Dear Customers: Stop Making My Call-Center Employees Cry

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. 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.

by Laura Northrup via The Consumerist