Belligerent customers

What is your policy (not company) on dealing with belligerent customers?

I have personally have a 3 strike rule. I'm calm and nice until they continue cursing and yelling at me. Most make it to strike 2 before I fix the issue. I just had a strike 3.

What is strike 3? It's a hang up and a ticket canceled.

No one deserves to be yelled at.

Whats your guys view on this?

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Comments

TechJunky

I dont deal with it period. I tell them to calm down or I am hanging up. I will not support someone who does not talk to me like a human being, no matter how much they are paying. If you dont like it hire someone else or have someone else do the job.

tony0101

I agree. Do not put up with disrespectful behavior unless you have a real good incentive for doing so. I like your "3 strikes rule" also. If they give you too much hassle, ask your superior to take the call if possible.

Smallguy

when I worked the phnoes it would depend on my day....lol

no it seriously does most of the time I give thme 1 or 2 warning but if they're a real prick I just hang up.

I once had a call back to do when I did tier 2 supprot and the lady started yelling from the second I said hi so I hung up and caleld her back a few days later.

She was a completly different person on the 2nd call

bmauro

Luckily I don't have to deal with situations like that - but if a co-worker is having a bad day and decides to direct some of that towards me - I tell them flat out that I will not work with them until they calm down.

One of my pet peeves is unloading on someone when you're having a bad day.

Now, if it's my fault thats a different story....... :P

Just joking - it's never my fault

Orion82698

LOL...

Glad to see I'm not the only one..

The sad thing is, I'm tier 3 support. So, by the time it gets to us, they've already talked to the help desk, ran some things and passed it to a level 2. If they cannot figure it out, it comes to us. So, I can understand the customer being upset having to do the same thing over and over again...

Ofcourse, I don't trust what some of the other guys did, so I walk them through some of the thing again. A lot times, it works. This one I had today started screaming at me telling me.. "I'm not doing this again.."

Urgghhh...

"This job would be great, if it wasn't for the customers"

-Office Space

Smallguy

orion82698 wrote:

Ofcourse, I don't trust what some of the other guys did, so I walk them through some of the thing again. A lot times, it works. This one I had today started screaming at me telling me.. "I'm not doing this again.."

yeah we only went as high as tier 2 but I would say in over 50% of the cases I dealt with the notes said they had removed the firewall or disabled it but they have never tried it

and the best part is alot of time customers even said I just installed this firewall and can't get my email now....and the tier 1 guy or gal would ignore it

if customrs refused to try valid steps I'd eventualyl just tell em we were done supporting them till they we're willing to co-operate.

I'm so hapy those days are done.

Orion82698

Smallguy wrote:

orion82698 wrote:

Ofcourse, I don't trust what some of the other guys did, so I walk them through some of the thing again. A lot times, it works. This one I had today started screaming at me telling me.. "I'm not doing this again.."

yeah we only went as high as tier 2 but I would say in over 50% of the cases I dealt with the notes said they had removed the firewall or disabled it but they have never tried it

and the best part is alot of time customers even said I just installed this firewall and can't get my email now....and the tier 1 guy or gal would ignore it

if customrs refused to try valid steps I'd eventualyl just tell em we were done supporting them till they we're willing to co-operate.

I'm so hapy those days are done.

Yeah, I feel ya. I cannot wait until get off this support thing. I'm gunning for a position where all I do is stand up servers and support just those. It's a smaller contract than the one I'm on now, but I'll get to do much more, just with less crap

Smallguy

orion82698 wrote:

Smallguy wrote:

orion82698 wrote:

Ofcourse, I don't trust what some of the other guys did, so I walk them through some of the thing again. A lot times, it works. This one I had today started screaming at me telling me.. "I'm not doing this again.."

yeah we only went as high as tier 2 but I would say in over 50% of the cases I dealt with the notes said they had removed the firewall or disabled it but they have never tried it

and the best part is alot of time customers even said I just installed this firewall and can't get my email now....and the tier 1 guy or gal would ignore it

if customrs refused to try valid steps I'd eventualyl just tell em we were done supporting them till they we're willing to co-operate.

I'm so hapy those days are done.

Yeah, I feel ya. I cannot wait until get off this support thing. I'm gunning for a position where all I do is stand up servers and support just those. It's a smaller contract than the one I'm on now, but I'll get to do much more, just with less crap

yeah cleaning up other people's messes jsut got to me so I quit went back ot school and got me an admin job.... it's a small company and I do it all except programming but it's a million times better than cleaning up after others

TechJunky

I agree with smallguy. Support was a good stepping stone, but I got out of it as soon as I got into it.

I rather deal with employees rather than customers.

Slowhand

Having worked retail for most of my adult life, up until I took a helpdesk job, I learned the Art of No. You do everything you can to help a client/customer, up until that person becomes abusive, unreasonable, or downright rude. If a client is frustrated, that's one thing, and you try to help them in any way you can. If someone calls you and makes derogatory comments, swears at you, or threatens legal action if you don't help them, that's the time to let them know you can't help them, and hang up the phone. In a lot of cases, though, there are some steps I take.

If a customer makes rude comments to me, such as calling me an idiot or assumes that I'm not actually trying to help them, I say "I'm sorry, but I can't help you right now. I'm doing everything I can to assist you, but abusive and derogatory behavior isn't going to help this situation. I'll be more than happy to help you without the disparaging remarks."

If someone threatens legal action, it's time to end the call. I tell them, "Calling your lawyer is your perogative, please have him/her contact our legal department. Have a nice day." Then I hang up the phone. It may seem rude, but once someone threatens you with a lawyer, they've put you in a position where you can incriminate yourself by speaking to them, and no further interaction with that customer is recommended.

If a client starts demanding free services or anything for free that shouldn't be, the answer is always "no". You don't need to explain why you won't give them something other people are paying for, nor should you attempt to. "No" is enough, don't back down from it.

And lastly, if a client or customer threatens with the old "then I'll take my business elsewhere", I respond, as politely as possible, "I'm sorry to hear that, I hope you find the service you need with your new provider." I don't hang up, but I leave them hanging. Chances are, the threat is empty, and they really don't have any more demands to make to me unless they're planning on having their bluff called.

I tend to follow these rules for myself, as long as I'm honestly trying to help the client to the best of my ability. If I was slacking or if I was rude, then the client has every right to be upset, (to a degree). However, as most of us can attest to, a lot of times people feel that they have a right to act however they want when things aren't going their way. Help them as best you can, do your job to the best of your ability, but don't stand for abuse and don't let yourself be taken advantage of.

JDMurray

When faced with strong emotion or abuse, I always continue to render support as if the customer is not saying or doing anything unusual. I simply do not acknowledge bad behavior or get suckered into reacting badly. Unable to provoke me, the abusive customer eventually either calms downs, asks for someone else, or ends the communication. If I loose my cool, I feel that they and their bad attitude have won, and I don't want that to happen.

People realize when they are being jerks and when the person they are talking to is not. If a jerk causes you to do anything to stop rendering good customer support, then the "jerks" have won.

Plantwiz

jdmurray wrote:

When faced with strong emotion or abuse, I always continue to render support as if the customer is not saying or doing anything unusual. I simply do not acknowledge bad behavior or get suckered into reacting badly. Unable to provoke me, the abusive customer eventually either calms downs, asks for someone else, or ends the communication. If I loose my cool, I feel that they and their bad attitude have won, and I don't want that to happen.

People realize when they are being jerks and when the person they are talking to is not. If a jerk causes you to do anything to stop rendering good customer support, then the "jerks" have won.

Perfect!

RATTLERMAN

You have to develop a thick skin when you do anything dealing with people.

You just have to develop a few techniques to get them off the phone .

Jedi mind tricks work for me

Orion82698

jdmurray wrote:

When faced with strong emotion or abuse, I always continue to render support as if the customer is not saying or doing anything unusual. I simply do not acknowledge bad behavior or get suckered into reacting badly. Unable to provoke me, the abusive customer eventually either calms downs, asks for someone else, or ends the communication. If I loose my cool, I feel that they and their bad attitude have won, and I don't want that to happen.

People realize when they are being jerks and when the person they are talking to is not. If a jerk causes you to do anything to stop rendering good customer support, then the "jerks" have won.

That's a good point. Kill'em with kindness.

It's so hard though... sometimes... you just want to punch them through the phone

JDMurray

orion82698 wrote:

That's a good point. Kill'em with kindness.

It's so hard though... sometimes... you just want to punch them through the phone

This is very true. I just happen to have a personality that can easily ignore strong emotions. It's a defensive reaction that keeps me from getting easily pulled into strong, emotional situations. However, there are times when I just don't want to expend the amount of energy required to deal with those situations. The detached interface of email is a blessing in these cases; the hold button on the phone is another. In person, unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to get away, and would be forced to stand there and stare at the customer while they finished their rant.

Orion82698

jdmurray wrote:

orion82698 wrote:

That's a good point. Kill'em with kindness.

It's so hard though... sometimes... you just want to punch them through the phone

This is very true. I just happen to have a personality that can easily ignore strong emotions. It's a defensive reaction that keeps me from getting easily pulled into strong, emotional situations. However, there are times when I just don't want to expend the amount of energy required to deal with those situations. The detached interface of email is a blessing in these cases; the hold button on the phone is another. In person, unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to get away, and would be forced to stand there and stare at the customer while they finished their rant.

The problem that I normally have is, the customer most of the time thinks they're on hold, most of the time I just put them on mute. Now, this is when the bashing starts. Insulting me and the service we provide.

"This dumb tech. They don't know what they're doing"

I then picked the phone back up and said, "This dumb tech just fixed your issue, please test".

She got really quiet, then said... "Oh you fixed it... what was wrong" What a sweet tone she had after that

Ricka182

I do whatever it takes to make them shutup, even if they realize I'm making them look very stoopid and unprofessional. I suppose if I got a strike 3, I would just hang-up, and call my, and their supervisor....luckily, I don't deal with customers at my new job, but the good ol' enduser isn't any better.....

blargoe

I refer them to my manager before it escalates to that point.

Worst case I've ever heard of. A tech where I used to work got in a hostile situation at one of our branch offices and a user threatened to do bodily harm and had the nerve to call the president of the company to demand to have the tech fired because the tech stood up to him when he tried to intimidate him.