Anyone work in customer service?

SparklyJadeFawn · 2024-08-21T22:00:51+00:00

I work in a customer service and admin role. A lot of the job Is answering customer calls. Honestly the abuse I get. They shout scream swear at me. One of them called me stupid before I'd even said anything! If I tell them that what they're asking for simply can't be done in the timeframe they want, they demand to have it now. Then call me useless etc. Why are people so aggressive? Is anyone else here dealing with customers?

Spotlightt · 21/08/2024 23:03

I have done, and if anyone would have spoken to me like that I would have told them I'm discontinuing the call as I refuse to be spoken to like that. Are you not allowed to do that?

roughride24 · 21/08/2024 23:03

Yep. People can be arseholes when they want to be.

Customer service roles require a very thick skin and a very calm tone to de-escalate quickly.

Hopefully you have some lovely customers also to balance it out.

JollyHostess101 · 21/08/2024 23:04

18 years in airport customer service so seen (and been called) A LOT but at 7 months pregnant I got told “ I hope your baby dies” because their flight had been cancelled……. Not an ideal as a start to your holiday but rather an over reaction!

The public are vile sometimes! I am always super super nice to frontline staff because I’ve been on the receiving end too many times!

Original poster

SparklyJadeFawn · 21/08/2024 23:05

Spotlightt · 21/08/2024 23:03

I have done, and if anyone would have spoken to me like that I would have told them I'm discontinuing the call as I refuse to be spoken to like that. Are you not allowed to do that?

We are only allowed to hang up the phone call if the customer swears at us.

And we must give the customer two warnings before we hang up.

Anything else, like demanding rude behaviour, I'm not allowed to hang up on

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Original poster

SparklyJadeFawn · 21/08/2024 23:06

roughride24 · 21/08/2024 23:03

Yep. People can be arseholes when they want to be.

Customer service roles require a very thick skin and a very calm tone to de-escalate quickly.

Hopefully you have some lovely customers also to balance it out.

Lovely customers hmmm I'll have to think back to try to remember one!

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Original poster

SparklyJadeFawn · 21/08/2024 23:07

JollyHostess101 · 21/08/2024 23:04

18 years in airport customer service so seen (and been called) A LOT but at 7 months pregnant I got told “ I hope your baby dies” because their flight had been cancelled……. Not an ideal as a start to your holiday but rather an over reaction!

The public are vile sometimes! I am always super super nice to frontline staff because I’ve been on the receiving end too many times!

Edited

Oh that's awful!

The worst thing is they get very aggressive and some of them can not seem to calm themselves down in any way, they escalate and escalate in anger till they're shouting and nothing will calm them down

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Edingril · 21/08/2024 23:08

I turn it into a game and find ways to be super nice to them yeah I patronise them, they can complain about me being nice if they want I don't mind

Zoraflora · 21/08/2024 23:09

@JollyHostess101 that is absolutely shocking that someone could come out with something so hateful. That must have been very upsetting.

MrsMoastyToasty · 21/08/2024 23:12

Yes I worked for several years in the call centre of a water company. The number for reporting water supply and sewerage problems rather than customer accounts.

The abuse we got when we were trying to help resolve problems was ridiculous.

Personally I loved it when a complainer said "I'm taking my custom elsewhere ", knowing that you can't transfer to another supplier like you can with gas and electricity.

Original poster

SparklyJadeFawn · 21/08/2024 23:13

Edingril · 21/08/2024 23:08

I turn it into a game and find ways to be super nice to them yeah I patronise them, they can complain about me being nice if they want I don't mind

Ugh. I just hate being shouted at.

I can see why people get burnt out.

People wonder why customer service isn't great in places

It's because when you've been shouted and screamed at all day, it's hard to recover and be happy and smiley to the next customer

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Oldinjuryhelp111037 · 21/08/2024 23:13

Used to. We had people threaten to find us and burn our house down. Wishes if rape and death etc. That was working in car insurance.

Original poster

SparklyJadeFawn · 21/08/2024 23:14

MrsMoastyToasty · 21/08/2024 23:12

Yes I worked for several years in the call centre of a water company. The number for reporting water supply and sewerage problems rather than customer accounts.

The abuse we got when we were trying to help resolve problems was ridiculous.

Personally I loved it when a complainer said "I'm taking my custom elsewhere ", knowing that you can't transfer to another supplier like you can with gas and electricity.

Haha.

Yeah I get that a lot.

When I tell some customers that their specific demand is not possible, they often say with a big flourish " well I will leave you company then and take my business elsewhere".

I always say "it's your choice" as obviously they're not forced to stay with us and can go where they want.

Inside, I'm thinking "great! Goodbye!"

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MonsteraMama · 21/08/2024 23:17

I left for this very reason, I got sick of the abuse. Once upon a time in 100 calls you'd get one arsehole, 95 completely normal interactions and four really lovely people who you remembered. Then slowly that became five arseholes. Then ten. Then eventually every other call is someone screaming abuse at you, and the lovely people are as rare as the arseholes once were. I've been called every name under the sun, threatened, HISSED at. Often for the most mundane reasons just because they've riled themselves up into a complete state before I even answered the call. Someone even said he hoped I was gang raped on my way home 👍

I was very good at de-escalation too, so much so that my recorded calls were used as training material. But it's so, so draining. I just wasn't willing to do it anymore.

Original poster

SparklyJadeFawn · 21/08/2024 23:18

I once had a customer threaten to come to the office and blow us all up with a bomb!

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Oldinjuryhelp111037 · 21/08/2024 23:19

Oh yes we had the bomb threat too.

We should play bingo 🤣

Edingril · 21/08/2024 23:19

SparklyJadeFawn · 21/08/2024 23:14

Haha.

Yeah I get that a lot.

When I tell some customers that their specific demand is not possible, they often say with a big flourish " well I will leave you company then and take my business elsewhere".

I always say "it's your choice" as obviously they're not forced to stay with us and can go where they want.

Inside, I'm thinking "great! Goodbye!"

Show quote history

I offer to fill out leave forms or send them links by email to do so etc.

BiscuityBoyle · 21/08/2024 23:22

I think that everyone should have to do 6 months in a customer service role, like national service. You honestly have no idea how dreadful some people can be until you do. And they walk amongst us. Some of them must be MNers.

Original poster

SparklyJadeFawn · 21/08/2024 23:23

Oldinjuryhelp111037 · 21/08/2024 23:19

Oh yes we had the bomb threat too.

We should play bingo 🤣

A bingo card would be fun.

I've another common one that I'm sure you've experienced.

The customer that wants his "hand held".

Me to customer: " what you're asking me to do, I can't do, it's literally set up that you can only do it yourself on the automated menu on the phone call, it will only give that password to you, it wont let me do it for you".

Customer: "oh but will you not do it for me? I'm not good with technology. I need my hand held going through it"

Me: "it's easy. You literally press option one". That's all you have to do.

I send customer to the right menu.

Customer immediately calls back: "yeah I was trying to get my new password on the menu. Will you not just give it to me?"

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FoxtrotOscarKindaDay · 21/08/2024 23:28

Many, many, many, many horrible customers over years in various CS positions. No longer in CS but still have to deal with people unfortunately, CS probably made me tough enough to do it.

I don't remember any particular nasty ones. I will probably always remember a handful of lovely ones though. Two in particular from working in insurance. Think we need those experiences to survive though.

somethingothertoday · 21/08/2024 23:30

Yep. Worked in customer service for 20 years before I left. Truth is people who don't work in this sector always look down on people who do. I had been called a number of things from being told they wanted to speak to a man not a woman, to 'it's not my fault you didn't educate yourself' to threatening with their 'lawyer' thinking I would be absolutely fearful and in awe of their worldly contacts. I get people want a quick and efficient service and I have seen bad service which makes me mad because I know what good service should look like. In my case it was never about bad service but entitled people thinking because of who they are and are somehow professionally 'superior' in their view, could get what they want beyond what they are actually entitled to.

Original poster

SparklyJadeFawn · 21/08/2024 23:31

Oh I've another one for the customer service bingo card, I'm sure we ve all experienced.

This is kind of fun. It's good to laugh to take the pain away!

"The customer who wants something done on the phone, but can't remember a single detail about their account. Not one detail."

Eg a lady will ring in.

"I've a question about my account".

Me "sure I can help you with that. Do you know your account number?'

Customer " oh god no. Where would that be".

Me: "on a bill from us. Or on an email from us. "

Customer rustling around "oh god I don't know where my last bill is. JAMES where s the last bill? Aghh. Can you not just log me in with my first name?"

Me "sorry I need the account number I'm afraid"

Customer eventually finds account number.

Me: thank you. Now it's asking for three random digits of your password.

Customer: "my password? Is that the number on the top of the bill? It's 10010

Me: "no its a password, that you chose yourself, when you set up your account"

"Customer " "I never chose a password"

Me "it shows on the system that you did choose a password'.

Customer "ah god I wouldn't remember that now, wait a minute now till I see if I wrote it down anywhere",

goes off rustling around old notebooks for 15 more minutes

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Jumpingthruhoops · 21/08/2024 23:32

MonsteraMama · 21/08/2024 23:17

I left for this very reason, I got sick of the abuse. Once upon a time in 100 calls you'd get one arsehole, 95 completely normal interactions and four really lovely people who you remembered. Then slowly that became five arseholes. Then ten. Then eventually every other call is someone screaming abuse at you, and the lovely people are as rare as the arseholes once were. I've been called every name under the sun, threatened, HISSED at. Often for the most mundane reasons just because they've riled themselves up into a complete state before I even answered the call. Someone even said he hoped I was gang raped on my way home 👍

I was very good at de-escalation too, so much so that my recorded calls were used as training material. But it's so, so draining. I just wasn't willing to do it anymore.

Do you think the increase of angry customers correlates with the decline of good customer service, especially in the UK? ie:

-The fact the first port of call for a lot of people now is an AI 'chat bot'?
-And I say 'first' but this probably isn't the first time a customer has tried getting this particular query dealt with.
-Your call/email is finally directed to an 'agent'... who you eventually get through to after being on hold for nearly an hour (Sky, I'm looking at you!).
-When you do eventually manage to talk to a human, there's still, very often, a 'computer says no' approach.
-On top of all that, these queries usually have to be dealt with mid-week when people are at work, adding to any stress that might have been there to begin with.

There's never an excuse for abuse, death threats. BUT I can totally see why people might be thoroughly pissed off by the time they actually get to talk to someone.

Original poster

SparklyJadeFawn · 21/08/2024 23:34

Jumpingthruhoops · 21/08/2024 23:32

Do you think the increase of angry customers correlates with the decline of good customer service, especially in the UK? ie:

-The fact the first port of call for a lot of people now is an AI 'chat bot'?
-And I say 'first' but this probably isn't the first time a customer has tried getting this particular query dealt with.
-Your call/email is finally directed to an 'agent'... who you eventually get through to after being on hold for nearly an hour (Sky, I'm looking at you!).
-When you do eventually manage to talk to a human, there's still, very often, a 'computer says no' approach.
-On top of all that, these queries usually have to be dealt with mid-week when people are at work, adding to any stress that might have been there to begin with.

There's never an excuse for abuse, death threats. BUT I can totally see why people might be thoroughly pissed off by the time they actually get to talk to someone.

Show quote history

Yes this.

And also that they don't see the person at the other end of the call as human

OP posts:

MonsteraMama · 21/08/2024 23:37

Jumpingthruhoops · 21/08/2024 23:32

Do you think the increase of angry customers correlates with the decline of good customer service, especially in the UK? ie:

-The fact the first port of call for a lot of people now is an AI 'chat bot'?
-And I say 'first' but this probably isn't the first time a customer has tried getting this particular query dealt with.
-Your call/email is finally directed to an 'agent'... who you eventually get through to after being on hold for nearly an hour (Sky, I'm looking at you!).
-When you do eventually manage to talk to a human, there's still, very often, a 'computer says no' approach.
-On top of all that, these queries usually have to be dealt with mid-week when people are at work, adding to any stress that might have been there to begin with.

There's never an excuse for abuse, death threats. BUT I can totally see why people might be thoroughly pissed off by the time they actually get to talk to someone.

Show quote history

I think people are just cunts to be honest, and getting cuntier by the day. The company I worked for didn't use chatbots, had a 48 hour turnover for email queries and the average hold time was three minutes. Still got death threats and abuse every single day 🤷‍♀️

Do you think the man who hoped I was gang raped was understandably pissed off because he'd had to wait -gasp- three whole minutes?

sunseaandsoundingoff · 21/08/2024 23:37

Jumpingthruhoops · 21/08/2024 23:32

Do you think the increase of angry customers correlates with the decline of good customer service, especially in the UK? ie:

-The fact the first port of call for a lot of people now is an AI 'chat bot'?
-And I say 'first' but this probably isn't the first time a customer has tried getting this particular query dealt with.
-Your call/email is finally directed to an 'agent'... who you eventually get through to after being on hold for nearly an hour (Sky, I'm looking at you!).
-When you do eventually manage to talk to a human, there's still, very often, a 'computer says no' approach.
-On top of all that, these queries usually have to be dealt with mid-week when people are at work, adding to any stress that might have been there to begin with.

There's never an excuse for abuse, death threats. BUT I can totally see why people might be thoroughly pissed off by the time they actually get to talk to someone.

Show quote history

Honestly I think the most rage inducing thing is sitting on hold for an hour with the same tinny music over and over again. Pause "oh someone's answering" [random automated message saying to hold] music starts again

We're living in times where when I call somewhere and I'm put on hold, I should have my own playlist playing.