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.

It's often the case that there is only so far you can go, in a customer service role, before you need to be able to have a bit more time, troubleshooting, and 'negotiation' power to be able to do something about a customer's issue - usually by taking on quite a large structure or escalation process yourself, rather than just getting straight to one person with the solution you can offer. It's rarely an instant 'Oh, here's the solution, have a nice day' kind of situation. People generally think that it's easy and that anything else is a choice to be obstructive or a bit stupid. If you are able to realise that you may get a better result by meeting people halfway and having a reasonable expectation, but not a stroppy one, of what you would like them to work on doing for you, then it can be more productive (although still frustrating in places).

As an NHS worker for many years.

I hate when people say on MN - go to A and E/the GP and refuse to leave till you get what you want.

It's intimidating/harassing staff and is unacceptable behaviour that I was always more than happy to leave to security or Police to deal with.

But...it leads to emotional manipulation as often, it's reception/admin staff left to deal with it in distress, plus other people in the waiting room suffering intimidation and abuse while the people the individual is demanding to see are elsewhere in the building.

So sometimes, people give in. Not because the demanding person is right, but because the workers care about their colleagues and other patients.

So it does 'work' sometimes. Temporarily. Most of those people will then be banned. Rightfully.

I hate when people say on MN - go to A and E/the GP and refuse to leave till you get what you want.

I agree! My father is a pharmacist (now retired) and he was uncomfortable about the number of doctors prescriptions he received for people seemingly with basic cold viruses rather than secondary infections. When he enquired he was told by the surgery that certain patients would turn up demanding antibiotics for a cold and would shout and rant so much that the doctors would just write the prescription to shut them up. Unfortunately it then became a self fulfilling prophecy because the shouty patients would be convinced that they had been "proved right".

@Maverickess

That is exactly right - I don't work or shop at organisations who I don't believe treat people right.of course, as an employee you get to see the policies, where I don't often - but of course I do what you say once I know what they are.

Anyone who works for a shitty organisation or who gives custom to one out of choice is to blame for that organisation existing - again, I simply ask you to own your choices, you cannot just blame the organisation, you choose to be part of it. If that means you have to own the policies and people get annoyed when they. are unreasonable then so be it - they are in the right, you are in the wrong.

I personally believe people representing organisations should be able to be fined directly for any organisational failings they implement - it would greatly increase the level of customer service. So credit card refunds because of failing retailer, failure to sort out service within 7 days, no phone back when indicated, automatic £1,000 for anyone involved. It would change organisational approaches overnight and staff would only work where good service was provided.

@Ormally

The issue is that the best customer service is now much better than it once was. Amazon has great customer service and pride themselves on being customer centric at everything they do.

Any organisation offering less than amazon is now poor service.

The fact a customer has contacted you means your organisation has already failed. You need to make them happier than if no issue had occurred I the first place.

If your organisation doesn't empower you to do that, then go elsewhere and indicate why. It really is quite simple in retail - most of the time you need to apologise and refund within 60 seconds and make it easy to return a item. The reason for the return doesn't really matter - all that matters is the customer wasn't happy.

I've never been rude to staff, but I think that it does help people to let off steam to complete strangers that they can lay all the blame and their frustrations onto. It must be quite cathartic.

I've had staff be incredibly rude to me though. I complained, and I hope they were sacked the wanker.

IMO anyone who is rude to any staff member deserves to be put on some sort of cunt register.

.You're behaving like customer service is some sort of calling from above where only people who are completely selfless and self effacing need apply. That's bollocks. Customer facing staff are there to facilitate a transaction between someone getting goods or a service they want or need and the company selling it, not to boost people's ego's, not to make them feel like a saint for paying for those goods or that service, and not to provide endless adoration and attention to anyone and everyone.

People work in those jobs for the same reason they work in just about any job, they need the wages to survive. Not because they've been called from God to serve you a pint of milk like a subservient apostle, give you validation and boost your ego. If anyone needs an 'experience' above actually getting their pint of milk, paying for it and manners while that happens but needs subservience and deference while getting it, they're the one with the problem.

You're right that fining people £1000 if a customer decides that they've been treated unreasonably will change customer service, I for one will be out the door and so would just about everyone else, because I'm not risking my financial stability on the whim of someone else who can decide unreasonably and unfairly to take almost a months wages from me because they've got a chip on their shoulder and thinks they should be able to take that out on me because I'm 'less' than them.

Customer service staff aren't responsible for the ills of the world as you see them, they're not responsible for other people's behaviour, they're not responsible for the commercialisation of everything and anything, in a bid to make other people rich. You're handing the people who are responsible the perfect whipping boy to blame everything on and take the concequences, and apparently want to now financially punish them for the pleasure.

A lot of the issues that exist are down to lack of staffing, because the role of anyone who serves anyone else is seen as less than by society and less and less people are taking the 'opportunity' to be treated like that.

Without staff, places collapse just as much as without customers, it's a two way street, no staff means no service and unreasonable and unrealistic expectations contribute towards less staff and poorer service.

And if you find a policy doesn't work for you, then no amount of me believing in it is going to change that, me believing in it isn't going to make it magically work for you, that's just a way to excuse people who want to be rude, aggressive or abusive towards another person because they know they can be.

No need to be rude.
But when I have rung in several times to be fobbed off I will request a manager deals with me. Anyone foolish enough to frustrate me at that point will not hear any rude words but will really get to listen to me tell them exactly what's wrong and why I need to speak to a manager.
I log names and times of calls of bad customer service. Which I will explain to whichever poor soul gets to deal with me. I am never rude, but polite and firm.
I also have plenty of spare time for hanging on the phone and ringing back.

Absolutely not. I always say, I know this isn't you please just give my feedback to a manager.
Or I ask for the manager again recognising they too are probably locked in a terrible chain management system but they have a teeny bit more power than the poor service person.

Agree completely OP. I left a 20 year career in the healthcare/retail sector for this very reason. Despite being quite touch and thick skinned, and experienced enough to hold my own, I eventually got so sick of being treated badly by the public. Especially when I had my children, it changed my perspective - it's one thing leaving them to go to work, but no way am I going to do it just to be shouted at and have rude behaviour directed at me all day. I 'left' that sector, changed careers and have never been happier. I do one day a month in my 'old' job on a self employed basis and earn double because there are no long term staff. Staff are leaving in their droves and so employees hire more temporary staff which created a cycle of less good service due to lack of continuity. People need to treat staff as they would like to be treated or their experience of service will just decline more and more over the years.

My elderly relative has recently been appallingly mistreated in hospital. After three days with no medication (dependency causing strong nedications shes been on for years due to serious disability) she was in agonies and the staff were completely dismissive and said there were no doctors in the hospital so she couldn't have any medication. Her husband stood in the ward and roared at the staff until they did, in fact, find a doctor and organised her medication.

On that occasion I completely approved of rudeness and shouting. (Absolute fuckers)

FYI - I also work in healthcare, I fully understand the pressures more than most. But this admission into hospital has been worst and unkindest experience than anything I've seen in 20 years.