Sorry for ranting but I need help and suggestions.
I work at a call center type thing, when a chat closes a rate your conversation request is sent to the client, lets say its out of 10 stars how do they rate the conversation. Management uses this as our performance review and decides whether we will receive a bonus or not. Problem is that every negative rating we receive are for issues with the service itself and not the support that was provided by the support team. So if the product fails and we can only say “sorry but we have to fix it” our personal performance is affected. This is the only number that management uses to see how well we are doing. I have been trying to convince them that depending on the clients to see how well we are individually doing is completely wrong and it should be changed. I have recommended several other ways they could do better tracking and reviewing so we can actually learn what we are doing wrong and how to improve but they keep changing the subject or say that it's the only way.
I understand that they need to know how pleased clients are with the product, but that rating has nothing to do with the work we are actually doing. We go over some of the lowest rated chats and every single one is due to factors outside of the support team's hands so there is no way we can actually improve our numbers so the bonus is completely random. Since this is the ONLY type of feedback we receive its really disheartening to see low numbers, I feel like I failed somehow even though I really fucking tried.
Some suggestions have been:
– separate the rating into more categories; how did support treat you vs how do you feel about the product
– take random conversations and check if we are offering/doing everything expected from us; politeness, add screenshots, added links, asked if they need anything else, etc. and base the performance off of that
They argue that if they add more categories they will get fewer ratings and therefor the data will not be as good or (straw man argument) “we can't just go over ALL conversations, we don't have time for that!” nobody said they should review all chats dude…
Then they say that the bonus is extra, just a cherry on top so you shouldn't worry about how much it is, just be thankful! But you will still be judged based on the numbers you get and threatened with dismissal if they don't improve.
If we ask for feedback on how to improve the numbers they have nothing to give us and its become so frustrating to continue doing our best when we are just numbers to them and not people. I told the CEO more than a year ago that this bonus system will lead to a toxic environment yet here we fucking are, chocking to death on their poison.
I know I have to go through the goddamned process of finding another job but the thought of going through that grind is fucking depressing… I want to hold my head up and stand my ground.
Anyway, anybody have any serious tips on how to professionally continue this conversation with them? (yes I know they are soulless leeches but I need to try)
Thank you for reading if you made it this far.
Love, some dude