<h1>Why It Doesn’t Help Being an Irate Customer</h1>

Dear Irate Customer

Dear irate customer, I hope you’re having a great day today. I am writing this article in behalf of millions of call center agents and customer service reps, both local and offshore, whose only desire is to provide a happy customer experience for all our customers.

Being angry or irate never resulted into anything good. This is a fact. We’ve seen far too many times how irate driving results into road rage and bad accidents or how disgruntled employees or victims of bullying erupt into rage resulting in workplace violence or school shootings. Just recently, we’ve seen how one irate content marketer’s frustration resulted into tragedy at YouTube HQ. Anger never did nobody no good.

Why It Doesn’t Help Being an Irate Customer

Customer service reps and call center agents are continuously trained to help resolve customer concerns in the most efficient and professional manner. Let me emphasize “professional manner”. Whenever a customer calls in irate and starts cussing and spitting venom at a call center agent, the rep is expected to keep his cool and still perform his task in a professional manner. But being human, most reps can only take so much insult. Even though customer service reps are not allowed to talk back or be rude to the irate customer, the customer cannot expect the rep to just sit down and swallow whatever trash the irate customer dishes out. Here are some reasons why it doesn’t help being an irate customer:

The Mute Button

For call center agents who can no longer digest what the irate customer is saying and needs to blow off steam, the mute button is heaven-sent. Do irate customers really expect customer service reps to sit still smiling as the customer spits out language so foul it can make a sailor blush? Heck no! The rep puts the mute button to good use. Every time the line goes silent, there’s a good chance the rep isn’t exactly singing praises about the irate customer. And it’s no use for the irate customer to tell the rep not to go on mute because most reps are also quite proficient doing sign language with their fingers.

The Ultimatum

Most call centers have a policy against obscene callers and foul-mouthed customers that allows reps to respectfully release a call if the customer refuses to behave even after being warned several times. Obviously, this will only frustrate the irate customer even further and will surely be twice as irate when they call back. Long story short, unless the irate customer stops cussing and calms down, customer service reps will have no choice but to keep releasing the call instead of helping them.

Cussing Ain’t Gonna Help Getting Your Bill Settled

It’s not the call center agent’s fault that their service got interrupted after they missed settling the bill so why do irate customers give customer service reps such a hard time? Customer service reps are trained to help customers with their service NOT to argue or fight with customers. Customer service reps work within company guidelines and although reps would love to go the extra mile with their customers just to create a positive customer experience, reps still have to work within set guidelines. Turning their service back on without settling the bill is not within those guidelines and no amount of profanity can turn their service back on. No call center agent in her right mind would risk losing her job over a customer who keeps calling her a whore.

Why Should I Help You?

Have you ever tried asking anyone for help before? Normally, whenever we ask for help, we usually do it nicely with a smile so that we can have a better chance of getting the help we’re asking for. It’s no different when calling a customer service rep for help. Being nice to your rep usually gets your concerns resolved smoothly and efficiently and everybody goes home happy. But whenever a customer goes beast mode at the onset and starts calling the hapless clueless rep names I dare not even print, how enthusiastic do you think this rep would be to help the irate customer? I bet deep inside this rep is saying, ”Why the heck should I help you?” Perhaps the rep would be more enthusiastic to go ahead and release the call. Again, you’ll never get nothing done being irate.

Everything is on Record

Call center agents use a customer management tool to record and document everything that transpires between the customer and the rep on every call. This is so companies can have a better insight on the customer’s buying pattern as well as service issues. Usually, these recorded interactions provide the basis for any customer incentive or customer loyalty program should the company launch a customer loyalty rewards promotion. This same customer management tool also documents if a customer had been obscene, abusive to customer service reps or an excessive caller and are usually tagged or labeled as PEC (Persistent Excessive Callers) or something similar. This tag remains on the customer’s account and may result into the customer being ineligible for any future promotions the company may offer. Often, being tagged PEC also denies the customer the privilege to be surveyed for CSAT purposes. On rare occasions, recorded calls have been used to prosecute irate customers who persistently make grave threats against the company and their representatives. Often in irate customer sup calls, I would remind the customer that all calls are being recorded and advise the customer to ”refrain from making any further statements that the company might construe as slanderous and/or defamatory”. Sometimes, saying something that makes me sound like a lawyer from Boston Legal can knock some sense into an irate customer and helps them to quiet down. Sometimes, I just wish I can read the Miranda to an irate customer and tell them that anything they say can and will be used against them in a court of law but I’m pretty sure QA will red flag me for that.

The Customer Service Rep is Your BFF

The best person who can help you with your service is the customer service rep. We are your BFF! If you have issues with your product or service, we are accessible 24/7. We understand your concerns. We empathize with you. We have the tools and the know-how to offer solutions to efficiently resolve your concerns. But we can only help you if you work with us in a calm and professional manner. Yelling at us and calling us whores certainly doesn’t fall under being calm and professional. There’s absolutely no need to yell as we use only top of the line headsets and we hear you quite well. Degrading us degrades you as well. Long story short, being irate certainly will not help resolve your concern. So do yourself this favor: Whenever you pick up that phone to call customer service, remember that we are your best friends and BFFs help each other out. Help us help you. We can understand that you’re upset with your service but please do not take your frustration against your BFF. If you feel you’re too upset to call customer service, try to calm down first before picking up the phone. Cussing and being irate won’t do nobody any good.

Companies have safeguards in place to ensure that customers get excellent support whenever they call customer service. Customers have surveys such as CSAT (Customer Satisfaction) and WTR (Willingness To Recommend) they can use to rate how well they felt customer service took care of them. Today, the buzzword is Customer Experience or CX which takes customer satisfaction to a much higher level. Customers also have social media such as Facebook and Twitter to share feedback about their experience with a company. With all these tools available to them to ensure they get excellent customer service, customers really have no need to be irate and cuss and yell. Call center agents would rather help customers and get kudos for a job well done rather than be forced to release an irate customer without being able to help.

So dear irate customer, there’s really no point getting irate with your customer service rep. We are here to help you so please help us help you. Have a great day!