To wish people would just be nice

[AngryGinger]

I work in customer services l for an exam board, for the past 2 weeks I have had at least 4 calls a day from parents shouting at me as soon as a I answer the phone because I personally have ruined their child's life. I am so so so drained and every part of me wants to ring in sick next Thursday for UK results release as I know it will just be a repeat. I know there are worse jobs and emotions are running high. But shouting at me is a bad first impression and the answer is 9/10 going to be "ask the exams officer are your school." I don't know how much has changed since I left school but I can't imagine ever ringing the exam board rather than going to the school.

I don't envy people working in customer service or for call centres, I think the public are far more likely to be rude when it's a faceless person they are dealing with, and I don't think the pay is enough for the crap you all have to deal with.

You can wish all you like but the angry/rude customers are part and parcel when it comes to being a customer service advisor.

All you need to say is : if you continue to be rude/offensive I will terminate the call

Then do it!

QuiteLikely5 I wish that was all you needed to do! I work in a call centre and if you did that it is classed as gross misconduct and you are sacked. You can only terminate a call if the customer uses abusive language aimed at you personally and continues to do so after 3 warnings and you have permission from a manager to end the call. So a customer could be using swear words, threatening violence using racist or homophobic language etc but if it isn't aimed at you personally then you can't do anything but listen to it. Even if it is aimed at you, you have listen to it at least 3 times before you can do anything about it.

I did customer service roles in the past and was an advocate of the every one should do a customer facing role so people would be nice rule, but I realised that even people who have been customer facing can still be shits, so you have my sympathy

Agree that more people should do a customer facing role at some point in their lives. I have to give 3 warnings that I'm going to hang up but don't need my manager to give me the go ahead, which is something. I always thought I was quite tough but it's so so draining. I asked one women why she was shouting at me and it was because I "wouldn't help" I had given her the correct information but she just didn't want to hear it. Roll on bank holiday weekend 🤸‍♂️