This week, we heard from a reader who we’ll call Mr. X. He works in marketing, and handles escalated customer service issues. He’s the guy you talk to when things go horribly, horribly wrong. He listens to your phone calls, and decides whether you should receive bill credits and other nice things. Mr. X has some very important advice for the customer service ninjas of Consumerist: please stop being jerks to front-line employees.
Part of my job as the marketing manager at a leading service supplier
is to handle escalated issues. These bubble up to me after a customer
talks to a customer service representative and at least one
supervisor. I have the discretion to offer bill credits for the amount
in dispute plus up to $100 as a good-faith gesture.Before contacting a customer or determining the amount to credit, I
listen to the calls between the customer and rep or supervisor. I’m
sorry to say that compared to last year I have heard more customers
curse and yell at representatives this year, sometimes driving reps to
tears. While our company sometimes makes mistakes, that does not give
customers the right to treat company representatives like dirt.If I believe we made a mistake and the customer was respectful in
questioning the error, I will apologize, offer to correct the bill and
some additional bill credits. If we did not make a mistake, I may
offer good-faith bill credits while explaining the issue to a
customer. However, if the customer was rude, I will not offer
good-faith bill credits regardless of who was at fault. (I will
correct a billing error, but do nothing more.)The messages I want to share with fellow Consumerist readers are: 1)
Be respectful of the people who call on the phone – they may work
for a corporation, but they are human. 2) If you can’t say it on
broadcast TV, don’t say it to a rep. 3) You catch more flies with
honey.
We’d like to think that all Consumerist readers know better than to verbally abuse innocent call center employees, but human nature dictates otherwise. Just please remember the words of Mr. X. Being a jerk might cost you money.
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Dear every company that has a call center –
I don’t want your employees to be upset. I don’t want to be upset either. Here is how to make both of us happier:
1. Do not route my call to an overseas call center. First off, the connection quality is crap. Secondly, if the person isn’t proficient in English, I feel like I am having a conversation with Peggy from USA Prime Credit (Discover Card commercials).
2. A script should be a reference card, not the damn Bible of How Everything In Our Company Works and There is No Deviation. Empower your employees to make a judgement call, or at the very least to get the customer to someone who will be able to answer their question as quickly and accurately as possible.
3. Train your CSRs on your products and your policies so that they do not accidentally or intentionally lie to me.
As someone who works in the world of retail, and who has to deal with call centers/tech support on a regular basis for work, I try my best to remember that the poor person at the other end of the phone did not create whatever issue that I am asking for their help in resolving. I always try to be polite, and if I feel that the call needs to be escalated, I will say something such as “I understand that you have to stick to your protocol/do not have the authority to do x-y-z, so can you please put me through to a supervisor? Its not your fault and you haven’t done a bad job; I just need to get this resolved in a timely manner.”
Also if anyone from HP is reading here – my experience with your CSR people was so horrible when my laptop’s cpu fan broke (while under warranty) that it is a determining factor in why I will never buy one of your products ever again. The kicker was when you had a manager email me because I indicated that I was unhappy with the service I had received, I documented what had happened (including where CSRs had given me wrong information multiple times, such as “You will not have to be home to sign for your laptop when it is delivered back to you” Yeah right. My 30 mile trip to FedEx begs to differ.), and no one followed up.
Well how about Mr X’s company start employing call center staff who have a clue and are well trained. You only need to read the horror stories here to see that this is generally not the case, and lord knows most of the call center staff I’ve dealt with would make a saint want to bang its head against a wall.
I worked in a call centre for two months – worst job ever. I have never received so much abuse in my life. I wish I’d had a supportive superior like Mr X at work – there was zero support.
Dear Mr.X,
Please implore your company to empower your call center agents to resolve customer issues.
I work for a large corporation that has about 75,000 agents. What I do is Agent Quality Management. I’ve been doing this for abotu 15 years.
The overwhelming majority of complaints about any call center stems from company policies that are unfair, ignorant, or vague- not from the call center agents themselves. The agents are the ‘face of the company’ and therefore bear the brunt of the abuse and criticism. Most call centers are staffed appropriately, and many agents receive training sufficient to perform their job.
Case in point- Technology company Y has feedback% in the low 20s. Agent turnover is a ridiculous 10%+ per month. I borrowed a friend’s credentials and called feigning a minor issue. What I found was that their agents had no ability to make any adjustment to any acccunt, no matter how small, even if it was clear the fault was clearly with the company. They were basing their previous metrics on the cost of each call as relates to a percentage of revenue only, a major mistake.
Management was engaged to establilsh reasonable guidelines for resolving issues, and customer retention. Feedback scores and agent retention immediately improved.
I will not feel bad for these people.
I know at the end of the day it is just a job, probably a job they hate. But if they work for a company that boasts annoying calls from poorly trained employees, especially if it is a credit collection agency, you work for the enemy, so you will be treated as such.
Nothing personal, but they call me, I don’t call them. Don’t expect a warm welcome from a sales call.
Even though this is five days after the story was posted, I’m still going to vent!
Dear Mr. X;
Your company deliberately and with intent created a CSR system that, from the moment the robot answers to the moment you get involved, is specifically designed to frustrate consumers and make them give up. Your company probably rakes in hundreds of thousands of dollars per year on those folks who have billing errors in your favor and just pay the damned bill because it’s easier.
So, in reality, it’s your fault that your reps are crying and quitting. You’ve designed (or support, anyway) a system that was created to be weighed in your favor; if people are outraged by it, then you need to change the system, not spank the customer.
I am sorry to say that all companies are not like this.
If they were, there would be no problem.
When i complain to a company i make sure i have all the information about the product,and then i ring them up.
Before i make my complaint, i tell the person that this is not directed at them personally.
It`s always been the same thing with me, that they end up insulting me.
After a couple of weeks i get an apology by letter,or sooner.
Funny comments but so true. People have had such poor IVR experiences, they prefer not to use them to resolve their problems. They resort to IVRs either when they can’t find what they need online or when they want to speak with a live agent. IVR design, if done properly, can help lower call volume, improve agent and customer satisfaction and usher in a high quality self-service program in a contact center. Done improperly, it can anger customers, frustrate call center personnel and lose a company business.