Anyone who has ever worked customer service knows there’s a certain percentage of callers who are always going to give you a hard time.
You expect it. More importantly, you learn how to deal with it in a way that’s easiest for you.
OP worked for a company that had two sets of representatives.
So this happened a good like 7-8 years ago. I used to work on a help desk. We had recent switch a major software to a new one. They didn’t want to train us on that system so they paid for a third party deak to deal with those calls.
When you called it was phone tree that basically said to press 1 for the new software or press 2 for any other issues. If you pressed 2 and had an issues for line one we HAD to transfer you.
We had no training, access and the contract stipulated it as well. So no way to help you in any way. things are different now but that was the deal at that point.
When a woman called, she tried to tell her she needed to transfer her, but she got yelled at for interrupting.
So this user calls us, I get her information and proceeds to immediately tell me that she is having an issue with this system.
I try to interrupt her polite and she cuts me off and proceeds to yell into the phone ” HOW DARE YOU! YOU DO NOT INTERRUPT ME THAT IS RUDE AND YOU WILL LET ME FINISH!
So, she let her talk.
I said nothing and let her talk. She proceeds to talk for a full 5 minutes (I timed here) giving me the full run down of her issues in excruciating detail. She finally finished.
I let there be a pause where she goes “hello?” Both to annoy her a bit and to make sure she is actually done.
Then she transferred her.
I put on my AAA+++ customer service voice and ask if she is done as I didn’t want to interrupt her again.
I then explained sweetly and politely “I’m sorry I was trying not to waste your time early when I tried to interrupt. This is the wrong line for this system, and I was trying to get you to the correct line so they can help you. I need to transfer you.”
Just oozing all the “I was just trying to help you” I could.
There was no sound coming from the phone but I could feel the red hot rage and embarrassment coming through the phone as I transferred her to the correct line.
Listening is hard for people.
Most people will match your energy.
Sometimes you have to pretend.
It can be hard to keep your cool.
They probably get that.
This gave me a good chuckle.
I do not miss my call center days.
If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.