The Discourse Community I chose to do is with the project I work for

which is Mercedes Benz Financial-Services. Mercedes Benz actually owns

their own local office in Fort Worth, Texas. This project is just a third party

project with GC Services. The main goals that customer service all want is to

satisfy the customers. The way we tend to show that we care for the

customer is by listening to them fluently and also understanding what the

problem or situation is to be able to provide a solution. In some situations we

customer service agents are unable to provide a solution due to being

handled with another department so we tend to transfer the call over to

them so that way they can help out the customer. When we speak on the

phone with the customer we speak to them in a high beat tone and show

them respect even though they call in upset and take it out on us. One thing

we have to avoid is taking it personal because if we let that happen then

things just do not go well for both the customer and the agent. So the

ultimate main goal in Mercedes Benz Financial-Services is to provide

awesome customer service and be able to make payments for the customers

or provide accurate information regarding the payment amount, how many

payments they have left on the lease, when is the due date, if there is some

flaws on the account as in the name or social security number or the federal

tax id number. That number associates with business accounts. We also

assist with advising the customer how much it would cost to purchase their

vehicle or how much it would cost to satisfy the lease. Other things we

provide as in information is when the title has been released and where it
was sent out. The only department I am speaking about is customer service

because that is the discourse community I am assigned with while working

with Mercedes Benz Financial-Services.

Another goal we have is to increase our end of call survey scores so we

can get better ratings and feedback from assisting the customers. There is

this one specific email we send out at the end of the phone call after we are

done talking. It provides more than one question and they rate us and how

they felt with the services. It is called CFI. This is the main important rating

within the call center because this rate overall rates Mercedes Benz

Financial-Services, at some point our main goal was 76%, but we were not

meeting that goal so they decreased it to 72%. In November 2016 we

actually met the goal 76% and after that December we reached to 77% then

for January they wanted us to meet at 78%, but we did not meet the

expectations for that month.

I spoke with one of my Team Leaders here at work the other day and

he stated that the main goals we have in Mercedes Benz Financial-Services is

that to retain good customer service and to put ourselves in the customers

shoes to be able to understand their feelings and to show empathy because

if we did not do this it would not retain good customer service. We would lose

tons of customers. As a Team Leader he feels that his goals is to influence

the team and exhibit the expectations that Mercedes has for us. He

approaches his team in a realistic aspect for the team to understand the

concept of the business and why we have to regulate the rules.

 The communication that we all have as in agents with team leaders as

to QA we all talk in a different language compared to speaking with the

customers. So agents are the ones who speak with the customers and notate

the accounts about what happened in the call or we put in the case to satisfy

the request the customer is asking for. What a case is varies it can be about

a payment, general question, billing statement and some of these have a

workgroup. A workgroup is where we either send out a document or look

further into an account or to apply something towards the account. The ones

who complete the workgroups go by the name of ART. No agent can get in

contact with them only our team leaders can. Since there are tons of cases

that are created by the customers which we call requests to the customers

we adv a time frame of 24-48 hours that they will get reached to and will get

completed. QA (quality assurance) does not like it or they prefer when

talking about other departments with the customers, we dont call then by

the department name instead to say colleagues. The reason for that is to

make us feel closer rather than separated. I understand why QA would like us

to say that on the phones because I once had a caller who felt like he was

calling in the wrong place. Another thing I did not mention is when we speak

about ART, we do not call them that on the phones we just say our

colleagues in the backroom and most people want to speak with them, but

we tell the customers that they do not take calls. Theres other departments

who do not take calls like titles, transfers, LAP, and thats about it.
 The reasons why we have teams and team leaders is because that

way everyone is instructed on the rules and get updates on whats going to

happen with Mercedes Benz. Every week our team leader will call us each

one by one and will give us feedback. When it comes to receiving feedback it

varies from positive to negative. When the feedback is negative we will listen

to the call and hear where they were errors of opportunity. When we use that

term it can be described as in providing wrong information to the customer

or knowing that the customer did not understand what you are trying to say

but do not make an effort in for them to understand. Another thing that could

relate with that term is when we dont take ownership in the situation. We

get feedback on our score card for the month. That will state our absences,

CFI, end of call survey, and QA. Also one day out of the week we will get

together with our team and discuss about our performance as a team.

The genre my discourse community follows under customer service.

Customer service means that even though they may be wrong they are

always right. People who work in customer service have too stand by that

and satisfy them no matter what. Customer service is anywhere you go as in

a restaurant, store, speak to someone on the phone or even school.

My discourse community lexis that is owned is the way we speak to

each other and that is everyday language. We dont speak in such a high

sophisticated matter. Most customers on the phone do not even speak that

way either. For a high luxury car company most people from different states

and places sound the same here in El Paso.

 In the whole call center that is for GC Services there is Mercedes Benz

on one side then another project they go by the name of EZ-Cater. Well

theyre about over 100 agents that work for Mercedes Benz Financial-

Services. At first no one knows the material and we go through training for

two weeks but this job is more like a hands on job. Once you get the hang of

how to use the tools and the material its very simple except when they have

some unordinary questions then thats when the digging comes.

This is my discourse community and Im happy to be apart of it and be

a reliable agent.