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AKQA NY thoughts?
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If you want an easy way to not hang up, just keep repeating "unfortunately Representatives are not able to assist with ____" or "please keep the conversation professional"
Also, is there any process if they are being verbally abusive to put them on hold and grab a manager without them asking? If not, that's ridiculous. I know with my company if they are being abusive reps can place on hold without their consent and grab a manager to takeover the call.
I worked with a company once where I accidentally hung up and ended the call. It ended my career too. I tried to explain myself and they let me hear the recording of the call. I tried to explain to them that it is very obvious from the call that the conversation between me and the customer is very light and friendly so I have no reason to hung up the phone on him. But they just want me out.
I also used to work somewhere where hanging up was grounds for immediate termination. However, I think the rules need to change where WE, as CSRs, have a zero-tolerance policy. Are you verbally abusing me? CLICK. Maybe after being hung up on every time, the customer who's being awful will think twice about it the next time they need our help. Something's got to give.
The policy here is that reps are allowed to hang up with the caveat that the rep needs to document why they hung up on a customer and to alert a lead/supervisor/manager about it immediately. The why is super important. We need a reason. What's going on? Person on the phone screaming profanities? That's a very valid reason. It just needs to be justified and documented.
My director made it very clear that if we were being verbally abused we could inform the customer once that their behavior was not acceptable. And if it did not improve we could hang up on them and she'd back us up. She even wrote a short message on index cards and laminated it for all of us to put on the wall above our phones. It was short, succinct, and polite and left no room for misinterpretation. Our customers were demanding but polite professional and awesome.
Anyone in a call center management role on here who can explain the justification behind not allowing a CSR to terminate a call while they are being abused?
We don't allow hang-ups because the customer would just call back and continue to be abusive. As the supervisor, you are required to take over the call whenever possible, as soon as possible. It was an instant escalation and one I would take immediately. Most of my colleagues are the same way.
I had a job like that years and years ago. And we weren't allowed to suggest to the person to hang up, either. Management said even in a case where the person put down their phone but forgot to hang up, we weren't allowed to hang up. Crazy times.
Word of advice. Become a broken record. If you just repeat yourself over and over, the person will give up trying to engage with you.
n my experience, no job is worth being abused like this. Hang up. You will find another job.
That sounds awful, I’m sorry that you go through that. We can hang up whenever. We aren’t micromanaged like that. There’s almost too little accountability, but retention is good, and people enjoy being here.