Call Center Stories Part 2: Rescheduling Clients

Obviously, I've been lazy or else I wouldn't have waited 5 months between work stories (and by lazy, I mean this has been sitting in my notebook for a couple months, I'm just too lazy to type). If you've already forgotten what I do on a daily basis, you can go back and reread Call Center Stories Part 1. As I mentioned briefly the last time I talked about work, clients and Department of Human Services workers will call all the time about rescheduling appointments (and I'm pretty limited at what I'm able to do). At one time, I was trying to keep a tally on what the most used reason for missing an evaluation was, but then I got bored at three calls in a row that a client was "sick". Currently, the most used excuses to reschedule are (in no particular order):

• Client was sick
• Client's child was sick
• Client forgot about the appointment
• Client didn't get the appointment letter in time and/or wasn't informed of the appointment
• Client went to the wrong address/got lost
• Client was in jail/incarcerated
• Client had another appointment (doctor, court, funeral, etc)
• Client didn't have transportation (car broke down, friend didn't pick them up, etc)

And now for the more unique stories:

An evaluator called to confirm an appointment. Apparently there was a guy in the office who claimed he had an appointment at a certain time, but the evaluator had a different client scheduled for that timeslot. After some back and forth with the information we were provided and the information the other man was willing to provide, we figured out that he had given DHS a nickname and not his real, legal name. The man claimed that he was in the process of changing it, but since it wasn't changed yet, that name was more of an alias than his actual name. Well, for many reasons, the evaluator isn't going to evaluate someone not specifically on his schedule (he might not get paid, he could be sued for doing a fraudulent exam, he could be doing a fraudulent exam, etc) so he sent the client back to the DHS office to register correctly.

A guy calls on the morning of his appointment day to ask if he can come in at an earlier time for his evaluation. Unfortunately, the clinic is fully booked that day, so I let him know that I can't move him and he'll need to be seen at his scheduled time, a time which he agreed to come in for an appointment at almost 2 weeks ago (if he needed an earlier time, he should've said so back then and we could've accommodated him). Instead of being an adult and coming in at the time he agreed to, he starts fighting me on it, demanding to speak with the clinic (nope, not going to do that) or the evaluator (nope, definitely not going to do that). Just to get him to shut up, I put him on hold and called up the clinic to speak with the nurse. Luckily for the client, the doctor that day is okay with clients showing up as early as they can, as that way the doctor can leave earlier. So, reluctantly, I gave him the okay to come in at 1pm for the afternoon evaluator. Later in the day, I'm getting off lunch and leaving the company break room, which is on same side as the clinic, so I'm forced to walk through the waiting room to get back to the call center. As I'm walking back, a man sitting down is bugging the nurse, asking her where the doctor is because he needs to be seen early. Before she can answer, he sees me (in my hoodie and jeans) and asks if I'm the doctor. I reply no, and the nurse tells him that the doctor is running a little late. As I get to the hallway, I'm laughing as this jackass who was annoying me in the morning to come in earlier now has to wait since the doctor is running late.

All clients are scheduled on a individual basis, meaning most DHS worker will typically only schedule one client at a time (as most are just individuals applying for welfare). So, one day I'm doing a reminder call to let a client know about his appointment. During the call, he asks about his wife's appointment as well. As illegal as it is to give out information regarding another client, I look up the case to see that the woman in question does have the same last name, mailing address, phone number, and DHS case number as the man I'm currently talking to. Also, the woman has an appointment as well, but on a completely different day. So, as I'm listening to the man explain that it would be hard to make two separate appointments on two different days, especially with both of their disabilities, I'm also looking at the evaluator's schedule over those two days. As I explained earlier, my job is limited by what I'm allowed to do, and in this situation, I'm supposed to refer both him and his wife back to DHS to go through the hassle of rescheduling both of their appointments. Instead, I let him know that there is an opening for both of them to go in, one after another, as long as they can promise me to they can both make an earlier appointment time. As much as this can bite me in the ass professionally-speaking (if the client misses the appointment I'm moving him to, and instead comes to the original appointment with a letter for his original appointment, all of the blame for the shit-show that follows will fall on me) as well as goes against my general nature of not caring about others, it seemed like the right thing to do (I'm guessing I was sick that day).

A DHS worker called once to reschedule a client with the client in the office. Not unusual, in fact, we encourage it as that way we can get the most up-to-date information on when is best to put the client on schedule so they can keep their appointment. So, as I'm speaking with the worker, a common thing we ask is why the client missed the appointment as it may provide information on when is next best to schedule the client. Apparently, the client had a court date the same day. Now, we set up the initial appointment just a couple days earlier so I asked if he had forgotten about the court date or, less likely, if it was a last minute court hearing. Instead, I can hear the client respond, "No, I knew about the court date for a couple weeks." So, possibly being on speaker phone, I ask again, "So, you knew about the court date but still agreed to the first appointment knowing that you weren't going to keep it?" And, as I hear the client start to talk again, I can hear the worker giving him the "shhh" to shut him up. Now, I'm not allowed to refuse to schedule a client a DHS worker is calling to schedule, but I know that a DHS worker can refuse to reschedule an appointment if the client doesn't provide good cause. So, now I'm just dropping hints to the worker that maybe, perhaps this isn't a good enough cause, that the client intentionally scheduled an appointment he knew he was going to miss, and maybe we can force the client instead to reapply and go through the whole process again. In the end though, as much as it annoyed me, we did end up rescheduling the client.

A client called to ask if her appointment could be rescheduled... by several months. Obviously, my answer is going to be "no," but for curiosity's sake, I also asked "why?" Well, it turns out that her kids wanted her to move to the mainland to live with them for a couple months. As great for her as that sounds, you are only allowed to receive welfare money from the state if you are living in the state. So now I'm in a debate with her that even though you call Hawaii your home and plan to return, you still need to be living here to receive welfare money. I've spoken to other clients about this before and they all understand that they need to register in the state they're residing in, but just not this lady. Eventually, as I can see that we're just going to be going in circles, I just tell her to contact DHS and they can solve her problem (and by that, I mean that they'll probably approve her benefits until she leaves and then cut her off).