Abusive clients
Discussion
Hi,
So I'm working in a call centre speaking to clients who are remarkably rude and abusive towards all staff. I have the facility to put the phone down on them for swearing but only for swearing. The other day I had a guy on who had been waiting 15 minutes on hold to get through and he being the t
t that he is decided to waste another 10 minutes of mine and his time in not cooperating in the call. The call should have lasted 2 minutes if that, probably 1 however he deliberately pratted about moaning a solid 8 minutes before completing the query for the call. My complaint handling skills are very good, but he was clearly a prat.
What if anything can I say or do about this?
So I'm working in a call centre speaking to clients who are remarkably rude and abusive towards all staff. I have the facility to put the phone down on them for swearing but only for swearing. The other day I had a guy on who had been waiting 15 minutes on hold to get through and he being the t
t that he is decided to waste another 10 minutes of mine and his time in not cooperating in the call. The call should have lasted 2 minutes if that, probably 1 however he deliberately pratted about moaning a solid 8 minutes before completing the query for the call. My complaint handling skills are very good, but he was clearly a prat. What if anything can I say or do about this?
Your employer should have a policy that allows you to warn abusive people and then cut them off.
My wife has just resigned from her job as a practice manager for a dentist because of the number of abusive people. They have got through 32 receptionists in 8 years because of abuse from patients, NHS and Denplan ones are the worst. They have a policy of taking people off the books if they are abusive and it sort of helps.
People are increasingly becoming entitled tts, I don't think I would want to work in a public facing job at the moment.
My wife has just resigned from her job as a practice manager for a dentist because of the number of abusive people. They have got through 32 receptionists in 8 years because of abuse from patients, NHS and Denplan ones are the worst. They have a policy of taking people off the books if they are abusive and it sort of helps.
People are increasingly becoming entitled t
ts, I don't think I would want to work in a public facing job at the moment.As someone who was a consultant on contact centre design for many years, it was nearly impossible to convince the heads of the contact centres that people ring you as a last line of resort, or their reason for calling couldn’t be resolved by self service on the website. Nigh on all of them are are little hitler type bellends.
Look at Amazon. I need to speak to someone, I press a button and someone calls me within 30 seconds. That’s how it should be done.
Abusive customers are always going to happen no matter how much you’re helpful to them, I agree with the sentiment that society is being ever increasingly entitled. But it doesn’t help when contact centres are constantly telling you to fk off before you’ve even spoken to an agent.
Look at Amazon. I need to speak to someone, I press a button and someone calls me within 30 seconds. That’s how it should be done.
Abusive customers are always going to happen no matter how much you’re helpful to them, I agree with the sentiment that society is being ever increasingly entitled. But it doesn’t help when contact centres are constantly telling you to f
k off before you’ve even spoken to an agent. blueg33 said:
Your employer should have a policy that allows you to warn abusive people and then cut them off.
My wife has just resigned from her job as a practice manager for a dentist because of the number of abusive people. They have got through 32 receptionists in 8 years because of abuse from patients, NHS and Denplan ones are the worst. They have a policy of taking people off the books if they are abusive and it sort of helps.
People are increasingly becoming entitled tts, I don't think I would want to work in a public facing job at the moment.
What is there to get abusive about at a dentists?My wife has just resigned from her job as a practice manager for a dentist because of the number of abusive people. They have got through 32 receptionists in 8 years because of abuse from patients, NHS and Denplan ones are the worst. They have a policy of taking people off the books if they are abusive and it sort of helps.
People are increasingly becoming entitled t
ts, I don't think I would want to work in a public facing job at the moment.vulture1 said:
What is there to get abusive about at a dentists?
I booked a check up online on a certain day because I’ve taken a day off and wanted to get a lot of life admin done. My dentists took the booking then cancelled it by text and told me I had to ring to rebook. They didn’t answer the phone and eventually rang me back to say I had to go to my registered dentist, who wasn’t working on the day I booked. If I was more self righteous or in discomfort I could have got a bit shirty down the phone at their inflexible attitude (NHS rules apparently) and general unhelpfulness.
devnull said:
As someone who was a consultant on contact centre design for many years, it was nearly impossible to convince the heads of the contact centres that people ring you as a last line of resort, or their reason for calling couldn’t be resolved by self service on the website. Nigh on all of them are are little hitler type bellends.
Look at Amazon. I need to speak to someone, I press a button and someone calls me within 30 seconds. That’s how it should be done.
Abusive customers are always going to happen no matter how much you’re helpful to them, I agree with the sentiment that society is being ever increasingly entitled. But it doesn’t help when contact centres are constantly telling you to fk off before you’ve even spoken to an agent.
Call centres annoy me when every single time you phone they say that they are experiencing a higher than normal level of calls, this is regardless of day or time that you phone. Look at Amazon. I need to speak to someone, I press a button and someone calls me within 30 seconds. That’s how it should be done.
Abusive customers are always going to happen no matter how much you’re helpful to them, I agree with the sentiment that society is being ever increasingly entitled. But it doesn’t help when contact centres are constantly telling you to f
k off before you’ve even spoken to an agent. vulture1 said:
What is there to get abusive about at a dentists?
I broke a tooth. In half. On a Friday afternoon. My NHS dental receptionist told me to go to the walk in centre some 8 miles away. I phoned them up first. They said. No. Go to your dentist. They had dentists. One of whom could stay later perhaps? Some of whom worked Saturday too. No you can have an appointment 3 weeks on Friday. At this point I was struggling to stay calm. The tooth was actually cutting into my lip die to the sharp break edge.
My wife is quite good at this type of s
t. Ended up talking to a manager. I had the first appointment on Monday. Because it was an nhs emergency, the 30 minute fix cost £36. lornemalvo said:
I try not to take it out on call handlers but I can understand his frustration. He's just been told several times that his call is very important to your company, when it clearly isn't, and been forced to listen to musak for 15 minutes.
Well the call is important, there's just a spike in the number of people calling at that point in time. Our workload is a bit seasonal. Much busier in the summer than the winter. It would be ludicrously expensive to have lots more staff to answer the call sooner just for them to be paid to sit and do nothing in the winter and then the client will be moaning about the cost.. i did 3 months on a vebidits hotline in a call centre.
2 weeks in i had someone tell me he was going to kill himself, asked for support, told to carry on with call, whilst same bloke said he was killing himself. i was pretty pissed off with support group, as felt like i had no no actual support. I got a complaint made against me for being abrupt , 2 weeks in lol.
You were expected, on just over minimum wage to take abuse. If a DWP member got the same treatment, they could raise a control order, us, it was expected.
no mental heath support, i used to go to bed nearly crying as listening to the problems and basically just there to placate them.
What I realised is get a new job, they are temporary jobs, and soul destroying.
2 weeks in i had someone tell me he was going to kill himself, asked for support, told to carry on with call, whilst same bloke said he was killing himself. i was pretty pissed off with support group, as felt like i had no no actual support. I got a complaint made against me for being abrupt , 2 weeks in lol.
You were expected, on just over minimum wage to take abuse. If a DWP member got the same treatment, they could raise a control order, us, it was expected.
no mental heath support, i used to go to bed nearly crying as listening to the problems and basically just there to placate them.
What I realised is get a new job, they are temporary jobs, and soul destroying.
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