Anyone work in customer service?

[SparklyJadeFawn]

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?

I had a really satisfactory couple of complaints recently.

One on the phone
Them: put me through to Bob

Me: okay can I please ask who's calling?

Them: FFS, it's Ben from twatsrus. Put. Me. Through

Me: is Bob expecting your call?

Them: stop being a fucking robot. Why can't you speak like a real fucking person?

Me: okay I won't be speaking to you anymore. I am a person and I don't deserve to be spoken to like that while I'm just doing my job hang up

He called back a few moments later, apologised but tried to back pedal saying I was frustrating. Bob came to the phone after hearing everything, listened to the guy for a sec then said

"You verbally abused my staff to try and cold call sell me a printer? Id never buy anything from people who treat others the way you did. Delete our number"

Another time a guy sent me a string of weird emails after he'd purchased a service online, calling me a scammer, fraud, fucking bitch etc. all sent around midnight on a Friday. I emailed him back on the Monday explaining why he'd been charged (in the Ts&C's) and saying his service was cancelled due to his behaviour. He told me it was no big deal and everyone says stuff like that when they're pissed. Then he got aggressive because the service was important for his company but I refused to back down. I was very polite.
He then sent an edited screen shot to my boss demanding I get fired.
I had bccd boss into the last email.

I did 4 years in retail - including answering the phone to customers. I've covered some of the in person horrors on here a few times but phone calls in could be just as interesting! CS dept colleagues are heroes!

One man rang up and wanted me to talk him through how to find and buy something on the website. I didn't have it in front of me at the time. It went as well as you'd expect. People ringing up and wanting to know how to park in town etc. They were coming to our shop but the town hall outreach team would've been a better shout. Many epic phone tantrums as people would call in March to want a "navy coat" they'd seen in November. At the front of the shop. They'd get nasty when we'd ask if they knew which one or ask for more info as at least 8 winter collection items matched that vague description and we'd have had new season, 2 sales and countless floor moves and ad hoc stock rejigs by then.

One woman rang and yelled at me from the second I picked up. I forget the intricacies but she needed to talk to customer services for a refund- yet she was so wary of online scamming etc that she was suspicious of calling or giving info so had reached an impasse. I called them, arranged for them to talk to her. She rang back two weeks later- immediately screaming still no refund. Luckily I picked up and recognised her so calmed her down. I called CS- she'd been refusing to deal with them when they contacted her in case of fraud. I had to give her and them a load of info about my appearance/my outfit/ ny name & shop which she could "match" with them when they called her as security questions!

CS staff deal with so much.

Well, no... as I said in my post, there's never an excuse for abuse and death threats. Sorry that's been your experience.

I'm just offering the myriad reasons why normal people might still get pissed off from time to time.

Because, respectfully, it often doesn't seem like there are 'humans at the end'. Just automatons reading a script and wanging on about 'policy'.

Also, you say people aren't kept on hold on purpose. I beg to differ. I got told many years ago that the easiest way to get through to a customer service 'human' is to select the option to cancel (whatever service it is).

My call is almost always answered in a few minutes. Hmm, funny that 🤔

I will say OP, that your subsequent updates suggest you've become rather jaded by/intolerant of dealing with people's queries. Maybe customer service isn't for you?

@Jumpingthruhoops but there's no need to take it out on the staff
I can't break policy and my manager won't either, and I'm not risking my job over it or being put on a PIP as I've not followed the process

Would say the majority of customer service staff are jaded which is why there's such a rapid turnover in a job where you could do with experienced staff
But companies don't want to pay more than minimum wage so yeah you're stuck with the jaded or inexperienced staff

You need to remember that people are not angry at you. They are angry at your company which has given them crap customer service.

And by the time they talk to you them are probably hugely frustrated at having to fight their way through an automated call system that appears to be specifcially set up to deny them service.

I work as a secretary in a school in a deprived area and unfortunately so many of these stories sound familiar: right down to my colleague receiving death threats from a parent!
Fortunately the Head has our backs and faced with parents threatening to remove their kids he gives them the form to apply for a different school.

However, the number of people phoning up to receive duplicates of important documents that they signed for when they were given the originals some time in the past two years is unbelievable. . . . . . . . they need them "urgently". . . . . . but have misplaced them - not our fault, and we try to help, but providing duplicates is at the bottom of our to-do list, especially if it involves a trip to archives for stuff thats 10 or 15 years old. . . . . . and like the "customer number" it really helps to know the ex pupil's class and the year they graduated, but of course they can rarely remember.

And trying to work out what they actually want can take some time as, despite the Head having sent out instructions on how to contact us, they don't follow the procedure, so they get through to us when they actually need to speak to the bursar or the pupil counsellor. Or reset their password on the online platform.

I love my job most of the time, but it's back to work tomorrow and the beginning of the school year is always full of fraught phone calls.

Fair enough. Think you've kind of just answered the OP's question...

Don't think many people could handle 150 calls a day with angry people for 17 years TBH!

I work in customer service and on the verge of quitting

I have some stories to tell,but I'd be here all day-ill just tell the last weeks stories

A bloke came in,having ordered on our app
He ordered a big mac meal-big mac,fries and an orange juice
I got his order together,he snatched it from me and walked out
Came back 20 seconds later,screaming that he'd pressed the diet coke button and I'd given him an orange juice
I showed him his receipt (which showed he'd pressed orange juice,but he was having none of it-he wanted diet coke (if he'd come back in and told me the problem,I would have swapped it,no questions asked)
He was screaming in my face and before I had a chance to do anything,he punched me

A woman came in,ordered and my colleague put her order together
Handed it over to her and was met with screaming that 'this fucking place is meant to be fast food!I've been waited over 20 minutes,you thick bitch!'
We checked the camera-from her walking in,to collecting her food was 3 minutes
Thankfully she left,while screaming that 'I'm never coming back!'

A couple where waiting in the bay (drive thru) and where waiting 5 minutes for an apple pie
I'd explained that they could either wait the 5 minutes or have something else-they chose to wait
I went to give it to them,with the explanation that they would need it to be left 10 minutes as it had just come out of the fryer and would be lava hot
Cue,screaming that they wanted free food and it was all my fault they didn't get any
He got out of the car to hit me

I went to give a guy his food in the click and serve order and because it didn't show up the second he ordered it,I was treated to his penis in my face

The police did nothing

Really? Maybe they just want to get what they pay for.

I'm not saying people aren't rude and entitled, they clearly are. But if you pay for a service, you expect it to work and it's not entitled to get annoyed if it doesn't.

And I also wonder if your business uses useless chatbots which just take people around the FAQs. Why don't businesses just let you send an email with your query?

A shout out to Plusnet who overcharged me last month. I sent them a message online, which they allow, I didn't need to call them and spend 15 minutes validating my identity, they looked into it within 24 hours and sorted it out.

It's not that hard. And I don't pay a lot for their service.

Yes. And tells you a million times that you can do what you want to do on their website.

No, I can't. That's why I am calling, oddly enough.

I’ve worked in call centres & actually didn’t get too much abuse. Hung up on people when I wasn’t supposed to though! When I worked for what was formally known as Age Concern, potentially difficult calls would be transferred to me to pour oil on troubled waters. I certainly wouldn’t work on the customer services desk where I am now. It’s shocking how some customers speak to my colleagues. One got a boxed hoover thrown at her which thankfully missed!

@Jumpingthruhoops

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.

Nail on the head there. Of course, there's no "excuse" for abuse, but the poor systems in place often "explain" why the customer is utterly fed up and ready to blow by the time they manage to actually speak to someone. Especially when it's not the first time they've had to call about the same thing, because previous interactions have failed to solve the problem.

Very true.

Most things these days can be dealt with by automated systems, websites, apps, etc., so "customer service" lines have become complaint lines, so it's inevitable customers are likely to be unhappy.

A couple of decades ago, people would be phoning customer services to do things like placing an order, paying a bill, making routine enquiries, asking for advice, etc. - now they can do that online, so most don't need to call until they have a problem/complaint.

Back in the old days, the more experienced/higher graded staff would be put on complaint lines and the younger/inexperienced staff would be doing things like taking orders and answering routine enquiries. Now, probably most calls will be complaints, yet the staff will mostly be younger/inexperienced.

Oh you’re joking! The op has a wonderful way of describing a situation, really bringing it to life. She’s not hateful or breaching anyone’s confidence.

Yep, I had this whilst working in insurance claims. Had one charmer threaten to put me through the window once because we hadn't received some documents he claimed he'd sent us. This was face to face, he was a 40ish year old bloke, I was 19 at the time.

I was also called "the most useless and obnoxious woman I've ever met" after informing someone that we couldn't replace their totalled car because they only had a Third Party Fire and Theft policy. I was tempted to get that one printed on a t shirt.

Thanks so much.

Laughing about things has been therapeutic for me!

Yeah I haven't said anything specific about customers. Just general things that I deal with.

One thing I'm laughing about is how hard it is for the customer to find their account number. I'm not laughing at the customer. And its not funny at the time.

Just that looking back, the interaction is funny.

That they can't seen to know a single thing about their account.

I had another customer there (identifying details excluded).

Customer : ah HELLO I have a question about my account.

Me: sure could I please get your account number and I'll have a look.

C: (bewildered) wha?? I don't have an account number I never had one. Im old school, I wouldn't be into those ONLINE type of things. I never signed up for that kind of thing!

Me: do you have the card we gave you when you joined us?

Customer: yes I have it here.

Me: the account number is on the card.

Customer : well JAYSUS BE THA HOKEY I never knew that was there!!!

Customer then proceeds to read off the only other incorrect number that is on the card.

Me: sorry you're giving me the wrong number. Do you see where it says "account number" before the number that's the right one.

Customer: ah jasys I'm an ejit!

Me: now next step I just need some numbers from your password.

I'm bracing myself now as the customer who doesn't know their account number definitely won't remember their password.

Customer: christ I've no idea what my password is. Would you have given that to me on a statement?

Me: no you chose it yourself!!!!!

:)

I work in retail so do answer the phone on a fairly regular basis.
Had a few corkers in my time but I work for a family business and our boss is happy to take the phone if people are being obnoxious and tell them that we no longer require their custom.

I work in insurance.

Customer: "Hi, I need to report a claim for a photocopier."
Sure, no problem, I take the details to find her account.
Me: "Ok, could you tell me a bit about what's happened, please?"
Customer: "Yeah, it's out of ink".
Me: "....and nothing has happened to the machine, it's just ran out of ink?"
Customer: "Yes."
Me: "(thinking WTF) Okay, that's not something that is covered by insurance so I would recommend you to visit the supplier and get more ink.
Customer: "What do you mean I have to get more ink, I thought that was something you guys would keep an eye on!"

As if we have some sort of alert button in our system that let us know when customers run out of ink so we can order it for them?? 😂

Get customers who say “why don’t we get more staff?”

I say to them “people are leaving retail because of rude, impatient and disrespectful customers”

Then in my store “do you want to work for a horrible store manager ?” Eight colleagues have left since he started in May. All due to his behaviour. Even ousted the only white manager to another store 3 miles away.

I want to leave but not many jobs my side of the county. I don’t want to spend half my money on petrol thank you.

100% this! 👏👏

I mainly deal with people face to face.
My main gripe is customers who are late for their appointment. Some ring once they have missed their appointment slot, some even say well I tried to call but your phone lines were busy. We have back to back appointments which the customers very rarely pay for. The ones who pay are virtually never late.
As if ringing makes it ok for them to be late. No I’m not going to make every subsequent customer late because you didn’t allow sufficient time for your appointment.
Often they still turn up late to be told they have missed their appointment and will have to rebook.
No we can’t squeeze you in, that would mean making everyone else late and working later than I should and also working unpaid. It would also make my colleague have to stay unpaid as I can’t do lone work.
If they persist I explain it’s like going for a train. The train does not wait for them.

I’m not sure if this has been touched on but I think customers have got worse since lockdown. I think it hampered people’s social skills and the sitting at home monitoring for the Amazon man turning up introduced unrealistic expectations of logistics and time frames for deliveries.

I spent the whole of yesterday being bollocked by a few customers and when I broke down their complaints and addressed each part in turn, seemed to make them angry. What I really struggle with is when there’s actually nothing we’ve done wrong as that makes it really hard to resolve.

I am probably overly nice to whoever answers phones when I ring as a result!