When the cows interfere

My call center job--oops, I mean my call centre job--isn't as boring as you might think. All the calls are made at random, but it seems that every night there's one that makes the whole evening worthwhile. Once it was an interview with a 68-year-old woman who was celebrating her birthday. I offered to call her back another day so she wouldn't have to spend 20 minutes of her birthday answering questions about how well she likes her phone company, of all things, but she was in such a great mood that she insisted on continuing, even though her grandsons were sitting right there with her. And she was a delight.

Tonight it was a conversation with a 16-year-old farm boy from the north of England. He was really sweet and wanted so much to be helpful. I also think he doesn't get many calls. At one point we ask how many people live in the household of the person we're interviewing (15 people in the farm boy's, including "my closest cousin; his name is Jimmy"). At another we ask them the question, "How important it is to you that your phone company makes it easier to maintain relationships and build your network of friends?" And then we read out the choices: "Extremely important, Very important, Important, Not very important, or Not at all important." He simply replied, "I really don't have many." Which was innocent, sweet, and sad. A few other times were touching as well, like when he said he doesn't think he gets great service from his phone company "because I don't think they like me." We're not supposed to go too far off-script, but I tried to reassure him that I'm sure it wasn't personal. Generally he had a good sense of humor about everything. When he told me about not getting good customer service in a phone store he said, "I think they think I smell. But then again I do. I live on a farm, you know." (As if I could forget.)

Calls usually take about 15 minutes, 20 at the most. My conversation with him--broken in half when he had to go help his dad with the goats--took over 40. When I called him back on his mobile phone half an hour later to finish the interview, I asked if it was a good time and he said, "Sure, I'm just on the toilet, havin' a poo." This was the only interview I've done where a respondent's complaint about poor phone reception was due to "bein' out with the cows a lot, and I think they block the signal." There's also a time at the end of the interview when we're to ask if it would be OK for someone to re-contact them at some time in the future to ask more questions. Usually people say yes, occasionally no. His response was an enthusiastic "Fock, yeh!"

I wish I could call him again next week just to check in. I'm afraid he'll be disappointed if no one gets back in touch.