Not technically a call centre, but I used to work in a sales office with several desks and phones.
One day I was taking an order from a regular customer, and at the same time one of my colleagues was talking to one of his family about his dog, and the ladydog they'd left with him for the day, in the hope of making babydogs.

Although I was concentrating on my call, out of the corner of my ear (as it were) I could hear snippets of conversation. Apparently the breeding hadn't gone well and my colleague was getting more and more annoyed and perplexed. This was making me chuckle, until the conversation reached a crescendo and he shouted

"How can they be facing each other if their arses are stuck together?!"

I totally cracked up, if I'd not been on the phone it would have been one of those laugh-until-you-can't-breathe moments. Sadly though, I was on the phone, so I clamped my mouth shut and held my breath as my customer was reeling off his order number. I could just about manage to make "Mm" sounds so he knew I'd got the number, but then he asked me to repeat it back to him.

I tried desperately to do something but all I could do was sit silently quivering, with the voice in my ear repeating "Hello? ...hello? Are you there?" making it worse. Plus I was running out of breath. Finally I reached critical mass, and burst out in a huge guffaw - unfortunately just before I got to the hold button.

After a couple of minutes I gathered myself and picked the call back up and explained - luckily the guy was a good sport about it, laughed with me and didn't complain to my boss - result!


/not that long... but it seems a lot longer when you're holding your breath
(Professor Kenny Martin Hmm? What?, Sun 6 Sep 2009, 12:52, Reply)