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andrasteEvery now and then, Cracked has an article that makes me want to point and say 'yes! this!' and this one is at the top of the list: Five Idiotic Misconceptions About Calling Customer Service.
I especially agree with the parts about demanding to speak to a supervisor without telling the operator what your freaking problem is, and the part about yelling. Especially the part about yelling.
If you are polite, a decent customer service rep will try to help you. A good one will go out of their way to do so. As soon as you start shouting at or insulting them, though, you have stopped being someone they want to help and turned into someone they want to go away. Preferably as fast as possible, whether your problem is fixed or not. Then they can go back to drinking their coffee and posting on their social networking site in peace, without somebody screaming in their ear. This goes double for yelling about things that are not their fault, or even their employer's fault. Tripple if you are yelling about something that is your own fault.
I would also add: do not threaten your customer service rep. Threatening to report them or get them fired is bad enough, but threatening them with physical violence is worse than useless. Apart from being, y'know, a crime, it ensures that nobody at the other end of that phone line will help you ever again. While you're threatening to firebomb their office or shoot them, they are writing 'RAGING ARSEHOLE WHO MAKES VIOLENT THREATS, DO NOT ENGAGE!!!' on your account and planning to have your service cancelled.
And, yes, people really threaten things like that. (Along with sexually harassing female reps like me, and calling people disgustingly racist things. Because people suck.) The funniest conversation of this kind I have ever had went like this:
Me: Look, I'm sorry sir, but I cannot help you with :problem that has nothing whatsoever to do with our service:.
Arsehole Customer: Would you be able to help me if I came down there and put a gun in your mouth?
Me: No, sir, because then I wouldn't be able to talk to you any more.
At which point he became even more enraged by my lack of concern about his threats of violent assault and murder. Dude, I have been answering phones in call centers for more than three years! There is nothing you can say that will impress me!
I especially agree with the parts about demanding to speak to a supervisor without telling the operator what your freaking problem is, and the part about yelling. Especially the part about yelling.
If you are polite, a decent customer service rep will try to help you. A good one will go out of their way to do so. As soon as you start shouting at or insulting them, though, you have stopped being someone they want to help and turned into someone they want to go away. Preferably as fast as possible, whether your problem is fixed or not. Then they can go back to drinking their coffee and posting on their social networking site in peace, without somebody screaming in their ear. This goes double for yelling about things that are not their fault, or even their employer's fault. Tripple if you are yelling about something that is your own fault.
I would also add: do not threaten your customer service rep. Threatening to report them or get them fired is bad enough, but threatening them with physical violence is worse than useless. Apart from being, y'know, a crime, it ensures that nobody at the other end of that phone line will help you ever again. While you're threatening to firebomb their office or shoot them, they are writing 'RAGING ARSEHOLE WHO MAKES VIOLENT THREATS, DO NOT ENGAGE!!!' on your account and planning to have your service cancelled.
And, yes, people really threaten things like that. (Along with sexually harassing female reps like me, and calling people disgustingly racist things. Because people suck.) The funniest conversation of this kind I have ever had went like this:
Me: Look, I'm sorry sir, but I cannot help you with :problem that has nothing whatsoever to do with our service:.
Arsehole Customer: Would you be able to help me if I came down there and put a gun in your mouth?
Me: No, sir, because then I wouldn't be able to talk to you any more.
At which point he became even more enraged by my lack of concern about his threats of violent assault and murder. Dude, I have been answering phones in call centers for more than three years! There is nothing you can say that will impress me!
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-17 08:44 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-17 08:54 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-17 12:08 pm (UTC)My boss gave me explicit permission to hang up on anyone who a) cursed at me or b) threatened me. I could simply HANG UP. I only did it two or three times but knowing I could made it easier to deal with people.
I always loved when people got mad at me because they'd called the wrong office and I wanted to transfer them.