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> Americans really, really love to abuse the shit out of customer service workers. That wasn't my experience when I worked in customer service for a few years.

> Americans really, really love to abuse the shit out of customer service workers. That wasn't my experience when I worked in customer service for a few years. Maybe 10% of people were like that and it was always because they were tired of not getting solutions to their problems, and that was always because their account fell into a bad spot in the customer service flow policy (suspicious activity, low LTV, fraud, etc.). It was really hard to take any of that personally. I'd argue it's more like the corporate powers that be often have unforgiving policies and account review practices sending people to the moon with anger.

watwut 3y ago
10% of people being like that sounds like a lot to me.
TeMPOraL 3y ago
> low LTV I think I see where the problem is on the corporate side. Sucks to be in customer support. The job really seems to be a buffer between abusive company policies and the angry customers.
lo_zamoyski 3y ago
> It was really hard to take any of that personally. Indeed. When companies abuse their customers, customer service is not only the only way by which a problem can even hope to be resolved, but it is the job of customer service to do so. They are representatives of their companies, the interface between the customer and the service their company offers. Now, I don't sanction abuse, of course, and pulling guns on people is insane, but that's not what you have in mind here, and knowing how tortured and stretched the definition of "abuse" some people have is, I will say you do sometimes need to be somewhat aggressive and push to escalate your problem to get the customer service rep. to transition on their script's finite state machine to a helpful state and outcome. In those cases, don't blame the customer. Blame the corporation. Corporations often like to drag their feet to maximize profit with all sorts of ridiculous and unsavory tactics. It's like being automatically enrolled in something by default and burdening the customer with unsubscribing; on average you can steal at least a little money from those who don't unsubscribe, or do so only after a couple months have passed. The time and burden of doing so (a form of theft), and the lack of genuine consent (Pacta sunt servanda, buddy!), doesn't seem to be accounted for.
coldtea 3y ago
>Maybe 10% of people were like that That's 1-2 a day minimum!
rsynnott 3y ago
10% customers being abusive seems _extremely_ high.

watwut 3y ago

10% of people being like that sounds like a lot to me.

TeMPOraL 3y ago

> low LTV I think I see where the problem is on the corporate side. Sucks to be in customer support. The job really seems to be a buffer between abusive company policies and the angry customers.

lo_zamoyski 3y ago

> It was really hard to take any of that personally. Indeed. When companies abuse their customers, customer service is not only the only way by which a problem can even hope to be resolved, but it is the job of customer service to do so. They are representatives of their companies, the interface between the customer and the service their company offers. Now, I don't sanction abuse, of course, and pulling guns on people is insane, but that's not what you have in mind here, and knowing how tortured and stretched the definition of "abuse" some people have is, I will say you do sometimes need to be somewhat aggressive and push to escalate your problem to get the customer service rep. to transition on their script's finite state machine to a helpful state and outcome. In those cases, don't blame the customer. Blame the corporation. Corporations often like to drag their feet to maximize profit with all sorts of ridiculous and unsavory tactics. It's like being automatically enrolled in something by default and burdening the customer with unsubscribing; on average you can steal at least a little money from those who don't unsubscribe, or do so only after a couple months have passed. The time and burden of doing so (a form of theft), and the lack of genuine consent (Pacta sunt servanda, buddy!), doesn't seem to be accounted for.

coldtea 3y ago

>Maybe 10% of people were like that That's 1-2 a day minimum!

rsynnott 3y ago

10% customers being abusive seems _extremely_ high.