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

[Mokel]

Retail, other customer facing jobs (including call centre), medical etc

There is no benefit to being rude to these staff imo.

All it achieves is negative stuff
. Takes longer to resolve problems as waste time calming customer down
. You may not get the best customer service
. Others have to wait longer to be served
. You may be asked to leave or in call centre, get call terminated
. In extreme situations, you may be banned or struck off the list etc
. Staff leave. This is the case with retail. Staff are fed up with rude behaviour from customers. Then because retailers are cutting back on hours they won’t get replaced. The general public need to understand that if they behaved in a neutral manner, there would not be as many staff leave and they would not have to queue up as long to be served etc.

I work in a technically customer facing role, in a law firm.

I get sworn and shouted at all the time. People have just forgotten how to act

I think a lot of people actually have poor emotional regulation and they are so cross they don't know how else to be and it's quite effective so they don't need to learn another way.

I'm not sure about the coldly rude people.

I am never rude but I am assertive and determined and not easily fobbed off

I have a 2nd job in retail . I challenged a couple who looked under 25 and were buying alcohol. The lady had ID and was 21 but the man didn’t . Firstly he argued I should serve him because he was married and they had a baby with them . Then he argued he fought for this country but didn’t have his service ID on him .He had no suitable ID . I I had to refuse and he left cursing. I know it’s frustrating but I have to do my job and I always try to be polite .

I deal with clients daily.

I'm excellent at my job. But there are two ways to do it.

1. My default - go the extra mile. I get shit done very quickly and thoroughly and I'm a relentless advocate for that client. I take several extra steps that most of my colleagues don't, to really set that client up with everything they need and to future-proof them to an extent. This is the service 90% of people get.

1. The basics. This is for the arseholes that shout, swear, demand and insult and persist with this. I can do my job well enough that my managers and regulatory body still approve my work so there's no impact to me.

But that email? I'm taking 2 days to reply to that instead of 2 hours. Your request for a call with an update? Yeah you can get that in 3 days which is the upper end of our SLA, instead of right away. Those documents you wanted? They're coming by second class snail mail instead of email. As soon as the basics are done that are expected? Off you fuck, I'm not going out of my way to advise and future proof you.

Everything takes at least 2-3 times longer with a shouting, abusive prick which gives me bloody joy. They're their own worst enemies.

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.
Ah the if it wasn't for me you wouldn't have a job line! Customer service staff are poorly paid, aren't responsible for their training, have to deal with high staff turnover, don't make the policies and can't fight back. You must have eaten a lot of sneezed-on food.

I am in an ongoing battle with wickes about the warranty on my bathroom where the bath has not been installed properly. There have been endless delays and their systems are set up so inefficiently I am finding it extremely frustrating. A different team seems to deal with each aspect of the process and it has now been over 5 weeks unable to use my bathroom.

I don’t think I am rude but I have complained a lot: people not calling you back, people making stupid mistakes that cause delays (tried to engage an installer who lives nowhere near me), a poor admin team who have absolutely no power to do anything but they are the only people available to speak to on the phone.

No one deserves to be shouted at, at work but so much customer service is so appalling it is no wonder people get frustrated when you feel like they are holding you getting on with you life to ransom.

Made even worse when you know it could be done better - Neff and Nespresso both have excellent customer service in my experience and don’t need chasing up at all to just get their job done.

It does work.

I did retail for years and often found that managers would give in to rude customers just to get them to go away.

Training for many employers is shambolic. One call centre role - 3 days of training and then it was straight live on the phones. Weren't trained in everything including how to use the turret (the phone) as each CC I worked at each turret was different. Such as transferring, holding after a call to update notes on customers' accounts etc. Yet I lived near to one of the First Direct call centres and applied but couldn't do the 8 weeks of training as I was always on holiday etc at towards the end of the training. Could only reapply every 9 months. The one time I had no holiday coming up after 9 months of an interview/assessment there were no jobs vacancies.

Then in the supermarket where my friend who is leaving in a pp, said training was non existent to the new staff. Get told to get a roller in the chiller and work from it. Nothing told about the need to rotate, so put the new stock in front. Friend also helps out with doing reductions if there are code checkers on holiday etc. Wastes so much time in taking every product off the shelf and rotate it properly and discovers out of date stuff right at the back. When friend started at the supermarket 18 years ago, there was an actual store trainer who either individually or up to 4 colleagues how to code check, put stock out correctly etc. Now new staff buddy up with another colleague which means some customers think there's more staff to serve them. Nope.

Think its easier for the managers to refund the customer than to deal with potential violence.

There’s absolutely no point whatsoever. The problem is that a lot of people are incapable of articulating themselves without aggression and rudeness, and a very large number are not able to handle even the most minor mishap or mistake. Also most of the people who they’re having a go at have no real authority over the thing they’re complaining about - it’s pathetic punching down.

Often rude or aggressive people do get what they want though, as evidenced by a few on this thread, and that's really frustrating as both a service provider and a reasonable customer!!

😂😂😂

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

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

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.

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.

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!

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!

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.

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.

Exactly this

@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 🙄

RachPelders, love it !!!! x

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

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!