Thirty Days of Thankfulness Day 4

Today I am thankful for my job. I work in teleworking at a bank performing outbound sales and customer service calls to existing customers. Even though our calls are to people already our customers and there is little to no cold-calling involved, it still is basically telemarketing and it's not anymore fun being on the performing end than it is the receiving end sometimes.

I hated it in the beginning. As much as I have worked for banks, very little of it has ever been on the retail side and I don't know much about the company or its products. Feeling like I don't know something makes me fearful of being asked questions. But all we are supposed to do is read the script and disposition the call one of several ways. I don't get paid commissions or have to meet any quotas or anything because right now I'm only a temp. At times, it's incredibly boring.

But with the last few campaigns we have dialed, I've discovered I'm actually better at it that I ever thought I would be. A previous employer basically told me my customer service skills sucked. Not because I was ever rude to a customer or anything like that at all. But I'm a results oriented person. When someone comes to me with a problem, it's hardwired in my DNA to need to fix it. I've discovered through working in fields highly concentrated in external customer service that sometimes, the customer really doesn't want their problem solved, as strange as that may sound. Most of the time, they just want to be heard. And this job has provided very good practice for listening.

It's also been good practice for speech and diction, something this southern belle needs a lot of, even though I get complimented by those out of state on my accent all the time. When it's a script I'm VERY familiar with, I concentrate on my voice tone, annunciation, etc. Maybe this is good prep for my dream job! That's how I'm choosing to look at it anyway.

And of course, in this economy, I'm thankful to have a job that provides for our needs period. I know what it's like to not have one! I am VERY thankful for my job. It may not be what I want to do for the rest of my life. In fact, I KNOW God has bigger and better plans for me. Nonetheless, until He opens those doors, I'm quite content and grateful!