At my company, everyone is required to work customer service. Over the holidays, everyone from the CEO down to the newest tech or marketing hire will do 10 hou

At my company, everyone is required to work customer service. Over the holidays, everyone from the CEO down to the newest tech or marketing hire will do 10 hours of "Holiday Help" on the phones on our busiest days. And, as part of training, I spent over 20 hours on the phones as a customer service representative. My real job is a software architect. With the focus on customer service, most of the team building and special events are oriented toward the people on the phones (and chat and email). Quality of life perks are available to everyone (free and discounted snacks, meals,and drinks, free downtown parking, 100% paid employee health and life insurance, etc.) and customer service representatives are hired with the intention of retaining them for years, with promotion and new role opportunities available. The goal of every customer contact is to resolve any problems and make them happy enough to buy from us again, even if we lose money on that individual sale, and regardless of the time it takes on the call. Metrics are based on customer happiness rather than contacts per hour.