Printed in Call Centre Europe Magazine Issue 49

ABUSIVE CALLS

Calls from hell...dealing with Mr Angry

Are your agents sometimes terrified about getting a call from hell? Robert Agar-Hutton, of Protectics, explains how such calls can be handled

HAVE you ever watched, I mean really watched, your inbound call centre agents? If you have, you may have noticed that, especially after the lines have been quiet for a few minutes, some of them are just a little bit slow to pick up the next call.

Is it because they are not very happy? Is it because they are worried about answering the call? Is it because they are terrified of getting another call from hell?

Sometimes the telephone is a marvellous means of communication. Sometimes it's an instrument of the devil.

Receiving a call from a person who is abusive and who aims all their anger directly at you can be frustrating, de-motivating and even lead to stress and sickness. For you, it can lead to increased costs, lower performance and reduced profitability.

So what can you do when you are dealing with Mr or Ms Angry?

The old saying "knowledge is power" is very true when dealing with an aggressive or abusive caller. The more your agents know about the reasons why people get angry and the different ways to deal with them, the easier it will be for them to control the situation in a way that empowers both agents and callers.

It's important to remember that people are infinitely varied and infinitely variable. Mr (or Ms) Angry may actually be a very nice person who is just having a really lousy day.

You may be able to make all the difference to them, not simply by what you say -- "Yes, we can send an engineer out right away" or "Yes, I can authorise that refund immediately" -- but by how you say things.

Consider the tone of voice that you use and, more importantly, the genuine and supportive feelings that you have for the caller. Guess what, if you hate your job and don't care about the problems your caller has you WILL get more calls from hell than the person who enjoys their job and wants to help the caller.

So, what causes anger? Almost all anger is caused by:
· Being scared
· Being hurt
· Being ignored

Assume that you have recently bought an expensive washing machine and it suddenly starts to make a horrid grinding noise. You don't know much about mechanical things, so you quickly turn it off and phone the call centre to request a visit from an engineer.

Are you scared? Possibly yes, because you don't understand machines and you are worried that -- if you continue to use it -- the machine might blow up or catch fire.

Are you hurt? What if, when the machine made that noise, you turned it off and opened the door to see all your clothes torn to shreds?

There are several different types of hurt:
· Physical hurt
· Emotional hurt
· Financial hurt

In this example, there is no physical hurt but ruined clothes and a faulty washing machine almost certainly equals financial hurt. Even if the clothes are not damaged, will the engineer be able to come at a convenient time? Or will you have to take time off work and lose money?

While everyone is different, for a large number of people emotional hurt is the really big one.

Most people know that they can earn more money eventually. They know that most physical aches and pains will get better, but just think about someone who hurt you emotionally five or 10 or 20 years ago....

For most people emotional hurt is a difficult problem. So, how does having a faulty washing machine cause emotional hurt? Well, perhaps because the salesperson was a little bit glib, a little bit pushy and you already regretted the purchase. Now it's broken down and you are sure that you have been conned, you are feeling emotionally used and hurt.

Have you been ignored? What if you have been on hold for 20 minutes listening to a recording telling you how important your call is while all the time you know that if they really felt your call was important they wouldn't keep you hanging on and on and on....

So, when the agent answers the call, before they say a word, the call from hell is ready to happen!

What can you do when your agents receive the call from hell? Well, the first thing is to be polite, say hello, ask how you can help and -- if your rules allow it -- give the caller your first name. Giving your name to someone indicates that you are a real human being, not just a faceless person. It also implies that you can take ownership of the problem, that you can help the caller get things sorted out.

The next thing is to try and identify the kind of call. Is the caller friendly, bored, angry or what? The sooner you can determine the caller's actual mood the better.

A caller may sound angry but they may just be being forceful or they may sound pleasant but be furious with huge amounts of anger hiding just beneath the surface...waiting for your agent to say "the wrong thing" for it to well up.

So as well as knowing all about the "job" -- the actual content of the work -- your agents also have to be mind readers, psychologists and counsellors.

Just avoid getting sidetracked by the anger and stay focused on the underlying problem.

Consider these three types of call:

Abusive Too many people get caught up in the emotional roller-coaster of an abusive call. The simplest way to deal with this type of call is to deal with the underlying problem not the abuse. Of course, you probably have the right to terminate the call, but why bother?

Deal with the underlying problem and the abuse (and the abuser) will simply go away.

You don't have to like the abuse, and in some circumstances (particularly if the caller is being a bully), it is correct to challenge the improper behaviour. However, generally it's more efficient to simply ignore it. Think of a toddler having a temper tantrum. You can play the toddler's game and give them the attention they are seeking or ignore them....

Angry Acknowledge the anger, ask what the problem is and ask what the caller wants you to do. Once you have the information then you can decide whether you can comply with the caller's request or if you need to explain an alternate solution to them.

It's OK to tell an angry caller that you can hear that they are angry; it shows that you are paying attention. Just avoid getting sidetracked by the anger and stay focused on the underlying problem.

Tell the caller that you want to help them. You may or may not be actually able to help them, but that doesn't interfere with the fact that you want to help them. People appreciate kindness and most angry people appreciate it a lot.

Unintelligible Be patient, talk in a reassuring tone. The caller may be able to understand you, even if you can't understand them!

Possible causes for a person being unintelligible are:

1 Speech impediment Be patient. If you get a person with a stutter it's tempting to "help" them with words that they are having trouble saying. Avoid the temptation and instead give them the time to find a way to say what they want. If you interfere it draws attention to the problem and makes the person more aware of what they are doing and thus more likely to continue stuttering.

2 Overcome with emotion Be patient. Sometimes what may be a small problem to one person can be the "last straw" to another.

It's not nice to have to listen to a person sobbing with grief because they can't pay the £10 that they owe your company, or someone who is so angry that the washing machine broke down that they are unable to speak coherently.

The best thing that you can do is to be polite and tell them: "It's OK, I can hear that you are having trouble expressing yourself. Take your time, I want to help you".

3 Foreign language (or very strong accent) Get help. Don't waste your time and the caller's by trying to cope with someone who is simply not comprehensible to you. Request help. However a little tip to remember is that even if they do not understand what you are saying (and remember that they may understand what you say even if they can't reply elegantly) they will probably understand your tone of voice.

Your agents should be polite but friendly, and explain what they are going to do: "I'm terribly sorry, but I can't understand what you are saying. Please wait a minute while I get my manager".

So...is knowing what causes anger and how to deal with three types of caller enough to protect you against the call from hell? Well, no, but it's a start.

Your agents are the people ultimately responsible for the quality of call they take. It's up to them to learn to be the best agent there is.

There are training courses and books in the library and in bookshops dealing with the topic of interpersonal communications. Some are very high-brow and aimed at academics and some are designed to be practical and immediately useful. It's up to you to decide how much effort you want to put into improving your agents' ability to deal with the call from hell.