Blind woman does a good job in online customer service

By Zhang Peijian and Li Jingrong: 0 Comment(s)Print E-mail China.org.cn, June 1, 2018

Huang (R) and You work in the company office, answering customers' online questions. Huang suffered a serious illness at the age 13, leaving her blind in both eyes. You had an accident when he was 18, leaving him with minimal eyesight. [Photo by Zhang Peijian/China.org.cn]

May in Ningbo is sunny and warm, with abundant flowers blooming. In an office at the Cuibai Campus of Ningbo University of Technology, Huang is busy touch-typing to communicate with online customers.

The 20-year-old can't see the beautiful scenery out of the window; she can only smell the season's fragrances. A serious illness at the age of 13 left her blind in both eyes.

However, blindness doesn't mean life has to be all dark, Huang said. A cheerful and optimistic young woman by nature, she believes that opportunities come to those who are prepared, even in difficult times.

In March this year, Huang attended an online customer service representative (CSR) training class in Ningbo, the first of its kind in the city targeting the employment of visually impaired persons.

After 20 days of training, Huang and a young man surnamed You passed the examination and have become part of the first batch of visually impaired persons to obtain their qualifications to become professional CSRs.

After receiving their certificates, Huang and You were both hired by a local charitable company that recycles secondhand clothes. Their daily work is to provide online services to customers by mobile phone and computer.

Typing and operating a computer, which present little difficulty to people with sound eyesight, take more effort for the visually impaired. As professional CSRs, Huang and You must master touch-typing with the utmost accuracy and memorize all the trouble-shooting techniques saved in the template so that they can effectively answer questions raised by customers.

Huang and You work with other 20 CSRs on the same platform. Understanding that this is a rare job opportunity, they cherish it and work very hard.

When Huang answers customer questions, she first translates their text messages into voice using the auxiliary function of mobile phone or computer, and then offers them a solution.

Everything was difficult for Huang and You in the beginning, but practice makes perfect. Now Huang is able to carry out the job with skill and ease. She answers about 200 questions every day on average, far exceeding her colleagues. Customers don't even know they are being served by a visually impaired CSR.

Still, employment for visually impaired people is the most difficult among different disabled groups. Most visually impaired people work in the massage field, and very few have become piano tuners or psychological consultants, for instance.

But today, with an increasing demand for online CSRs, more young people are turning their attention to this field. Huang and You have been praised by their peers as an example of how visually impaired persons can be skillfully employed.