Worker makes shift from potatoes to phones

Kathleen Farrell’s composed voice on the phone doesn’t match the rapid movement of her arms and hands as she sits amid the hundreds of cubicles at MBNA America in Belfast. Whether flipping through booklets of crib notes or scanning a succession of computer screens, Farrell speaks in a calm cadence to customers on the other end of the telephone line.

In the corporate-speak of MBNA America, Farrell is a “customer advocate” who, like the dozens around her, answers incoming calls from those who want to apply for credit cards.

Farrell is one of the growing number of Mainers who have left the state’s traditional manufacturing realm and moved to the burgeoning field of telemarketing. As a lifelong Waldo County resident, the 35-year-old worked many years in the county’s key industries: poultry and potato processing and shoe manufacturing. With only a high school education, she saw MBNA as a chance to advance educationally and personally, all the while improving the standard of living for her and her two children, 13 and 18.

Since leaving her $7-an-hour job as a quality inspector at Penobscot Frozen Foods in Belfast almost two years ago, Farrell has excelled at MBNA’s Belfast operations, now earning $10.11 an hour and averaging $250 a month in incentive pay. She is a “prime-time” worker, which means she works 30 hours a week but still receives medical and pension benefits. Farrell is a shining star at MBNA, a corporation intensely concerned with its public image and security. She is one of a group of employees the company freely makes available for media interviews.

On one typical workday, Farrell arrived for work at MBNA’s Building B near the intersection of Routes 1 and 3 in Belfast, which houses the “inward telesales” department. The security guard, noting Farrell’s photo ID dangling from her black blazer, deactivated the lock on the glass security door.

Although her six-hour shift would begin at 9:30 a.m., Farrell arrived at 9 a.m. to check her mail bin, pick up forms, review any changes in credit card programs and fill a tall, black travel tumbler with water. “I keep this near me because I get such a dry mouth talking all the time,” Farrell said.

She turned on her computer, entered a password and flicked through screens until she reached the first page of the application form. Then, exactly at 9:30 a.m., she punched a sequence of buttons on her telephone console that opened her phone to outside calls. This, in essence, was punching a time card to begin her shift.

Farrell doesn’t solicit customers. They call her – or to be more accurate, they call the toll-free number they saw somewhere.

Many callers will have received a letter in the mail offering a credit card with a “teaser” rate of, say, 4.9 percent for the first five months. Others will have seen an ad scroll across a television screen. Others are referred or transferred to Farrell’s department by companies partnered with MBNA, such as L.L. Bean, which offers its customers perks for using a Bean-MBNA card for catalog purchases.

Many callers already have decided they want to apply, making a few hesitant inquiries before answering Farrell’s litany of questions about address, job history and earnings.

Thus, the crux of inward telesales is not convincing people they need a credit card. It’s anticipating and answering questions before valuable time is burned up. What separates a great telephone salesperson from a mediocre one is how efficiently and quickly the application procedure can be completed.

And there’s little guesswork in how anyone fares in Farrell’s 11-member team – each employee’s work is monitored closely by a team leader. Midshift reports are distributed among the team members, chronicling each employee’s average number of seconds spent on each call, average sales per hour and close ratio – the percentage of calls that ended with a complete application.

For example, in a report covering most of April, Farrell had a close ratio of 67 percent and an average of 7.4 sales per hour, making her the team leader at that point. On another midshift report, in which Farrell had closed 13 of her 15 calls, the team leader had typed “WOW! Kathy is definitely the close ratio queen right now.

For each application taken, certain disclosures must be read by law. After hundreds and hundreds of such recitals, Farrell can repeat the words while typing other information into the computer or making longhand notes.

Still, regardless of how skilled one becomes at lassoing an application, there are coincidences, acts of God and simple serendipity that work for and against a salesperson.

For instance, on this Thursday in April, Farrell received a call from a Pennsylvania man who was interested in MBNA’s NFL “affinity” cards, which can reflect the card owner’s club memberships, alma mater or hobbies. In this case, Farrell filled out orders for three separate cards: the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Pittsburgh Penguins – three applications and three sales at light speed.

But glitches are always just around the corner. Earlier in the day while taking an application from a manicurist who had called from her salon, Farrell was kept on a long wait. Why? “I’ve got a lady with her feet in the water here,” the manicurist said urgently before dropping the phone.

Farrell closed the sale, yes, but it ate up valuable time and undoubtedly dropped her closing average slightly. And shining stats are a key to productivity bonuses, which, for Farrell, average $250 a month. Bonuses also are based on evaluations by team leaders, who regularly pull up a chair and monitor employees’ work by headphones.

“I think it bothers everyone in the beginning,” she said of being monitored. But given the plethora of monitorings by team leaders, mentors, security advisers and prospective employees, the eavesdropping becomes routine.

Telephone customer service is not for everyone, Farrell admits, noting that there’s little chance to roam from the switchboard. Full-time employees get an hour off for lunch, but Farrell gets only two 15-minute breaks during her six-hour shift. When calls slow down, though, team members chat, ask questions or catch up on paperwork.

Farrell is now enrolled in an MBNA program that helps employees plan a career path with the company. She meets with senior management, spends time in other departments and takes business writing courses. “It’s a great way to reach out to other parts of the company and still do your own job,” she said.

Minutes before her shift was to end at 3:30 p.m., Farrell’s phone rang. “MBNA at your service. This is Kathleen. May I complete a credit card application for you?” she greeted the caller, her modulation betraying no time of day.