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I work Customer Technical Support at Spectrum/Charter.. Thankfully it is business and I am luckily that 98 percent of my calls, people are very decent and if they are angry or unhappy, I can de-escalate them no problem. Empathy works wonders most every time and once you display that you understand the customer's frustrations-- you are able to sort of move forward with getting the issues resolved.
OH BOY NOT ONE OF THE CALLS TODAY.
When the CX (ick, sorry-- it's easy to use the shorthand when typing out-- I've done it all day on the phone, but the CX basically means 'Customer') called, it was a simple issue involving them logging into their Spectrum Business account, they couldn't see their statement, and when they tried, it kept asking them to enter a MAC address. Simple enough, I display the appropriate sympathy and then I get the CX's permission to change the password and replicate the issue. It takes me to the billing statement, no problem. I tell the customer that I am able to see their statement and then I 'attempt' to guide them to the right area.
Suddenly he is SUPER resistant to this, saying that I am wrong, that this is what it is giving him. I ask him to back out of the page that he is on and go to the Account Summary and to the billing, and he just doesn't want this at all-- and from zero-to-disaster, he is suddeenly calling me 'bitch', 'cunt', 'whore'. The entire slew of really derogatory names in the book--- a business man, someone who is supposed to be professional. He asks for a supervisor as he makes his way into the derogatory terms reserved for people that he considers to be of low intelligence, including the famous 'r' word (which I refuse to even spell out, because that is a really janky term to use). In that course I am crying, but they are not sad 'woe is my self esteem' tears, no-- it is angry tears. My mind thinking "HOW DARE HE, HE DOES NOT EVEN KNOW ME". I put him on hold and do not pick that call up again, I calmly ask for a Supervisor and tell them that if I have to go on the line again, I will probably get fired with what I will say.
He hangs up while people are debating who is going to field this call and reaches another agent in the pod over, who doesn't even try to TS (troubleshoot), no-- he immediately starts in on the insults, and then he hangs up on her too with the added insult "I wish all women would just die off and leave us men alone" <-- exact words. But the next person on the line is a man, and he treats him no better. Finally he manage to get him escalated and to a Supervisor--
But still I started that call, but I don't feel like it ran away with me. I know that he was already in an angry and unreasonable state, and me answering the phone was just giving him permission to just be a shitty shitty person, there was nothing that I could of done to make him happy to be perfectly honest-- and it was just a blessing that I wasn't there in person, I would of decked him right in the face, it would of been super easy-- barely an inconvenience.
OH BOY NOT ONE OF THE CALLS TODAY.
When the CX (ick, sorry-- it's easy to use the shorthand when typing out-- I've done it all day on the phone, but the CX basically means 'Customer') called, it was a simple issue involving them logging into their Spectrum Business account, they couldn't see their statement, and when they tried, it kept asking them to enter a MAC address. Simple enough, I display the appropriate sympathy and then I get the CX's permission to change the password and replicate the issue. It takes me to the billing statement, no problem. I tell the customer that I am able to see their statement and then I 'attempt' to guide them to the right area.
Suddenly he is SUPER resistant to this, saying that I am wrong, that this is what it is giving him. I ask him to back out of the page that he is on and go to the Account Summary and to the billing, and he just doesn't want this at all-- and from zero-to-disaster, he is suddeenly calling me 'bitch', 'cunt', 'whore'. The entire slew of really derogatory names in the book--- a business man, someone who is supposed to be professional. He asks for a supervisor as he makes his way into the derogatory terms reserved for people that he considers to be of low intelligence, including the famous 'r' word (which I refuse to even spell out, because that is a really janky term to use). In that course I am crying, but they are not sad 'woe is my self esteem' tears, no-- it is angry tears. My mind thinking "HOW DARE HE, HE DOES NOT EVEN KNOW ME". I put him on hold and do not pick that call up again, I calmly ask for a Supervisor and tell them that if I have to go on the line again, I will probably get fired with what I will say.
He hangs up while people are debating who is going to field this call and reaches another agent in the pod over, who doesn't even try to TS (troubleshoot), no-- he immediately starts in on the insults, and then he hangs up on her too with the added insult "I wish all women would just die off and leave us men alone" <-- exact words. But the next person on the line is a man, and he treats him no better. Finally he manage to get him escalated and to a Supervisor--
But still I started that call, but I don't feel like it ran away with me. I know that he was already in an angry and unreasonable state, and me answering the phone was just giving him permission to just be a shitty shitty person, there was nothing that I could of done to make him happy to be perfectly honest-- and it was just a blessing that I wasn't there in person, I would of decked him right in the face, it would of been super easy-- barely an inconvenience.
