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5 Ninja Moves evil Reps do to get rid of you

Lately, I’ve been on the line with several customer service reps from Smart discussing the current issue I’m having with my internet connection. While I didn’t enjoy every second of it, this brought back some good old memories from being a rep-turned-manager in my previous life. One of those memories involved a thing called Ninja Moves.

For the uninitiated, Ninja Moves is a call center jargon or inside joke that pertains to an agent’s ability to illegally and unethically avoid or get rid of a call. Usually, Ninja Moves are done when the rep isn’t in the mood to take in calls or when the issue of the customer gets a little out of hand.

ninja moves

There are different Ninja Moves, but few are tried and tested. While we won’t teach you how it’s done (we’ll leave that to the tenure agents aka Zen Masters), we will share the 5 common ways how a rep can get rid of you if you become too argumentative, demeaning or your concern is way above the agent’s league.

5. System Issue – This is probably the most tedious Ninja Move to pull off as it requires a Zen Master to inform their supervisor that that something isn’t functioning as it should be. As soon as the agent decides to malfunction, everything else within his territory (call station) will start to break down. It may be in the form of headset not working, tools not responding, keyboard, mouse, monitor or AVAYA (the phone). Murphy’s Law is in full effect — meaning, almost anything that may malfunction, will malfunction should the Zen Master chooses to.

4. HOOOOLLLLDDDD… – Placing the call on hold can be used by the agent to look in to your account and give you a timely resolution. However, when placed in the wrong hands, it can be a tool to bore you to death with the company’s annoying music and advertising. You’re given the option to hang up or wait till your ear hurts. Either way, you’re hanging up.

3. Silent Treatment – It’s kinda similar to Hold minus the irritating ads. Don’t, for one second, think that this is better than the previous one as a Zen Master can use this move to force his victim to submission with deafening silence. They also use this to “rest their eyes” while on a call.

2. Returned to the Queue – This is what typically happens to a customer who starts shouting at the agent the moment the rep answers the call. Worst case scenario — not only will the angry customer be returned to the queue, sometimes he/she will be patched through to the Spanish queue. Moral of the story, reserve the shouting ‘till the midway point of the conversation.

zen master moves

1. When in doubt, LOG OUT! – Ah, the old adage you’ll often hear from Zen Masters who’ve been a rep for far too long but haven’t had time to actually study their product. Logging out is a sure fire way to disconnect a call without being traced. But it’s also a sure fire way to get one’s ass kicked from the office when caught.

Doing Ninja Moves is a terminable offense, which is why only few Zen Masters are courageous and stupid enough to even dare to do it, and frequently if we may add. Therefore this stunt should never be done unless you want an easy way out of your current company.

At the end of the day, it’s all about playing nice. Each party (rep and customer) has an obligation to keep the conversation as courteous as possible to avoid conflict. For the customer service reps, you’re being paid to provide assistance. Besides, one way or another you’ll be a customer too and I assume that you don’t want to be Ninja Moved too, right?

As for the customers, bear in mind that most reps are there to help. The least you can do is respect them. Moreover, most of the issue we’re calling for is about our product/service and not the agents. Hence there’s no need to be rude to the person that can probably get us out of the mess we’re in.

What do you guys think? Ever experienced any of these from evil reps? Share your stories below.

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Avatar for Ronnie Bulaong

This article was written by Ronnie Bulaong, a special features contributor and correspondent for YugaTech. Follow him on Twitter @turonbulaong.

56 Responses

  1. Avatar for Test Test says:

    I guess the Author is one of the schmuck TLs who tolerated such kind of behavior. I dont see the point as to why you need to post such kind of shiz in a tech blog

    Its irrelevant and puts to waste the time spent by readers reading such crap.

  2. Avatar for TL ken TL ken says:

    Alam nyo bang ang sahod ng call center sa states ay doble kesa sa pinas, mas mababa ang rates ng pinas sa bpo company. Kumpara sa states, so saktong trabaho lang para sa saktong sahod. Ang ibang bpo mas mababa pa mag pasahod.

  3. Avatar for jake jake says:

    Kaya naman pala wala na sa call center itong si Ronnie kasi puro kalokohan lang ginagawa niya. Parang sinasabi tuloy na puro bugok ang mga nasa call center gaya niya. Imagine mo kung dati ka pulis, doktor or politiko and gumawa ka na article tungkol sa mga “ninja moves” na ginagawa mo sa trabaho.

  4. Avatar for Manuel Manuel says:

    ganyan ngaman talaga sa pinas eh. madaya lahat ng kumpanya. sa ibang bansa ipapasa ka sa higher ups at aayusin nila problema

  5. Avatar for Jack Jack says:

    I find this article very unfair to those call center agents who make a living out of this and who are doing their job with passion.

    It glorifies and puts humor into what is supposedly an issue that should not be taken lightly. I am disappointed that this even got published.

    Dave, to say that agents earn a paltry 20k and to call them sad and grumpy is discriminatory. Many have grown to earn 80-120k a month because they choose to do what is not written here. I am sorry that you were victimized by this article into thinking that its a prevalent culture in call centers. To think the writer was a former manager.

    I used to be from the said industry so i should know.

  6. Avatar for Dave Dave says:

    I’ll tell this story to my kids so they’ll study hard… unless they want to turn into grumpy, sad call center agents whose salary is so paltry, it’s not even a fraction of what a graduate from a decent school makes.

    Did anyone really expect patience and understanding from people who work nightshift, make less than 20K a month (which is next to nothing these days) and have shitload of caffeine to alleviate snoozing?

  7. Avatar for Iyan Sommerset Iyan Sommerset says:

    No wonder customer service is so bad in the country – so much thought and energy is devoted to *avoiding* giving customers the service they require.

  8. Avatar for Cool Rey Cool Rey says:

    haduken is the ultimate technique :D

  9. Avatar for jajajason jajajason says:

    Hindi pwede sa Chat Support! Waahhhhhhhhhhhhh! X_X

  10. Avatar for yappari_pinoy yappari_pinoy says:

    Where are these call centers located? Ahhh. The PI. Of course! Smart’s *888 is the absolute worst.

  11. Avatar for klimatyzacja monta? klimatyzacja monta? says:

    I simply couldn’t go away your site before suggesting that I extremely enjoyed the usual info a person provide for your guests? Is going to be back steadily in order to check up on new posts

  12. Avatar for goodha goodha says:

    Ninja moves? Different ninja moves depend on the type of account being handled. Been there, seen them and not done all of them. Hotel reservations yung account ko back then, so walang aht. All qa only. Gagawin lang yung isa pang ninja moves (end calls asap by not following most of the scripted call to receive more calls thus more reservations). If naghahabol ka ng reservations quota, it’s usually done on the last week of the month.

    Pag sobrang irate ang customer, usually ninja moves 4 and 2 ang ginagawa. Hindi puede ninja move 1 dahil outright termination ang result niyan.

    Oh well, those were the days. Ayaw ko na sa call center. Gusto ko pang mabuhay ng matagal. lol.

    On the other note, being a prepaid customer of globe and smart, here’s my experience with them:

    Smart: aabutin ka ng siyam siyam bago may sumagot sa iyong agent. Namemorize mo na lahat ng jingle ads ni Smart. Ang bad trip lang dito ay sa tagal mong paghihintay, hindi nasolve yung issue mo ng rep. hehe

    Globe: at least may sasagot agad. The problem is limited lang ang powers ng csreps nila. Hangang gawa lang ng reference numbers alam nila re your cs or tech concerns.

    Suwerte pag postpaid subscriber ka dahil isosolve agad ng cs ang issue mo. What more pa siguro if Infinity or Platinum subscriber ka. Baka zero Ninja moves ang service sa iyo. hehe

  13. Avatar for JoeTech JoeTech says:

    Galing ako sa customer service, classic ninja move din is the Hadouken, while waiting for a call, pag next in line ka, press for bathroom break. :)

    Pag tumatawag ako sa customer service, I make sure na super mabait and pleasant ako sa start, then ask for the reps name, state “this is my callback number, if the line gets disconnected please make sure that you call me back.” tapos saka ako magstart na mag-rant. Lagi naman akong polite, as long as I can feel that they are doing their best. I know how stressful their work is.

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