ADHOCC

Action and Defence against Harassers Of Call Centres / Centers

Below you will find a link leading you to an online forum to guage interest "out there" in the issues of stress call centre operators experience when dealing with rude clientele. Feel free to add:

• your experiences
• offer suggestions / solutions
• just give your thoughts on the matter.

The Issue: Some call center clients / customers harass call centre operators, knowing they cannot be called to account for their behaviour - unlike the call center staff. They hammer away relentlessly, venting their anger or frustration on the hapless operator.

While call centre managers sometimes have policies allowing staff to hang up if they are being abused, often the callers will be simply rude, arrogant, aggressive, belittling, timewasting - but not abusive - so the operator cannot justify hanging up to Management.

But client aggression - even without personal abuse - can be as damaging as abuse. An occasional bad call is easily brushed off. Regular "problem callers" coupled with intense workloads are an OH&S hazard for call centre staff. Some problems I've seen are:

•   False accusations of poor service (revenge & power tripping)
•   Aggression (including groans, sighs and other non-verbal cues)
•   Snideness, rudeness, arrogance, subtle put-downs
•   Refusal to allow termination of the call even after all information has been exchanged

Do you think the Powers-That-Be should put more thought into protecting call centre staff from those who abuse their position of comparative power? Do you have some ideas to solve the problem? Have your say!

Note: You will see some ads on the forum page because that's what happens when you use a free forum service.

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