Patronising call centre staff (rant)

Numberlock

Oh, how I detest those obnoxious individuals who hide behind their telephone anonymity and think they can be as patronising and officious as they like to customers....I wish call centres would employ more mature people in both age and attitude. Personally, I do not appreciate being lectured to by someone who sounds like they're 16 years old. (rant over)

eranou

Numberlock wrote: »

Oh, how I detest those obnoxious individuals who hide behind their telephone anonymity and think they can be as patronising and officious as they like to customers....I wish call centres would employ more mature people in both age and attitude. Personally, I do not appreciate being lectured to by someone who sounds like they're 16 years old. (rant over)

Have you ever worked in a call centre?

It works the other way as well, some customers think they have the god given right to speak to you like something they have just scraped off their boot,

What has the persons age got to do with their ability to do the job?

Azari

eranou wrote: »

What has the persons age got to do with their ability to do the job?

I think most people, if they absolutely have to be patronised, would prefer to be patronised by someone who is at least old enough to be their father.

spike7451

eranou wrote: »

Have you ever worked in a call centre?

It works the other way as well, some customers think they have the god given right to speak to you like something they have just scraped off their boot,

What has the persons age got to do with their ability to do the job?

I have seen some staff working for the broadband tech departments I've worked in reduced to tears by verbally abusive customers as they have been unable to resolve the issue as it is outside their control.The worst one was a customer who caused a Indian girl to quit her job,and this was a very well qualified girl,as he assumed (wrongly!) that because she was Indian he was talking to a girl in Bombay & not Belfast.

hunters

sorry you feel this way about call centre staff. I'm 22 and a team leader and very good at my job. Yes every day we have calls from people who rant and rave and swear rudely but we grit our teeth and get on with sorting out the problem. Sorry if this may come across as patronising but it is usually because we know our job.

eldinero

I agree with hunters. I manage call centre staff and deal with an awful lot of incredibly rude customers who feel they can hide behind telephone anonymity to get away with it

Sometimes perhaps staff can come over as patronising, but for every 1 or 2 people out of 10 who find it patronising, the rest need to be spoken to on that level to ensure the caller understands.

Perhaps it's just a problem that sometimes the call centre staff member you mention may have trouble pitching at the right level for you? I don't see what age has to do with it though.

Numberlock

eranou wrote: »

Have you ever worked in a call centre?

It works the other way as well, some customers think they have the god given right to speak to you like something they have just scraped off their boot,

What has the persons age got to do with their ability to do the job?

Yes, I worked for SAGA's call centre in Folkestone a few years ago. Mostly we were women in our 30's and 40's and we were trained to show a mature and positive attitude towards ALL customers. It's a no-brainer, really, if one is polite and not abrasive then even the most awkward customers tend to calm down and respond well to a polite and non-patronising call centre advisor.

NBLondon

hunters wrote: »

Sorry if this may come across as patronising but it is usually because we know our job.

It's great when you get a callcentre operative who does know the job and can judge how to talk to the customer. The annoyance is when the operative can only follow the script and has nothing to say when the customer says something the script doesn't cover. That may not be their fault as an individual - it's the company's fault they are not allowed to move off the script or haven't been trained beyond the basics. That can come across as really patronising (especially with a technical issue) as they tell you to do a series of basic tests, all of which you did before deciding to call for help. Some customers need to be told those - not all.

Numberlock

hunters wrote: »

sorry you feel this way about call centre staff. I'm 22 and a team leader and very good at my job. Yes every day we have calls from people who rant and rave and swear rudely but we grit our teeth and get on with sorting out the problem. Sorry if this may come across as patronising but it is usually because we know our job.

If you read my post carefully, you will realise that I stated "obnoxious individuals" that do exist in some call centres and was not referring to all call centre staff! Also, I'm a bit world-weary of the abrasive customer excuse. What about the customer who is politeness personified and just wants clarification of something and yet comes across a call centre worker who just cannot be bothered to help and advise because said customer's query is going to take a little bit of effort to sort out?

BTW, your last sentence is somewhat patronising, don't you think?

eranou

Numberlock wrote: »

Yes, I worked for SAGA's call centre in Folkestone a few years ago. Mostly we were women in our 30's and 40's and we were trained to show a mature and positive attitude towards ALL customers. It's a no-brainer, really, if one is polite and not abrasive then even the most awkward customers tend to calm down and respond well to a polite and non-patronising call centre advisor.

Not all of them, there are customers out there that no matter how much you try to help they just want to make things more difficult for themselves and have an argument if they don't get their own way. the worst one I had was a guy who after explaining to him that he wasn't eligible for an upgraded phone at that moment in time shout and scream at me that I was "going to pay for this" then he sent an email to head office accusing me of using a racial slur against him, luckily for me the call had been recorded but it just goes to show how petty and vindictive some people are that they could potentially cost someone their job just because they wanted a shiny new phone but weren't getting it immediately

do you realize that it would be illegal to discriminate on the basis of age when employing staff? but I still don't see what the persons age has got to do with anything

Evilm

FYI - I still have the problem that over a telephone my voice can sound very very young and I'm nearly 30- its just something to do with telephones! I totally hate having to replay a call to check something because of how it sounds.