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On the other hand, a hairdresser can usually fire their customer if they're creepy - at least in my country, they're independent workers. A tech support worker

On the other hand, a hairdresser can usually fire their customer if they're creepy - at least in my country, they're independent workers. A tech support worker can't.

toyg 11y ago
Have you ever worked in generalist tech support? One of the first things you learn is how to draw a line when the situation is beyond mutual respect, because nothing good can happen there and you have already lost. A lot of people like to blow off steam by abusing a random voice on the phone, so you are entitled to quickly apologize and cut them off. Same applies (or should apply, in respectable support shops) in other situations the support worker would deem socially unacceptable. So yeah, you can fire the customer, your mental health comes first. Btw, the most depressing call I've ever had was with this guy I had helped for weeks, solving his "enterprise" problems. At the time I worked with a female colleague, and we would share customers and tickets. Eventually she left, so when I broke the news to this guy, he went "oh, i'm sorry to hear that. To be honest, I preferred her; I always prefer ladies on the phone". That was humiliating beyond belief. When I told her a few years later (since we kept in touch), she was absolutely flattered. Because sexism is not that bad when it benefits you, so to speak.
- vertex-four 11y ago
  > So yeah, you can fire the customer You absolutely cannot ban a customer from your service 99.9% of the time as front-level support. You often can't even put the phone down except in certain pre-defined situations which are decided on without actually communicating with front-line support, never mind groups which might have specific issues within your front-line support team. Harassment is expected and you're expected to deal with it, whether gender-based or not. The best you can do is try to deflect them, as you say, and let them do exactly the same thing next time. If there were actually consequences to harassing people, few would do it - but as it is, in many cases, from small companies to large ones, retaining the customer is more important than your employees.
  - toyg 11y ago
    > You absolutely cannot ban a customer from your service I guess that depends on the shop and the respect it grants its workers. In my case, at one company we would keep files about offenders and would report them to their managers, who would usually put someone else in charge of communicating with us. At another company we were simply told to cut them off, because tech support fees do not pay for abuse, end of story. In most cases, any tech support contract worth at least four digits will involve too many people to be cut simply because of an individual hothead here or there, and in any case the wear this sort of bad customers put on your people is not worth whatever money is coming in. Managers who don't understand this are not doing tech support, they are running a sweatshop and they should feel bad, and I am sorry if you met anyone like that.

On the other hand, a hairdresser can usually fire their customer if they're creepy - at least in my country, they're independent workers. A tech support worker can't.

toyg 11y ago

Have you ever worked in generalist tech support? One of the first things you learn is how to draw a line when the situation is beyond mutual respect, because nothing good can happen there and you have already lost. A lot of people like to blow off steam by abusing a random voice on the phone, so you are entitled to quickly apologize and cut them off. Same applies (or should apply, in respectable support shops) in other situations the support worker would deem socially unacceptable. So yeah, you can fire the customer, your mental health comes first. Btw, the most depressing call I've ever had was with this guy I had helped for weeks, solving his "enterprise" problems. At the time I worked with a female colleague, and we would share customers and tickets. Eventually she left, so when I broke the news to this guy, he went "oh, i'm sorry to hear that. To be honest, I preferred her; I always prefer ladies on the phone". That was humiliating beyond belief. When I told her a few years later (since we kept in touch), she was absolutely flattered. Because sexism is not that bad when it benefits you, so to speak.

vertex-four 11y ago
> So yeah, you can fire the customer You absolutely cannot ban a customer from your service 99.9% of the time as front-level support. You often can't even put the phone down except in certain pre-defined situations which are decided on without actually communicating with front-line support, never mind groups which might have specific issues within your front-line support team. Harassment is expected and you're expected to deal with it, whether gender-based or not. The best you can do is try to deflect them, as you say, and let them do exactly the same thing next time. If there were actually consequences to harassing people, few would do it - but as it is, in many cases, from small companies to large ones, retaining the customer is more important than your employees.
- toyg 11y ago
  > You absolutely cannot ban a customer from your service I guess that depends on the shop and the respect it grants its workers. In my case, at one company we would keep files about offenders and would report them to their managers, who would usually put someone else in charge of communicating with us. At another company we were simply told to cut them off, because tech support fees do not pay for abuse, end of story. In most cases, any tech support contract worth at least four digits will involve too many people to be cut simply because of an individual hothead here or there, and in any case the wear this sort of bad customers put on your people is not worth whatever money is coming in. Managers who don't understand this are not doing tech support, they are running a sweatshop and they should feel bad, and I am sorry if you met anyone like that.