Printed in Call Centre Europe Magazine Issue 50

DIFFICULT CALLS

Tricky calls: how your agents can deal with them

Here's some valuable advice for both you and your agents. Robert Agar-Hutton, of Protectics, explains how to handle abusive and awkward calls

THERE are two types of calls that can be particularly difficult for agents to deal with: abusive calls can and do reduce people to tears; awkward calls waste time and may make an agent feel incompetent. So it's important that we have some strategies to help us deal with these callers.

Let's start with abuse and, since I don't want to use bad language, here are my definitions:

· Level 1 words or phrases are the sort of "curses" that you hear on TV before 8pm

· Level 2 comprises those words or phrases that occur later in the evening on TV or in films rated 18.

· Level 3 is when the caller starts to make specific reference to agents and makes specific threats, such as: "I know where you are based and I'm going to come along and sort you out". That's the polite version, but I'm sure you know what I mean.


The caller may get very angry

Different people have different opinions on what is (or is not) abusive and some will get more irritated by a Level 1 conversation than by a Level 3. Why? Because when someone reaches Level 3 the agent has disassociated themselves from the conversation as the other person has "lost it", whereas the Level 1 abuse gets through as the agent is still trying to process the call and deal with the caller's problem.

It doesn't matter about the level of abuse. The first thing to remember is that your staff don't have to take abuse! Nobody has the right to be abusive, and if they are your agents can (generally) terminate the call. However, the problem is that the caller will probably call back and may be even angrier. So what can you do to deal effectively with this type of call? Here is what to tell your agents:
1. Remember it's not "you". The caller doesn't know "you" and isn't angry with "you". The caller is angry with the organisation or product that you represent and angry with the position that you are taking -- for example, the caller wants a refund but company policy is to replace the goods. If you don't have the authority to change company policy, the caller may get angry. If you can't transfer the call to someone with authority, the caller may get VERY angry.

2. It's only words ("sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me"). If I call you stupid and you want to believe that I'm telling you the truth and you want to let it upset you, then that's your right. However it's much better if you realise that all that is happening is that someone is making a judgment based on very poor evidence and their biased opinion.

Try something like: "I'm sorry you're unhappy, but calling me names isn't going to make me want to help you, is it? How about if we are both polite to each other and then I can see what I can do to assist you?"

The questions to the caller are polite, factual, and don't suggest blame. What they do is to suggest that in order to get what they want, the caller will be better off being polite, but it's entirely their decision.

3. Head them off at the pass.... A cliche from old Western movies was to head the bad guys off at the pass, to ambush them.

You can do the same thing. If a caller starts to use abusive language, respond by saying something like: "You know you are right... I'd be calling me names too if I were in your place. But I think you want something more than just to have a go at me, so if you tell me what you actually want, then I'll see if I can help."

To do this requires a degree of finesse and timing and it may not always work, but sometimes it will make the caller stop and think about the issues rather than the personalities and that, of course, is what is really important.

….one thing that took me over the edge

4. If you can do it, the easiest thing to do, is to completely ignore Level 1 and Level 2 abuse. Just let it go in one ear and out of the other, or imagine a gun shooting the words out of the air before they reach you. Simply focus on the issue at hand and address your response completely to the issue.

The caller might say: "You Xing X why the X don't you Xing people ever get it Xing right?! I ordered a Xing green widget and you Xs have sent me a Xing blue one!"

You simply respond: "Oh, I see you would like a blue one. I can arrange to have the green one picked up and the blue one can be with you on Wednesday. Is that all right?"
Most times if you ignore the abuse and deal with the underlying problem, the abuse will evaporate.

5. There may be circumstances where the person calling oversteps reasonable boundaries and starts using Level 3 abuse (personally threatening) in a way that makes you genuinely fearful.

Maybe the caller does know where you are and could come and "sort you out". You need to make a judgment call and, if necessary, escalate the call and inform management of the threat. Remember that your employer has a legal duty to protect you from any reasonably foreseeable risk.

One of the things people fail to remember is that all people are not alike. After your 20th abusive call of the day, all people seem the same. They are not; they are all unique and need to be treated as such. Listening and communication skills are always important and especially so towards the end of the shift when you may be feeling weary.

Some abusive people are just trying to bully you; some are just being rude; some are being simply themselves -- that's how they normally talk -- and; finally, some abusive people are very very nice people who have simply snapped!

I've had days that I'm proud of where despite all sorts of "bother" I've remained calm and friendly. But I've also had days where I've "lost it" and some poor person has been on the receiving end of a day's worth of "bother" simply because they said one little thing that took me over the edge.

I bet it's happened to you, and I guarantee it's happened to some of your callers. If, even in trying circumstances, you can remain polite and friendly towards verbally abusive people you may be doing far more good that you can ever imagine.

Now, what about awkward calls? My chart shows some types of awkward call and suggestions for handling them.

The basic way of dealing with an awkward call is simple -- just be completely honest with the caller. (This, of course, should happen anyway.)

Of course, if someone is unpleasantly personal then you can classify that as a Level 3 abuse call and decide that you want to terminate it. Also it's worth remembering that in the overly personal category there may be a bias towards the agent being female and the offending caller being male, but it's not necessarily the case.

Clearly there are other types of awkward call and, as always, what is awkward for one agent will be simple for another and a complete nightmare for someone else.

One of the issues that I come up against time and again is the simple fact that we are all human beings and as such have good days and bad days. Try to notice what you do on a good day to stop a small problem becoming a large problem and then when you are having a bad day you can make sure that you do the things you already know so as to maximise your chances of dealing with difficult calls easily.

Another important point to remember is that almost everyone you speak to is actually a nice person.
Imagine a really friendly person, trapped inside a horrid monster and struggling to get out. If you help them to get out (by doing all the right things, like being polite and calm and responsive and friendly and animated and interested and helpful and intelligent and perceptive and...) you will be delighted at the response you get from people. And you will find that caller after caller after caller are lovely people who you are having a great time talking to.