Is there any actual benefit of being rude, abusive towards any staff?

Same in the NHS unfortunately.

I’m sure that’s true but you are dealing with the people who have been assertive enough to get past the “computer says no” loop on the main switchboard.

I am totally with you in that an arsehole who is ranting down the phone will not achieve a positive outcome.

But in a world where the default answer to any customer enquiry is “have you checked out website?”, you do have to be a bit pushy just to get someone to actually engage.

I think everybody should work in customer service at some point, it really stops you being an asshole later on life.

my mum was lovely but used to be so rude and sarky to call centre people. I used to work on one myself and thought customers like that were pricks. I’ve also worked as a waitress and chambermaid so absolutely know how to behave.

You're talking about this as if the relationship was customers > customer service personnel

Actually customers and customer service relate to each other within a system determined by the company - call handling targets, sales targets, training levels etc. companies set the tone

What makes good customer service, though?

Because I've read threads on here when people bitch and moan because a retail assistant has had the audacity to say "good morning" when they walk into a shop, or has offered them help while they're browsing, or has even looked at them for too long while they're deciding what colour to choose.

Most retail assistants are working off a very limited framework - they have to do XYZ and cannot do ABC. That's it - they don't have the flexibility to change the outcome for you even if it sounds like a really easy solution.

So people get frustrated and they bitch and get rude, and then a manager comes along (with authority) and gives in and makes the assistant look like a fool and the customer thinks "great, all I need to do next time is shout" and so on and on it goes.

In an ideal world no but making a fuss does get people what they want sometimes.

Because it gets them what they want, unfortunately.

I deal with some complaint resolution in my job.

100% the people that are reasonable and polite in communication will get a better and usually faster end result than those that shout and stamp their feet and are rude to me or my staff. The latter get my back right up and make me unwilling to go an extra inch for them, never mind an extra mile.

Customer service in these roles is notoriously bad. What so many workers think of as 'rude customers' is usually someone who expects a decent level of service daring to say that it's fallen short. If they can't handle that, it's quite pathetic.

Will be hated for this but customer service is generally appalling. I am not talking face to face but insurance companies etc. It is no wonder that people get so infuriated and made to feel helpless when they are the customer and you have a job because of them; without them your job would not exist

This is true. It’s never an excuse for being rude or abusive but customer service today is breathtakingly awful.

I’m not so much talking about retail, more the purgatory of utility call centres. It’s an utterly soul crushing experience and it has driven me to actual tears before. I have just stayed the right side of the line and not been rude to anyone because it’s obviously not the fault of the person answering the phone. But by God do they make me murderous.

Its the contrast between the rhetoric that “the customer is always right” and “we really want to hear from you/value your feedback” and the bone chillingly awful experience of actually trying to get through to someone to talk to them.

And the way large companies insult your intelligence when you phone up to talk to someone by playing an automated message saying: “have you thought about using our website?”

Fuck me, Doris, that never occurred to me (bangs head on table).

I get that it makes sense to automate things and reduce costs to be competitive etc but it’s the dishonesty of the way they couch it to the consumer as “it will make life easier” which really makes people angry.

If I have called a call centre it is because by definition I have not been able to resolve my issue on the website or the automated AI chatbot. So I need to speak to someone. So please don’t talk to me like an idiot by suggesting I go through the whole miserable experience again.

I am not sure companies realise quite how angry this makes people. Rant over.

I work in property lettings and yes I know that we and estate agents in general have never been the most popular but we're just doing a job! However, some of the abuse we receive is off the scale. Yes, with the current housing crisis people are understandably frustrated when they were unsuccessful in securing a property or their rent has gone up but screaming abuse at us is not going to make us want to help them so they will be at the bottom of the list for the next property that comes along!

We've always had angry people when it comes to property maintenance despite dealing with issues as quickly as we possibly can but some people fail to understand that we can't fix every issue instantly by waving a magic wand. We have to wait for the contractor to come out, diagnose the problem and then they may need to order parts, just the same as if it was your own property! If an urgent issue can't be fixed straightaway we will always offer an interim solution such as plug in heaters but still they will moan. We can't win! However, there has been an improvement in this area since we got a new property manager. She has an absolutely lovely kind but firm manner and literally kills people with kindness. She's pissed on many a fire with even the nastiest, most unreasonable tenants struggling to be rude to her!

Why would anyone want to be rude and abrasive? How awful. Assertive is fine but nasty is not.

This is true, some companies are truly awful.

When my mum died and I had to ring round companies to let them know, close accounts etc the service of some was truly awful! The stupid idiot at the post office broadband said he would need to speak to the account holder, my dead mum, to ask permission before speaking to me!! I asked him if he had mis heard me when I said she'd died and unless he was going to hold a seance, I'm not entirely sure how he thought it possible. He still continued with 'must speak to the account holder' and not a single word of condolences! I'll admit he got a very stern 'now listen here....' speech which made it very clear my mother was dead and he was being completely stupid.

I've also worked in pubs and for a made to order product company and some people are just pure arseholes, but I never backed down unless I or the company was at fault.

I've generally found that if you need some help from customer services, if you're all nice and smiles and admit that maybe you made a mistake, people are more willing to help. I've had bookings changed without paying more by being so apologetic and nice. Never taken the piss though.

Seeing as there is around 3.5 million retail staff in the U.K. I’d be surprised if you hadn’t met some who were rude. I think overall retail staff do a great job faced with difficult customers in return for usually crap wages!

I would say though, I have met some pretty rude retail staff.

RachPelders, love it !!!! x

@Mokel yep - but not just violence, it's just easier to give a refund than deal with being complained at for ages, or having to worry about a complaint coming your way.

I remember once being told during sales that we can't hold anything for customers while they look elsewhere, so when a customer rang and asked us to, I apologised and said we couldn't.

She swore at me and said all sorts - my manager then came along and said don't worry Mrs Jones, of course we can do that for you 🙄

Exactly this

The squeaky wheel always gets oiled first. So at the very least the aggressive complainer gets dealt with promptly, where quiet complainers might get ignored. And of course businesses will often decide it's easier to throw some sort of compensatory resolution their way to avoid the hassle. Not always, but often.

I give every client I have to interact with 100% and endeavour to go absolutely above and beyond. Contactable pretty much 24/7, complimentary add ins, follow ups for years to come just to catch up.

The second somebody is rude they get exactly what we’re contracted for - nothing more, nothing less.

Sadly, since lockdown I’ve noticed a sharp rise in utterly vile customers. People who defy logic and when you try to politely go over their experience with them so you can try and understand their grievance, will get aggressive and defensive because even they’ve realised they have no basis.

Completely agree! I recently ended my health insurance as I had such a bad experience. Some of it was such blatant rude customer service too which I responded to by telling the woman I was ending the call as she was literally ridiculing me, and then I made a complaint separately and was persuaded to stay on. A few months later after more incompetence I just ended the policy.

I also had issues with BT customer service recently too.

And btw I’ve been on the other end of the phone too having worked in call centres for Argos, Scottish power, and DPD to name a few. And also worked in retail. And yes some customers are massively rude - especially on the phone. Less so in person I’d say.

I have to say I got along with most well because I didn’t defend the company and I’d actually be really sympathetic. So they’d soon realise I was genuinely on their side and trying my best to help them which would cool things down.

I remember one older man say something like “you seem like a nice person but what I have to say is above your pay grade, please let me speak to someone who is paid enough to listen to this rant” lol I happily got my manager (who was paid double my salary) on the phone!

When I worked in professional services, rude clients basically got bumped up so they got a more senior person and better service. We couldn't afford the complaints they'd invariably make and get compensated for.

When I've been in hospital with sick DC, my instinct is to trust staff but actually you need to be assertive almost to the point of rudeness, sadly. Otherwise things are missed, you hang around longer, DC go through unnecessary suffering. Eg they were trying to administer 3x a day medicine to DC with doses at 2am and 6am when there was no reason why it couldn't be given in daytime hours.

If staff have enough time and training, customers would also be nicer. But that's not what the capitalist overlords decree!

I’m very much about being nice gets you nicer results, especially if it’s me wanting a refund or something, then I’m really really nice, lol so I always bounce into shops with a huge smile or if on the phone and they say their name I will always say hello xxx my issue is xxx and make sure I don’t sound like I am spoiling for a fight, that said as people have already pointed out, some people working in customer service roles need not because they simply don’t have the right attitude for it or are straight up miserable and rude with it seemingly being every single person I encounter in my local council office, and Nationwide BS (not in branch but the phone CS)

On Friday I went into Sephora to ask about gift cards, it was only one till open and naturally after the person in front was done I walked up to the cashier, however her colleague was chatting to her and they stated to engage in conversation ( it wasn’t even anything important, more a he said/she said gossip thing, albeit about work colleagues) all the while not acknowledging me and I’m standing their like a lemon. I was getting tempted to bang hard on the desk saying “are you going to wrap this up? I didn’t because that would somehow make me look like the AH

So before I even opened my mouth they got death stares coupled with an arsey attitude from me because to knowingly ignore a customer and think nothing of it so they can gasbag about nonsense is not on.

I don’t shop in Sephora usually and was only going in to see if I could purchase the voucher for a friend, but I definitely won’t be darkening their doorstep ever again.

I dealt with this for 15 years in a retail healthcare role and it affected my mental health to such a degree that I recently completely changed career aged 40. People who had legitimate concerns and were calm and understanding would mean I felt more like wanting to help them and would go the extra mile. But some were downright rude, abusive and insulting often sexist (only wanting to speak to 'the man' always assuming male member of staff was most senior or discriminating against younger staff ('how old are you anyway'. Some didn't go so far as that but would just shout or be unpleasant. They'd often get what they wanted by intimidation but everyone would remember them. They'd become that person that all staff thought of as unpleasant and intimidating. After years of sometimes being shouted at daily for the most unreasonable requests I changed careers to something office based and not public facing and I've never er been happier.

And you reposting the flaming OP first post is spectacularly dim.

if there is ONE post NOBODY misses, it’s the opening post