first would keep another incoming call off our phones, and it wouldn't show up in our stats as an ordinary outbound call. Or placing the call with the customer still on line would count as a transfer even if we strongly invited the customer to hang up when they got bored. Most were so desperate by this point that they insisted on staying with us.

Amazing things happened to us because we were so proactive. Employees of other call centers seemed confused by our initiative. Or they were goaded into showing some initiative themselves. 

Further reading: What is Your Metric for Value? And congratulations to the hostess of Call Center QA Blues for her recent honor.