The New Client

By Troim Kryzl

A year in the life of Zarah Zavaro, client acquisition operator at 1kYears Ltd, an exclusive IT service provider headquartered in the Mehut Metropolitan Area, continental location to be guessed. Science Fiction, remote respectively near or even imminent future type of. Is the global order going to shift into this direction? How will attitudes to race and sexual orientation evolve? Any chance for computer science to reach this level of virtualisation any time soon?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Troim Kryzl
• Release date: May 18, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370141449

Troim Kryzl

Not providing a photograph and writing under a pen name for professional reasons. Please refer to my website and LinkedIn profile for as many details as can be made available under my current career circumstances.Mastodon: @[e-mail]

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The new client

Published by Troim Kryzl at Smashwords

Copyright 2017 Troim Kryzl

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

Thank you for downloading this ebook. This book remains the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be redistributed to others for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you enjoyed this book, please encourage your friends to download their own copy from their favorite authorized retailer. Thank you for your support.

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No sir, you can't ask for a refund once you've died. Nor can your heirs. That's not how this... And gone he is. Hung up on her. Just like that. She spent more than an hour on...

Zarah feels a hot wave of anger boiling up. How dare he? Checking her forehead confirms. Hot, as in fever. This type of client, they are like a disease. Except it would be unlawful to pay people for being turned sick. Whereas she does get a salary, for this martyrdom. And what a pittance they pay her. Stop. Zarah recalls the anger management training, pushes the pause button, puts down the headset and stands up, to her full six feet height.

Don't you stay sitting at your desk grinding your teeth the instructor said. Did that ever get you anywhere? Oh yes, of course it did. It made you even more miserable. From now on, you'll know how to react to obnoxious clients... Those were the words of the instructor. Zarah does feel stupid, as the only person standing amid fifteen busy cubicles. But the instructor very clearly stated operators are entitled, both to push the pause button and to stand up. To do some stretching. And breathing exercises. Pandur, the new boy in the cubicle on her right, seems to share her opinion. He attended the same workshop in his first quarter and now glances over encouragingly. Or would that be admiringly? Would actually doing this qualify as acting courageous? Well, too late now. Zarah is already standing, she might as well pull through.

Opting for a t-shirt today was one lucky dress choice, though. This stretching would be near impossible to perform in a blouse. Even a loosely fitting one. She occasionally wears those, when she feels like going girlie. Not a frequent occurrence. A tall person won't manage to look like some doll, however hard she tries. This stretching is quite strenuous.

Imagining chubby Choanna from two rows up performing the same exercise, in one of her tight dresses, her sweet perfume sent proliferating by the exertion, this mental picture turns on Zarah's natural smile. She doesn't notice it, at first. Only realizes her progress when Pandur gives her a thumbs up. She's surprised to actually feel better. And their supervisor didn't come haranguing, yet. So far, so good. Back to the task. Taking a deep breath, she sits down, puts the headset back on and opens her phone for calls. It only takes seconds to flash incoming. Mental note for the next occasion: No need to perform the anger management exercises at speed. Take your time and savour the break, the drudgery will resume soon enough.

1kYears Limited, Zarah Zavaro speaking, how can I be of assistance? She grins into the microphone, as advised. And sounds like some overcheerful greeting robot. But the coaches were adamant, that's how it has to be done. And she's getting so used to her customer friendly second name she's starting to use it in private, too. The real one, Zamananarivaro, as proudly inherited from her immigrant mother, was decreed offputting. Clients wouldn't understand it and fear scams. And they want to write down contact details. Would take ages with her full name. Not an option. One has to make the odd little sacrifice for the sake of efficiency. In the client acquisition department, everything is done for customer comfort. If ever Zarah moves on to alter ego complaint management, she might be allowed to switch back to her real name.

You are the ones with the advert, right? The ones featuring on TV, I mean? I saw that clip, with this movie star, don't remember her name. The one with that impossibly shrill voice? The clip where she says she'd rather not go? At least not fully? She sits on this bench, you know, with all the trees behind her, like a park. Even though it's probably, well, how to put it, not a park?

Local lingo. Rare, but has be known to happen. Bound to haggle like mad. On the upside, he at least won't be frightened off by learning he's dealing with a Ginerian enterprise. He doesn't sound that old. Forty perhaps, or fifty. Not asking straightforward, of course.

In her third year, Zarah still wonders why most clients have such a hard time coming to the point. They're not trying to buy child porn. We all die, and most of us do loathe the concept. They happen to be able to afford a service that puts part of departing on hold. No more reason to be ashamed than when you buy a mansion or a yacht.

It takes Zarah longer than usual to complete the general pitch. Mister Curver, Sam Curver, as he turns out to be called, interrupts what is supposed to be a monologue after every second sentence. But they are still making good progress. Half an hour in, the initial contact checklist on Zarah's screen features a lot of ticked boxes and entries. The comprehensive financial transaction section was done in a blink. First million US dollars by bank transfer ahead of the scan trip, second million upon confirmatory conversation with the activated alter ego. No problem for mister Curver. No mention of timelines or bridge loans, to cover the period until assets destined for liquidation will become available in the form