Comments on: Answers: Coping with angry customers

By: jen

jen — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 23:09:38 +0000

I work at a contact center take internal calls for the company, that is I help company employees by answer their concers, suggest solutions, correct their mistakes if possible. A lot times their problems don’t get fixed or corrected the way they wanted, I get yelled. Most of the time I tell them that we all work for the same company and we are on the same team. Don’t be upset because the error they caused can’t be fixed the way tehy wanted. I was only trying to help, but I still being yelled all the time. I try to bring this up to managers but most of the time were told I work at the contact center, deal with it. I was yelled by company employees 3 times today I need the money but really can’t deal with this much longer!!!!!!!!!!

By: Darla

Darla — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 07:57:27 +0000

I am and have been a Supervisor in a Call Center for 8 years. Some days I love my job – some days not so much…

The callers are becoming more and more abusive every day – I can deal with frustration, anger, even a bit of swearing. However – I am sick to death of individuals who feel it is their right to degrade, degenerate, intimidate, threaten, and absue anyone they wish.

In my environment – we are an In-bound Center – the customer calls us as opposed to us calling them and interrupting their day – if you’re going to call me – be civil.

Also in my environment – we offer a service that is is distributed my many, many clients to their customer base. The Clients rarely properly educate the caller – however, as the consumer – the customer’s need to take some responsibility for learning what they’re buying.

Do not call me in an abusive manner because you were too busy or pre-occuppied to read or ask questions to determine exactly what it is that you are entitled to – that’s not my fault.

Their are laws that protect just about every form of workplace abuse EXCEPT the Call Center – and Call Centers are becoming more and more the way of the future every day, with less and less face-to-face contact. In my city – 4 out of every 10 people work in a Call Center. Finding another way to support a family is not always optional – this is what is available.

At some point – the FCC and Governments need to take stand on protecting innocent people trying to make a living from being abused, regardless of the customer situation.

By: Debbie

Debbie — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 13:22:00 +0000

I have angry Customers, but don’t let it get to me or take it personally. I feel that if a Customer is angry, they have usually been pushed to that emotion – so am always willing to listen, empathise and try and put things right. I find it also helps to lower your own tone when conversing with the angry customer. I pride myself on turning the customer around, and love it when I get feedback at the end of the call (which I do 99.9999% of the time) telling me that I have restored their faith – just with a little bit of patience!

By: Winny

Winny — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 08:08:34 +0000

I work in call centre for nearly 10 months and we have never been given any training to handle angry customer. I feel very upset and even cry in room when customer get crazy and speak dirty words to me. I used to discuss and talk to my supervisor regarding this but he just asked me to call back without resolution. I am very upset and I always think that I deserve the scolds on behalf of company until I found this website to teach me on how to handle the angry customer. Thanks for all your suggestions and I will try it out!

By: John J

John J — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 20:08:12 +0000

I work in a call center and I agree with the comments above concerning the fact that customers do NOT have the right to shout down and insult staff for someone else’s mistake. Today I hung up on a caller because he was so out of control and it has ruined my day – hence the reason why I ended up looking at this site! I’m sorry, but managers need to step out of the protected zones of their cosy glass offices and see how hard it is when you’re on the ‘front line’. Unfortunately I work in a call centre where we get minimal support for angry calls, in a holiday property organization so it literally means people’s livelihoods are in our hands – which makes for some very unpleasant calls.

Some callers are just plain crazy and a little unhinged so it’s not as bad when they go berserk, it’s when someone tries to get a rise out of you by attacking you with poisonous remarks and is very aggressive that it really becomes an issue.

At the end of the day I agree with the comment above – live by the sword then you die by the sword – if someone is bold enough to ring a place up and shout their head off, then what on earth do they expect in return? This is the 21st century and the days of serfs and the bourgeoisie are over.

I never let customers get away with shouting at me, and I NEVER make things easier for a caller just because they are angry, because by bowing to their every wish you are making them think that their behavior is acceptable, and they leave feeling satisfied that being aggressive and abusive is the way to achieve results.

By: RJ

RJ — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 12:24:25 +0000

In an ideal world an organisation worth its weight would invest heavily in ongoing training and coaching in order for their frontline staff to be knowledgeable and equipped to deal with all enquiries – both good and bad. But let’s face it, too few companies truly understand the importance of customer service and these types of companies aren’t bothered by their staff’s wellbeing.

That said, there isn’t a single working CSR who can’t – at the very least – find and try new ways to make themselves feel better. The Internet holds hundreds of techniques and tips that when used successfully can effectively handle even the worst of callers.

Is it your job to do this? Of course not. But instead of admitting defeat and resigning yourself to unmitigated abuse, find positive ways to deal with it, even if it is simply to make your days at work seem better. You may not be paid to do this, but it seems to me a rather small price to pay for sanity.

I’ve worked in organisations where I’ve had immense support and ones where I’ve had none. If there’s one thing thats true of both of them, is that you have the ability to change your own working life.

You’re not always going to have the support you want or need – hell, deserve! – but you’ve always got you. So use that as a starting point.

And if you truly are only in the customer service industry to pay the bills, than you’re seriously in the wrong job. Find employment elsewhere… immediately.

By: Lynn

Lynn — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 21:31:44 +0000

I work in a call center as a supervisor. Our customers are horrible. We have been given no training at handling angry customers and when I have suggested that we at least get books I am told they will look into it and it never happens. The policies in the company create angry customers and corporate cares not. We are paid low wages and the stress is unbearable. I cry at the thought of going in there every day.

By: Scott

Scott — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 00:38:27 +0000

I have worked in Call Centres for 8 years now and the problem is getting worse, I recently had a caller tell me that he can say whatever he wants to me as he was paying for the call and hence my wage!!

I am sick to the back teeth of managers telling CSRs that abuse will happen, deal with it and get over it!!! No-one has to right to verbally abuse staff, as in the example above, on a train but in Call Centres we’re suppossed to put up with it as part of our job.
Why should I give some-one 3 chances of verbally abusing me?

It is time managers realised that we are not there to take abuse and deal with it rather always shifting the blame on to us – it is “Could you have handled that call better?” or “Is there a way you could have difussed the situation better?” when I have just been insulted in every way possible.

Then they talk about “improving your Customer Service skills” which really means putting you on a warning for not letting the caller insult you some more!

By: Jrodopodamos

Jrodopodamos — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:56:35 +0000

I guess it depends on the type of service you are actually offering. For instance if you are in a business that is trying to retain customers you will want to train your reps to diffuse the customer instead of fighting with them. I personally feel that it is better to let a customer vent and then handle the concerns than to get upset at the customer and not provide any service. I understand that some customers are mad or upset however a good employee should be able to do their job and get over it. If the customer is making personal attacks that is one thing. In this situation a rep could give 3 warnings and then hang up which makes a 1 call resolution. If you just hang up on the customer the customer will get upset and call back over and over again which will make the actual call time for that one customer much longer than it would have been. I do feel it is important to control the call as a rep but the practice of hanging up on a customer when a rep gets scared or insecure just seems crazy to me.

By: The misanthrope

The misanthrope — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 00:45:13 +0000

Actually, if you pay attention to what the original article is about, this concerns undeserved abuse directed at call centre staff, not at the company. To assert that better coaching and peer review is what is required is absolute nonesense. What is require is to empower the employee to actually not have to deal with the tirade of undeserved abuse. For example if I board a train and become abusive to the conductor not only will I be kicked off the train, I would also be prosecuted for a public order offence. If I call a call centre and act in the same manner is this any more acceptable? Of course not. Call centres must empower their staff and support them in allowing them to be treated fairly as one might accept, if I am rude to a custome then live by the sword and die by the sword, however If a customer becomes abusive towards me then I am well within my rights to tell, not ask that I want the custome to curb his attitude and speak in a civil manner, when a complaint against a company becomes a personal tirade and is misplaced, this simply ought not to be tolerated. Allow your employees to tell the customer to be more polite or not recurve any service at all and end the call. To continue to do so undermines the whole system. Call cntre staff are not here for Joe public to vent their frustrations, and besides once you’ve insulted someone you can bet they don’t care about your customer service anymore for that call. Protect your employees as much as your customers from abuse.