June 16, 2003
supervisor
“I have a supervisor call.”
That phrase means to me: ‘I have someone on the phone who is pissed off. I’ve failed to calm them. Now they would like the opportunity to yell at you. They will likely tell you how horrible the customer service is, how they’ve been lied to x-number of times, and how they will never buy our product again.’
Imagine, if can, that your job is to talk to the angriest of the angry people all day long. You hang up with one and about 10-15 minutes later (if you’re lucky you get 10-15 minutes between calls) you have to speak to another angry person. What you wind up doing is grasping for “angry” synonyms so that your notes don’t all sound the same. I can’t imagine that this is having good overall long-term effects on me. I can almost feel myself becoming more and more jadded as the days go by.
I rarely see this until I talk to someone who doesn’t work in my field. They tell me about this upset customer they had to deal with and I just kinda smirk. I feel bad that they had to deal with an unpleasant situation, but at the same time — I deal with these situations all day long. Have for a few years. It’s time for a new job.
posted @ 4:32 PM
I do support work for a couple of local ISPs. I don’t get too many angry phone calls. I have noticed that most people who are angry when they call, were probably angry well before they had any problems with their internet connection. Often, angry people are just looking for a place to vent.
This can be a great opportunity to practice patience. But, if it only causes negative emotions in you to arise, then I think time to look for a new job!
I find it helps to remind myself that angry people are trying to convince me to believe their lie, which is “My problem is your problem.” I have enough problems to deal with. I don’t need any more. If someone tries to give me another problem, I politely decline to take ownership of it. That’s not to say that I won’t help them, just that it’s their problem and not mine.
posted by Glenn on June 17, 2003 11:22 AM>This can be a great opportunity to practice patience.
I couldn’t agree more, but I guess I’m not a very good practitioner because I seem to lose my patience frequently. Other things (which I’m not able to talk about) are going on there too, so it’s not all just related to the customers. (Although I feel as if I’m suffering from PTSD).
Thanks for the encouragement and advice. Much appreciated.
posted by Tom on June 18, 2003 07:53 AM
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