Loading…
12
Unpopular take: letting angry customers vent for 5 minutes made my calls worse, so I cut them off at 30 seconds
I worked the phones at a cell carrier call center in Tempe for 3 years. My trainer swore by the whole let them yell it out thing. Sit quiet, take it, they'll run out of steam.
I did that for almost 2 years. What really happened is people built up steam the longer I stayed quiet. It was like my silence was fuel. One guy went 11 minutes about a $15 overage charge and by the end he was madder than when he started.
So I tried something different. About 6 months in, I started jumping in early, right around the 30 second mark, with a real question. Not sorry you feel that way junk. More like, okay, so the charge hit on the 14th, did you call us that same day or wait a bit? Something they have to actually think about to answer.
Call times went down and my survey scores went UP. Not down, up. Most folks don't want to be mad, they want somebody to grab the wheel. Sitting there like a punching bag just tells them nobody is driving.
My old trainer would hate this. But I'll die on this hill.
1 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In1 Comment
the_kim19d ago
Tempe call center with a $15 overage beef that turned into an 11 minute standup routine, that guy was auditioning for something and you were the only audience. Cutting him off at 30 seconds is basically doing him a favor, nobody actually enjoys hearing themselves loop the same complaint for the ninth time. Your trainer probably still tells that story at orientation like it's gospel, meanwhile your survey scores are the only vote that counts.
4