Whose fault is it anyway?
If the agent is rude, who's at fault - the agent, or the customer? Or both?

-By Sunder Ramachandran.

Call centers train agents on phone courtesy and product knowledge but most customers still have the same complaint “the phone representative was rude”. When managers monitor calls, the agent’s seem courteous and knowledgeable but the feedback from the customers paints a different story altogether. Call center managers wonder whether they need to increase the time they spend monitoring or look into new training and most importantly who is responsible for irate customers.

Hopefully neither! It may take some attitude adjustment activities. The fact is customers have become more demanding. Competition is fierce and service is the only differentiating factor.
In short, customers want the same things they always wanted. The problem we are seeing today is our phone representatives aren't always aware of customers' expectations. If they don't know what customers expect how will they deliver?

Customers expect some very basic things, accurate information and solution to their problems, apologies if they have been disappointed, professional and courteous responses. Since they are in a position to choose, our job is to find out what they want and give it to them.

Let's look at the phone representative's position. They have some tough days. They may be processing more calls than before, and let's face it, customers are not always courteous. The tools they are given to use may not be as effective as they could be and we ask them to reduce handle time as well.

Here's what often happens when an irate customer calls.
• The phone representative feels defensive. So the first thing on the agenda is to explain who or what department caused the problem.
• Irate callers want to control the call and the phone representative wants to explain company policy. The caller doesn't care.
• The phone representative is trying very hard to think about excuses and may not hear the real "hot button" the customer is explaining.
• The biggest challenge we have is trying to fix the problem before we fix the customer's feelings.
In summary, our phone representatives are "feeding the irate or angry customer” resulting in the customer getting frustrated and insisting on talking to someone else.

Here are some key things customers want:
• Listen to me.
• Show empathy. Tell me you understand.
• Answer my questions.
• Give me your full attention.
• Be proactive and helpful
• Don't hide behind policy
• Don't use industry jargon.
• Deliver on your promises.
If we can train phone representatives on the same lines, we will be a step closer to creating a customer focused culture.
(Sunder works as a Trainer with a leading BPO. He can be reached at sunder_trg@hotmail.com.)