the essence

I want to go to the Big Island!

This job, taking reservations, is the first job I've ever had officially customer service oriented. Before this is was primarily nanny/admin asst/production coordinator stuff with a lot less client interaction.

I really do a pretty good job of keeping a calm head and I have yet to explode at a guest (although I've really really wanted to at times).

Like yesterday, a heavily asian accented woman called.

"Which city and state may I check for you?"

"Hawaii"

"Which city m'am?"

"Hawaii"

"But which city in Hawaii?"

"The Big Island"

"But which city in Hawaii?"

"There's a lot of little islands, I want the big Island."

This went on for awhile.... We finally found her location and after nearly 5 minutes (which is LONG in reservation world) on the phone with her she told me she wanted to use her "points" to book the room, something I can't do, so I had to transfer her on.

We also get the prank callers. Like when I had a caller from London who said he was "Johnny B Good" & "Chuck Berry" was staying with him.

Now, I normally have a pretty good sense of humor but, with this job, they watch things like our conversion rate: the number of hotel rooms we book versus the number of calls we take & we must stay over a certain percentage each month.

They also time all of our calls & we have to stay under an average amount of seconds (I think it comes to 5 minutes, MAX). Our pay amount for the month also changes for the month depending on our conversion rate so that makes the so-called "prank calls" not very funny. I'm sure it doesn't help when you've been taking calls for 12 hours during the day - that makes it even less funny.

Some of the worst are the "dirty" calls. They totally gross me out, but thankfully those are the only calls we're allowed to hang up on.

Some pointers if you're going to call a hotel (or anywhere for that matter) to makes a reservation:

-If you're asked which city & state you'd like to go to, don't state the city & state in which you live

-When asked your date of arrival, don't say Thursday. Or the 15th. And when I assume you mean this current Thursday or this current month don't get upset that I didn't know you meant you wanted to come NEXT June

-Also, when quoted rates don't ask, "And, that's the AAA rate?" if you didn't tell me you wanted the AAA rate in the first place.

-When asked for your name at the beginning of the call, it's simply so I can address you properly. I'm not going to take your first name and somehow confiscate all of your personal information

-If calling an 800 number, when asked which city and state your traveling to don't say you're coming to "the Donald reunion" or whichever group your attending. I'm searching hotels all over the world and I need more than a group to go by

-When I quote rates don't say, "Well, it costs x-amount online." If you have the room online, book it online! (I must say, I might do this, too, under the false assumption that the hotel may be able to give me better rates. I have since learned otherwise - your best rates are usually found online)

-I used to also get quite exasperated about the people who would call with a confirmation number to confirm their room. I figured, if you have a confirmation number, it's confirmed! However, I've since had guests who's reservations were incorrect or cancelled so it was a good thing they called to confirm.

I think depending on my mood some of these people just make me laugh, some of them just make me want to pull my hair out. When I remember it just doesn't really matter & they'll be off the phone in just a few minutes it makes it a bit easier.

I'm so glad we're able to do this at home though, and for the simple fact we even have jbos right now, but I can say that even a free stay at the Waldorf next year wouldn't be enough to entice us to stay at this job if our situation turns around!