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.

I work for the council, our emails are our full names so no hiding that! Also as a pp said, our names are on our registration and we get threats of abuse daily across the team. We have to share our full names.

I tell my staff they are under no circumstances to give their full names regardless of the situation (complaint etc). It's for their own safety as we have had people make threats and send creepy FB messages previously

There are obviously going to be professions where it is appropriate or necessary to give a full name. That simply doesn't apply to a customer service advisor though. You can absolutely complain about an individual without it. What else would you NEED their full name for? I'd find it sinister actually if I explained to someone that they could complain about me with the information I'd given and they kept insisting they want my surname - I'd be wondering what they intend to do.

A case or chat reference number should suffice. If yhey are protectingvtheir employees by not giving their name, then they need to track the call with a reference number.

Sorry, but why should she be obliged to give you her full name? In this day and age you could stalk and harass her online. I appreciate you probably wouldn't do that, but many people, especially men, would.

You can have my first name and employee number should this be required, I do not even give my first name out when not absolutely necessary, all calls are tracked.

I love just hanging up on entitled, arrogant people like you...bullies who think they are better than the person they are speaking to.

What era are you living in ? People get tracked down, stalked and killed from angry people who find them social media etc Why do you think that you are entitled to her personal details ! The first name and the time you spoke to them will identify them if needed . YAB - totally - U ….

They should use something identifiable, eg Stacey123 or Colin Tree not Colin Flower.
Their real name or surname, not relevant

They are - to their line manager who would investigate any disputes. Every call is logged to the agent and the caller. No need for surnames.

Depends on the call centre and set up. Not all are advanced.
Identifiable is sufficient, however they choose to do it. Giving their real name and full name is not necessary.

I worked at the Child Support Agency speaking and writing to lots of angry people every day. We used our full names. Anyone who was uncomfortable with this could choose a pseudonym.

If you phoned in to the contact centre, the centre's IT and phone systems will record:

• the number the call was made from (i.e. your number - something abusive callers might want to remember)
• the date and time of the call
• the agent who handled the call
• the customer name and customer number (e.g. for utility companies)
• the reference number of the actual call (allocated by the system)
• the details of the call (as entered on to the system by the agent)
• the overall reason for the call (the agent picks from a list - e.g. #1=general query, #2=billing query etc)
• the entire call is usually recorded, so can be listened to later to check what was said (again, something abusive callers might want to remember).

If you decide to complain at a later date, as long as you state at least two from your customer name or number, the call reference number, the date and time of the call or the name of the agent, the company will be able to identify the call and listen to it.

This is why people use their middle name as their work name .

Names don't work half the time anyway

Me "good morning customer service, Deborah speaking"
Customer "hi Sonia"

In none of the call centres I worked, the calls I received had reference numbers to give out to customers. May have done but only accessible to managers.

As I worked on customers' accounts.

It depends on the type of call and the type of call centre.

Technical and helpdesk calls are usually allocated a reference number because there might be an engineer who needs to go out to fix a machine, or a spare part that needs to be ordered and then sent out. In addition, these types of call have a resolution target - i.e. how long does it take from the customer calling to having the issue resolved.