Wooo, up yours BarclayCard!!

Dylanwing

The call centre system was set up to take the basic calls, with anything more complex being passed on to experts. Unfortunately, to squeeze a bit more profit, the back up has gone, and the call centre staff face angry customers without the means, knowledge or permissions to deal with them. With a lot of calls, you wait a long time for an answer, and then get someone with a script who cannot help, and will not let you speak to anyone who can deal with the problem - Is it any wonder that customers get irate? I'm not defending excessive rudeness, but is it the fault of the customers, or the Organisations for not having a robust system for dealing with irate calls?

I recently called Sainsburys Bank, during working hours, and was told 'There is nobody more senior to talk to', and my response of 'Why is the Chief Executive answering the phone?' was not appreciated. Rude? Frustrated? Or should the poor girl have had support there to pass the call to? Oh, I have tried 'calm and rational argument', but it's not on script, and 'there is nobody to pass the call to' so that failed!

youknowwho

Maybe the reason their is "noone senior to talk to" is becasue your problem, whatever it may be, does not need passing to someone senior. Maybe whtever your requesting is a flat no, and there is no two ways about it. If a manager went on the phone to every customer whoi wanted to speak to them, then they would never get any work done, and 9 times out of 10, there is nothing that can be done, but for some reason a secong opinion is a must? Call centres have special teams who deal with complaints, if you have a complaint you should just write in, you can't usually demand to speak to them. You talk a lot about sctipts Dylanwig, you will find that not everyone ha to have a script, like i've said b4, the scripts are more for activation calls, application calls, where they sell insurance and need to make sure the dont breach when they sell. Cust Serv dont have a fixed script, who could you script every querie that someone might have?

wannabedebtfree_2

In any role that involves working with customers you are going to get irate people at some point, regardless of the job. (bar person, shop assistant, bank manager etc etc)

I too have cancelled 2 credit cards recently, (Marbles and Capital One) and both of them tried to convince me to stay - I too stood my ground and insisted that they were closed, I didn't consider my response rude, and neither do I think the OP was rude, I am sure that all of the above OP's that find it disgusting that people can be rude to call centre staff have had to deal with a salesman who wouldn't take no for an answer and have just had to be firm to get rid of them, christ telling someone "NO, just close it" is hardly the worst thing that chap will have heard that day, probably not even in that hour!!

CS people are trained to deal with irate customers, and people I know who work in that environment find it FUNNY when people get shirty, and as someone said above conversations can be the source of much amusement when listened to after the fact.

I agree that if so many people are getting signed off with stress then it is clearly a management and training issue, and stroppy customer are par for the course, if they can't deal with it they need a different job.

Dylanwing

Actually I called because my card had been rejected, and all I could find out was that my limit had reduced, and the girl could not explain why. Actually, this was my second call, the first time I was told that it was an error and my limit would be raised again.
Am I really being unreasonable in seeking a proper explanation? Do I just wait 3 weeks for their painfully slow corresondence team to reply? I am not a demanding customer by any means, I just expect a reasonable level of service, and in my experience, many call centres do not provide this. I try and avoid riniging them if possible, simple queries are fine, but with anything out of the ordinary it just never gets sorted. Promised calls never materialise, if you call again, the first call 'has not been logged', and it is not just isolated incidents, and goes far wider than just the Financial sector. There are exceptions, Nationwide and Direct Line spring to mind, but in general, they are pretty poor.
Now, what would be really funny is if, for a joke, somebody out-sourced something that really needs good UK knowledge, such as National Rail Enquiries, to India............

Stephen_Leak

I used to regard irate customers as a challenge: if I could deal with their complaint, I gave me more satisfaction than doing the same for a "normal" caller, as your starting point was "below zero".

I also agree that the main cause of CC stress isn't the occasional uppity customer, it is the permanent b*st*rd and/or bully manager(s). One reason I left CC management (and the firm involved) was that I just couldn't treat people like that.

Also, if the overall service policy and delivery is bad, the chances are that callers' anger has some justification. I was once asked by a senior manager how many unjustified complaints we received. I immediately replied, "None". When he expressed surprise at this, I explained that this was because "customer perception" was the over-riding factor in any complaint. Therefore, even if a customer reported a problem and then rang back a couple of minutes later screaming and shouting because it hadn't been resolved, the customer was therefore "justified" (although they might also be "off their trolley") by virtue of their perception of the situation.

reformedEffortMaker_2

What next?....support for traffic wardens?

Stephen_Leak

reformedEffortMaker wrote: »

What next?....support for traffic wardens?

If I'd been a traffic warden and/or one of their managers, maybe ...

Your job does not dictate your worth as a person.

reformedEffortMaker_2

Stephen_Leak wrote: »

Your job does not dictate your worth as a person.

OMG..really?!! :eek:

what about drug dealers?....are they contributing to society in a positive manner?...are they paying taxes?....what are they worthy of? in fact that's the same for anyone who makes a 'career' out of crime

or vehicle clampers?....their solution to a vehicle causing an obstruction is to clamp it and leave it there for longer than it would have been, thus causing a 15 minute obstruction to become a 3 hour one-wouldn't it have been better use of resources to give a penalty notice of a higher amount?

or IT girls/footballers WAGs/reality TV celebrities etc who all make a living financed on a huge pretence (sp?) and take no responsibility for the impression they leave on younger people watching their antics

or people who set up business offering v high interest rates loans/mortgages/cards etc to people from deprived areas, thus taking advantage of their disadvantages and making it harder for them to live debt free and therefore enjoy their lives

or pharmaceuticals bosses who wont 'sign off' a drug they know can save lives until they get a price for the product they are happy with?

Sometimes your job DOES dictate your worth

*Rant Over*

I strongly object to companies trying so desperately to make you stay when you call to close an account, its embarrassing and not fair on people trying hard to get themselves out of debt. Why dont they get some of the lovely people who work in the retention department to work in the complaints department? If they put that much effort in looking after you in the beginning then you wouldn't even have thought about leaving....