Lesson 1: Lights, phones and SMILE!!

Call Centres have taught me so much. But one thing that they kept up with was a smile. The only word that runs a mile they say. Hmm...
Well...It was more monotonous than anything i had ever done...so i used to think at that time. It was always the same, log on to the system, the Avaya, mark your attendence, check the connection, the notepad and all, take a deep breath, push the button and SMILE. It was always the same. But was it?

Was it only the BPO mantra for good CSAT? Was it a call centre way of conducting business?

I don't know. The other day, all tired and frustrated i waited at my seat, trying to make sense of some numbers that had nothing to say to me. It was just plain numbers, arranged in a haphazard manner, overwhelming my mind into the oblivion where all i wanted was to close my eyes and sleep a dreamless sleep. And then i remembered the front porch of Daksh and Hughes, my favorite spots, where i used to sit after my days shift, all tired and puffy eyed, wanting nothing more than a wink of a sleep. I could feel the same stress, the same anxiety to get out of the monotonous routine life was slowly setting into. I so wanted to get back to my own comfortable bed and work on my book i am writing. And then i did what was the first lesson of my days in the call centre, take a deep breath and SMILE.

And there it was, for some reason the pattern emerged. I could see the numbers dancing to my tunes. They were waiting for me to dissect them into trends and patterns, make some sense out of them.

It worked. And i knew, call centre taught me the most wonderful thing in this world. If you want to stretch your mind's horizon, flex your muscles and do a simple workout. Smile...and the world Smiles back at you.