When Disgruntled Contact Center Agents Strike Back

2

Rate this Article: (4.4 Stars | 15 Votes)   Thanks for your rating!

Imagine a world in which customer service agents spoke their mind on every call. What if, instead of always trying to soothe angry and abusive customers with forced empathy, agents voiced how they really felt?

How interesting it would be if such scripted statements as “I understand your frustration” were replaced with such authentic ones as “It’s probably just karma.” How exciting things would get if, in place of “I’m going to do everything I can to rectify this problem,” agents instead said, “I make $7.50/hour, sit in a cubicle the size of a gym locker, and have worked the last 17 weekends in a row – go ahead, Mr. Johnson at 105 Elm St., I dare you to scream at me again.”

True, customer satisfaction and loyalty would likely take a vicious dip, but so would agent turnover. Several studies haves indicated that contact center employees who are encouraged to freely express themselves at work are more productive, more engaged and less likely to burn customers in effigy while chanting passages from the Tibetan Book of the Dead.

Think about it, most of your agents currently do the “right” thing by offering empathy and understanding to irate callers, only to be berated and lambasted by the customer anyway. The end result? High employee burnout/attrition in addition to the already existent low customer satisfaction. By empowering agents to fire back at furious callers, you at least win one of the two battles.   

And just think of the entertainment value for those in your contact center who are tasked with evaluating calls for quality purposes. QA staff would get plenty of healthy, stress-reducing comic relief while listening to customer-agent interactions such as the one featured below:

Agent: Thank you for calling Narcissist Fitness Customer Care. My name doesn’t matter. How can I help you?

Caller: I’ve called you stupid people twice already asking you to cancel my membership. Why are you still charging my credit card!?

Agent: Could you please yell a bit louder, sir? That way the folks in Membership will hear you directly and I won’t have to go through the trouble of processing your request.

Caller: Are you getting smart with me?

Agent: Oh, no sir. I couldn’t even if I wanted to. You were right before  – we’re all quite stupid here.

Caller: I want to speak to your supervisor this instant!

Agent: No you don’t – he’s even dumber than I am.

Caller: Listen, cancel my membership once and for all! And stop sending me your annoying monthly fitness newsletter – it’s paper-wasters like you who are destroying all the forests.

Agent: Oh good, you’re concerned about the environment. In that case, you really shouldn’t cancel your membership. You wouldn’t believe all the paperwork involved.

Caller: I can’t believe this! I’ve never been treated like this in all my life!

Agent: Thanks. We’ve been getting a LOT of attention for our customer service lately.

Contributor:   Greg Levin

Greg Levin, Principal and Founder of OFF CENTER, LLC., is one of the most unique and refreshing voices in the customer care industry. He has been researching, reporting on and satirizing contact centers and customer care since 1994 – first with ICM, a leading consulting and training firm, and now as an independent rabble rouser. Greg is known for his sharp wit, bold opinions and penchant for challenging the status quo; nevertheless, he is still usually allowed back to industry events.

Greg offers a wide range of valuable and compelling resources – all aimed at educating, empowering and entertaining contact center professionals worldwide. Most notable is his popular weekly Off Center blog and his much-anticipated ebook, Full Contact: Contact Center Practices and Strategies that Make an Impact, which is due out later this month (October 2010).

To learn more about Greg and what he brings to the table, go to: www.greglevin.com

You Should Check Out:

Working Smarter Not Harder for Process Excellence in the Call Center

How Zappos' 10 Core Values, 21 Skill Sets Engaged Contact Center Employees, Raised Customer Loyalty

Jungle Themes and the Science of Happiness at Zappos

Zappos' Call Center 'Beautiful Chaos,' Self-Review Program

The Business Case for IVRs and Automated Speech Recognition

Report Abuse   mikegm 02/20/2012 1:52:39 PM EST I read this article waiting for the other shoe to drop and for you to explain why no, it's not a good idea for customer service agents to say what they really feel. I was sure that it was all tongue in cheek; if this is the case, perhaps you should clarify that at the end of the article? Otherwise, if you really do advocate letting the customer's have it now and then for the benefit of increased agent satisfaction and lower turnover...think about the number of customer referrals that have been lost from that one customer who you just told to "get over it" or the amount of negative word-of-mouth. In that case, the turnover is an acceptable part of the business. This sounds bad, but customer service agents can be replaced a lot more easily than the business that is forever lost from several, a dozen, or hundreds of customers who had a good going over by the agent or heard from their friends and families the stories of sarcastic customer service. Replies (0) Post a reply Sign in or Sign up to post a comment

Report Abuse   sswift 02/16/2012 10:03:20 AM EST Well done Greg. Let's simply call it like it is, our people have a tough job, we know it and we appreciate them! Have fun or give up, throw all ethics aside and join Sony BMG. Replies (1)   Report Abuse   glevin 02/17/2012 6:29:28 PM EST Thanks -- for reading AND for "getting it". We're never gonna survive without a little contact center comic relief. Best, GL Post a reply Sign in or Sign up to post a comment