AIBU to expect Customer Service Advisor to tell me their full name?

[Complaintxoxo]

I rang about a problem l currently have with a well known national organisation. The customer service advisor was unable or unwilling to come up with a solution.
I asked for her name so I could follow the complaints procedure. She gave me her first name but declined to give me her surname.
Is this standard practice? I was surprised. I worked in front line customer service for a local council for many years. It wouldn't have been accepted for me to refuse to tell the customer my full name.

This drives me insane, every other single agency, police, nursing, doctors, social workers, teachers the list is endless, we give our full names, our work place, our managers name etc etc

the risk is much higher to us, we are working with a difficult client group most of the time. It is absolutely right that I as a customer am able to say that I spoke to John Smith on tuesday at 5pm rather than I just spoke to John, could be any bloody John, what about my audit trail and proof of what is said to me?

I recently worked in customer service and the level of abuse we received shocked me. One lovely gentleman used to threaten to come down to the office with his hunting knives.

Just because you’re at a higher risk doesn’t mean the risk to others should also be increased. It’s not a race to the bottom.

I wouldn’t ever give my surname. I have an uncommon first name so I used to say ‘I’m the only xxxxxxx in the office’.

My brother worked in a call centre for a while when he was made redundant (anything to keep food in his kids bellies). He shares a name with someone very famous but also has a PhD. When customers demanded his full name he’d say ‘certainly it’s Dr xxxx xxxxxxx’ they used to get angry that he was making it up….it was his name though

Its not a race to the bottom its about accountability and me as the customer having the right to know who to reference if I need to

I’ve never known customer service advisors to give out their surnames. Why would they? It would leave them very vulnerable.

No doubt you'll be asked to complete a survey about your satisfaction with your interaction with the customer services team.

I work for the council and we're encouraged to avoid giving even our first names unless directly asked for the purposes of a formal complaint.

The audit trail is the recording of the call or the transcript of the conversation. Also depending on the nature of the company there will be a digital footprint on the file/account/service you’re enquiring about.

If you work in public services you know full well what the risks are and what the public can be like. It’s very unfortunate if you have to share your full name, however that doesn’t mean that everyone should have to just because you think they should.

You never give your surname because you have no clue what kind of crazy person you may be talking to. A first name is enough for your complaint

Only time I was given a surname was when my call was escalated to a manager - who happened to be my cousin.

Yes. You can reference john. That’s all you have the right to know.

You have absolutely no right to know someone’s full name just because you want it.

I worked in a call centre for an insurance firm. Our emails have our full name and we have raised that we don't like that we can be found online so easily as a result. Unfortunately nothing done about it yet.

It's for their safety. Given the way people can be found online and bullied when people know their full name, it was entirely reasonable for people not to give out their full names. Remember that it's the company at fault and not a customer service advisor directly - unless in fact a person specifically did something that warrants complaint such as abusing you down the phone.

We live in a time where people can get doxxed over the slightest thing. This isn't to say that's what you'd do, but it's a risk which means that full names are rarely given.

I wouldn’t give you my full name either. I used to work in a public office and refused to wear a name badge. I once received a message on a social media account from a guy I served a couple of weeks earlier and he asked me if I had a boyfriend 😳 He recognised my face and my first name so from then on I wouldn’t wear one.

They absolutely will be able to see who you spoke to by looking at the call logging system. Your name, address and (if applicable) account number are your reference if you need to make a complaint / follow up. You call, go through DPA and they’ll be able to see your account. If they need to call you because the person you spoke to escalated the call, then they’ll see all the records of your calls. You’ll go through DPA again and then you’ll be able to discuss the call that annoyed you.

You don’t need the call agents name for any of this.

A close family member works in CS and they don't even use their real first names.

Yeah I had a lovely man threaten to knock my teeth out. He said he was going to stand outside the office to get me. As my name was the only xxxx in the office it did worry me. However I did say ‘ you have no idea what I look like?’ Daft thing to say but I was shocked. He said ‘well I’ll just look for an ugly, stupid cunt leaving that office and kick their head in as it will most likely be you!’ It was reported to the police.

You really want my full name being given to people like that?

It doesn't drive you "insane ", and it's not necessarily for you audit trail. The call will be recorded, and the company will be able to locate your call.
The behaviour of the general public/customers on the phone over the years is worsening and the threats are very real.
When I worked for a well known Over 50's insurance provider, the threats were daily and escalated to customers waiting outside the building looking for staff who wouldn't authorise another free gift. Absolute nutters.

You really don't need their surname OP. You will have an account, and the call handler would have left a digital footprint. If a note was left, this will identify the person you spoke with.

Honestly the public are absolutely batshit vile human beings sometimes.

Did you read the hospitality thread? Awful.

I work in CS as well and as well as afore-mentioned rape and death threats levelled at agents, I’ve had someone threatening to come and burn down one of our branches, another of my colleagues had a customer threaten to blow up our head office, and gave a date and time of when they were going to do so, which triggered a major security incident.

We’ve had physical/racist/ablist comments hurled at our staff, and most of these people have fairly generic, ordinary queries.

In fact in my experience it’s the people with genuine complaints who are the nicest about it and will let you take the details, log the complaints, and wait for an outcome, even though they have a genuine reason to complain and when I log the complaints I absolutely understand why they’re complaining.

The abusive cunts are usually the ones who are just shouting and swearing because they can. Because they think it will get them further - it doesn’t.

But I suspect these are the same types who abuse their partners and their children.

There's no reason why you should have to share your full name either. A first name only (or a Dr X or Mrs Y only in some cases) is enough to identify someone with the context of where and when you dealt with them. You should push for that for change, rather than complain that other people aren't being put at risk like you are.

As a teacher, I never had to share my first name with parents or children. So there was still relative anonymity there.

The audit trail is that in a customer service role every damn thing they do is being monitored constantly. You don't need to know which John you dealt with, and the company can very easily work out exactly which John it was

If they warn you that all calls are recorded, not only will they know when you called and who you spoke to, they'll be able to listen to the recording of the call.
When I had a complaint the firm were able to go back a couple of months to listen to my call as the details were in their response.

You really don't need her full name

Back in the 80s I had a Saturday job where we had to have our full name on our badges. We were the only family with XXX name in the local phonebook and I had at least 3x calls from complete strangers that I'd served in the shop phoning to ask me out. Eventually the company agreed to let me use a false surname.

In these days of social media/google I wouldn't want my full name used.