Call-Center Workers Far More Patient Than Callers: Study

The next time you find calling technical support to be a brutally frustrating experience, just be glad you're not on the other end of the line.

A new study conducted by University of Maryland researchers and published in The Academy of Management Journal found that call-center workers are routinely harangued and insulted by those of us experiencing technical difficulties, yet they retaliate against us far less frequently than one might imagine.

Mo Wang, an organizational psychologist and one of the study's authors, says the popular notion of call-center workers being unhelpful and even rude turns out to be largely mistaken. Instead, nearly a quarter of the callers looking for assistance end up mistreating their tech-support assistant in some fashion. For their part, tech-support workers deploy the sabotage tactics at their disposal -- dropping the call, putting the caller on an interminable hold or sending the caller down a rabbit hole of endless call transfers -- in fewer than one percent of cases.

The workers may not be "candidates for sainthood," Wang says, but they "deserve a lot of credit" for their patience.

Wang and his colleagues collected data from 131 China-based call-center workers handling customers who had problems with their cell phones. Each day for ten days they filled out anonymous questionnaires asking them to detail their experiences. Because so many of the calls dealt with network and service problems, a lot of the callers were already miffed before they even dialed.

Although they fielded about 75 calls a day, the workers retaliated against callers on average only about four times each over the course of 10 days. Wang notes that because the presence of supervisors prevents workers from swearing or yelling at callers, the forms of sabotage were usually subtle and passive-aggressive. (One option on the questionnaire was "told a customer you fixed something but didn’t fix it.") In most cases, the primary aim was not to ruin the caller's day but to simply be rid of the complaint.

The lesson for callers, Wang says, is "just be nice. Treat the call-center employees right." And if you do suspect you've been hung up on or otherwise messed with, it's not necessarily because you were out of line. The study found many acts of call-worker retaliation came in response to cumulative insults over the course of a bad day. "When it reaches a certain level, they just snap," says Wang.

Comments

[kasnova]

02:42 PM on 04/28/2011

This completely ignores the abuse callers receive before they even reach the employee. It's not good to yell at employees, but companies also need to realize that putting people on hold for hours is going to have an effect.

When I was having issues with my internet connection one time, I was forced to wait for over 40 minutes each time on at least 5 different calls. The hold music was interrupted every 30 seconds by an inane ad trying to sell me on the service I already had, but wasn't working. I couldn't even focus entirely on another task while I waited because I had to make sure the talking wasn't finally a real person. After an experience like that, I was ready to yell at anyone I could working for that company, whether they deserved it or not.

[dc2nm]

12:51 PM on 04/28/2011

The abuse of call center workers could be diminished by their management if they would fix their annoying automated call systems. I know that, personally, I am much less annoyed if I get a representative immediately without going through a long automated phone process. But, of course, these companies don't care much about customer service (either for their workers or for their customers). It is all about the bottom line.

[itolduso]

12:46 PM on 04/28/2011

At my local grocery store...the butcher will slice my roast and rewrap it into smaller seperate packages so that half can go into the freezer (no extra charge)....THAT'S customer service. The one bagging my groceries will help push the cart out to my car and load them for me (no extra charge) THAT'S customer service. At a local appliance store....when I purchased my new television, they offered free delivery & set-up - the technician even hooking up the vcr & dvd & stereo system and staying long enough to explain how everything worked on the new remote...THAT'S customer service.......answering a telephone in a place far removed from the company that actually sold the product, and failing to resolve issues or solve problems with the product, and refusing to offer any other recourse....THAT'S NOT customer service..that's simply an abdication of responsibility.

[GuyWinch]

10:23 AM on 04/28/2011

Given the amount of verbal abuse call center representatives have to absorb (the numbers are equally high here in the USA), we would elicit far more good will and helpfulness from them if we approached them with kindness and civility.
Given their inability to respond to customer hostility--from a psychological point of view, what they deal with on a regular basis should be considered a form of bullying: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-squeaky-wheel/201103/the-last-bullying-frontier
Guy Winch Ph.D.

[Treasonous1]

06:40 AM on 04/28/2011

"Thank you for calling our customer sevice line. All of our reps are currently busy, but one will be along shortly to tell you to F off in the most polite way possible."

That has unfortunately been my experiance in 95% of the cases. They are always extremly polite but equally as unhelpful if you have anything but the most basic of questions. As the article states:

'One option on the questionnaire was "told a customer you fixed something but didn’t fix it.") In most cases, the primary aim was not to ruin the caller's day but to simply be rid of the complaint.'

But in my experiance that is not because I was rude first, or that they become rude, but simply because that is the job they are being paid for! Its less about solving your compliant and more of insulating the company from ever having to adreess it in the first place. It may not be the poor reps fault, but if that is their purpose, they should expect me to get frustrated eventually...

[Sunny California]

02:46 AM on 04/28/2011

I've rarely had to use a call center, because I am not incompetent. The problem is customers who think they are gods gift. Hey if you were as smart as you think you are, you would not be calling for help.

[Sunny California]

02:43 AM on 04/28/2011

Most people who are rude over the phone are cowards anyway. Trying saying that to someone's face. Oh you don't want to cuss out the 200lb bank teller who is built like a tank? Hmm I wonder why??? If you consider yourself a nice person, but have no problem being rude to a waiter, CSR, or cashier, than you are not a nice person. It's simple.

[PuSencer]

11:30 PM on 04/27/2011

unfortunately for the call center workers, they are at the end of a 5-7 minute gauntlet of phone tree questions that are so infuriating and repetitive that it increases the tension of the caller inherently.

[ScentOpine]

09:26 PM on 04/27/2011

Note to call centers in Asia - engaging us in idle banter about the Yankees or Cowboys in a patronizing attempt to improve your street cred, only helps raise our blood pressure.

Having said that, if you were to assert the cowboys and/or yankees and/or tea baggers can go dig a hole, well then, now we are taking care of business, global style.

[MSMSucksCom]

07:52 PM on 04/27/2011

The study says: "For their part, tech-support workers deploy the sabotage tactics at their disposal -- dropping the call, putting the caller on an interminable hold or sending the caller down a rabbit hole of endless call transfers -- in fewer than one percent of cases."

That's a huge number of customer service representatives being guilty of abuse. While saying "one percent" sounds small, assume there's weekly 1 billion calls worldwide to customer service centers, for billing issues, tech support or whatever. That means 10 million callers every week are victims of CSRs' dirty tricks to get rid of the caller.

American business is sorely mistaken (and this study flawed) if they think annually abusing 520 million customers is acceptable business practice.

Note: If you don't accept my assumed numbers, abusing even 50 million customers annually is unacceptable, or 5 million.

[CPA 4 Life]

10:26 PM on 04/27/2011

And yet HP is making a bigger deal about a 12 sigma event (BP oil spill).

[Kenny Wolf]

07:49 PM on 04/27/2011

I'm an American who worked as a call center support technician, supporting network software for 5 years before my job was outsourced. I understand what creates the animosity towards the support techs. Companies today sell desktop computers without supplying the necessary support manuals in the box. The fact that the manuals are no longer provided standard with the purchase of a new computer is beyond comprehension (sure you can get the manuals on the internet but you need to be connected to the internet first). Computers are not toaster ovens (which I believe still come with instruction manuals).

Having few options when the smallest of problems occurs the American consumer is forced to call tech support in India or some other country and here is where things go from bad to worse. Support centers outside of the U.S. can not supply quality support, largely due to the subtlety of the English language and the technical inadequacies of the tech support personnel.

The easiest of problems becomes 20 minutes of answer-less frustration due to the unfamiliarity of the support person with his own product, combined with how the American caller describes the problem. If the question is more technical in nature these support techs are near helpless. Today's American business model goes to obscene lengths to put the dollar first and then gives us back as little as possible, while selling out the American people. They took our jobs and exported them along with the quality of tech support.

[Hans Wurst]

07:31 PM on 04/27/2011

Remember, there is a human being with feelings at the other end of the line.

[ampdem]

07:21 PM on 04/27/2011

A call center environment is highly stressful. There is a high turnaround in staff and a lot of various pressure from management, low wages and poor treatment of workers by management this creates a pass the buck mentality. I worked in this kind of environment (in the US) and (no pun intended) did snap, so I can relate. I place the majority of blame on the Corporations for their tolerating and in many cases encouraging management to berate employees and I can imagine that more of the same occurs abroad. Corporations are not being held accountable on so many levels at this point, that it is hard to know where to begin.

[Conservador-Rebelde]

07:20 PM on 04/27/2011

I get frustrated enough working in customer service, (where a far lower percentage of calls are the super angry ones.) When I pick up the phone and the person on the line is already plssy, I "shut-down" in a sense, where I am far less willing to help them as much as someone who is polite. When they don't get what they want and ask for a supervisor, I put them on hold while I track down a supervisor and explain the situation. We then look at options together before I send the call away. The funny thing is that our customer service department is for our local store only, so us "regular" associates will give virtually the same options to the customers as the supervisors.

As far as the "retaliation" goes, I won't ever hang up on someone, but if they start cussing me out, I ask them to stop swearing, and just wait until they either calm down or hang up. If they hang up, I put notes with their information so the next time they call, the associate will see what happened prior.

[NyJimbo]

07:14 PM on 04/27/2011

Call center problems were never a major issue until they started going overseas and became a torture for Americans to use.

As part of my business, I have to call into "tech support" in several overseas locations every day and its horrible. Today alone I had to talk to someone who treated me like a child even though I have decades more experience than they do, because he was reading off a script. Later I spoke to a woman named "April" who couldn't pronounce half the words she was trying to read. She even asked me what "CeeeTie" I lived in when getting my shipping info.