I’ve finished my first week actually taking calls on the phone. Well, really only for half days in the morning, but still…

On Tuesday we “double-jacked” with an experienced agent in the morning, but actually took calls on our own for one hour—it was surprisingly scary, too. Trying to call up everything you’ve learned in that moment a real, live person is on the phone with a real, live cruise booking that you don’t want to mess up. My partners were both awesome, though, and I learned a lot and they were right there to help me.

Then Wednesday through today we actually answered calls from 8:30 AM to lunchtime on our own. The first day was a bit nerve-wracking, but not as bad as I’d eared, and by Friday it seemed like old hat. I was lucky in that I never received a call from an irate customer or Travel Agent (knock on wood…). I did get some interesting ones like the call that came in 4 minutes before break time and lasted an hour-and-a-half.

The most interesting thing is that almost every call was something new and different. We’ve been working on the Reservation Support side which meant handling existing bookings by making changes, taking payments and so forth. I’ve only actually booked one new cabin (in that marathon call) so far. While it’s all new and a bit intimidating, I think I handled myself very well. Our Support Desk, Supervisors and Customer Relations people I’ve needed to call have all been helpful. Also, we’ve all been seated together in the same area—which they call nesting—and many of the same experienced agents and supervisors were right there walking the floor to help us out if we raised our hand. Made things not quite so scary.

So next week, we handle calls from 8:30-3:30 then the week after we get assigned to our real supervisors, desks and departments and take it from there. I hope I get to go to the Reservations Sales side.