rude call centre customers!

ahrimaniac

Christ. I hate how much intolerance towards CC workers there are on here.

viktory

ahrimaniac wrote:

Christ. I hate how much intolerance towards CC workers there are on here.

Got to say I agree. Although I don't work in a call centre I do work in a customer focused business that involves taking calls from customers. I have decided that in my opinion the public are generally rude & impatient.

As another poster mentioned, if I can resolve a problem there and then I will, but sometimes I have to wait for information from another source.

I am polite, helpful and always return calls. If I can be courteous, why can't the customer? I understand that sometimes it can be frustrating trying to get a problem resolved but please don't take it out on the poor sod on the end of the phone!

viktory

Yes, I agree. All big companies should have freephone numbers. My company doesn't but we will call a customer back if they request it so the call is at our expense.

Apparently freephone numbers are very expensive for the company and mine is a fairly small charitable organisation.

dontcare

Call centre staff are the representative of the company they work for, so the disgruntled calls are usually as a result of poor service elsewhere in the organisation. So if you get shouted at, blame your colleagues and management.

The freephone for new customers, and 0845/0870 for existing customers tells me everything I need to know about a company, they are after making a profit, and don't care about existing customers.

The people who have offshored their call centre will get more abuse because people in India aren't as fluent in our language - in my experience they are rude and often hang up when challenged.

My experiences are:

Natwest, Sainsbury's, Direct line Sales - almost a joy to call up, the phone is answered quickly, the staff are friendly and polite, the whole process is efficient. Virgin net are also efficient, but it is based in India, so there is still a language barrier.

Direct line claims - useless, invariably rude, know nothing about their own company policy, unhelpful. Same applies to written correspondence about a claim.

HSBC - worse than useless, India..,

DVLA / HMRC - slow, difficult, painful experience.

MFI - useless.

kenshaz

perhaps their are some lessons to be learnt,it certainly would be in the interests of companies to understand how they are perceived,but perhaps revenue from calls would influence their decisions.

Murtle

viktory wrote:

I am polite, helpful and always return calls. If I can be courteous, why can't the customer? I understand that sometimes it can be frustrating trying to get a problem resolved but please don't take it out on the poor sod on the end of the phone!

How about the customer service desk when you call them up, but they are too busy to help you - advise you (the customer) to call back when they (the company) are less busy.....

nenya

It isn't just customers that call that are nasty to call centre staff - i work for a big energy supplier and, yes, some customers phone up and they are rude and angry and in those cases they properly have every right to complain but also one of our other call centres - that account maintaince call centre - have to be far ruder than most of the rude customers that call us.

One of the tacks i use when dealing with rude customers is to empathize with them and carefully remind them that also at the end of the day i am a consumer as well - it worked a treat a few days ago and turned the mood of a very angry customer around and by the end of the call she was laughing about why she had been so frustrated.

However, I think it is very easy to blame call centre staff for a companies mistake - they are the first point of call. Although, i think that customers sometimes need to take responsibilty for there own mistakes. I used to work at Lloyds TSB - i think they have to be one of the worse companies i have worked for when it comes to customer satisfaction (and employee satisfaction - but thats a whole different rant) - and people used to phone up and yell at an agent because THEY hadn't paid there Credit Card bill. They used to blame it on us, despite the fact the statements clearly say what date to pay by and how to pay there bills. Why is it the agents fault that the customer hasn't bothered to pay on time?

Mind you, i agree that companies need to put there hands up and say sorry when they make the !!!! up.

marleyboy

I think you will find the problem stems because most customers are irate at the idea of having to pay a call fee, to make a complaint in the first place, its unfortunate that the person in hand dealing with the call gets abuse, which generally isnt aimed in thier direction, but it is mostly a case of customers getting the run around by such call centres, who have you hold the line, throw you in n out of various departments, only to be sent back to the original call, to find yet another operator, with no idea of the nature of the call and simply putting the customer back through the chain of what we customers would call "passing the buck". customers try to be polite, but theres only so much oe can take before a customer thinks "theyre taking the p**s" its even worse if its a fee call, why should we the customer, pay for the privalige of snakes and ladders with call centres, when its already costing us an arm and a leg for a service, we generally havent got? A good top for an operator, who is getting paid for the job, is to maybe take notes from callers, and maybe actually passing the phone to their manager, when asked to do so, and pass him/er the buck, rather than saying "they arent available".

kenshaz

Why do call centre staff tell you that teir line manager is not available,put when you insist they appear,they should not tell lies,no -one pays enough to do that

fudgeukraine

While working at a call centre, I've thought of my 'tesco analogy' which I'm yet to fully use, though have suggested it and prob will at some point. IT covers people callign the wrong numbers expecting theright service.

If I go to Tesco and I want a Steak for my dinner, I go to the butchery department. I don't go to the bakery or the tills, or the fruit and veg aisle, then demand that the staff there bring me one as I refuse to go to the butchery dept. It's all the same company, yet you don't do this in a shop. So why is it, when it becomes a telephone call and not a physical trip to a company, does this rationality break down and this mindset of 'you MUST deal with my problem NOW and I don't CARE if you're not the right department'

All common courtesy seems to go out the window when on the phone to a call centre! why? there's no need for it! Just listen to the options. where I work, there's a central number then sub menus clearly stated. So why then, is option 3 (general enquiries) the busiest, yet I'd estimate 2/3 of these calls are technical problems, which is the next option 4. Therefore, by avoiding listening for 5 more seconds, you've wasted your own money, time, and delayed others who have genuine enquiries that I deal with.

Or is it as I suspect - Option 4 gets you through to the dreaded India :rolleyes: