[Saya]

Originally Posted by Miss Absynthe

I have customers at the bookshop swear all of the time, and the best way to deal with it is to hear what they're saying instead of concentrating on the language.

"I can't fucking believe that you don't have my fucking textbook."

What you can say - "I totally understand that you need that book right now - I can arrange a transfer from another store and then express post it to you, which will get it to you as quickly as possible.. or I could get the transfer sent to us if you want to pick it up in person. Which way is going to work better for you?"

What not to say - "Ma'am, please don't swear at me."

What I usually say - "Just between you and I, I can't fucking believe that we don't have that textbook in either... I totally understand that you need that book right now - I can arrange a transfer from another store and then express post it to you, which will get it to you as quickly as possible.. or I could get the transfer sent to us if you want to pick it up in person. Which way is going to work better for you?"

Changing the conversation so it becomes about the fact that someone dropped the f-word is just going to antagonise and increase the temperature of the exchange. It's also condescending to police someone's language in an adult forum like that. There really is a vast difference between someone using a swear word to communicate emotion and someone using it as an attack.

In call centers, its a lot more BANG BANG BANG ANGRY CUSTOMER ALL THE TIME sort of thing. You have thirty seconds to a minute of "after call" if you need to breathe, but if you take that aftercall break you're put right on top of the queue. Your calls are also recorded and you're graded on how you handled the call. The last one I worked in was threatening to shut down and move to the Philippines (it did), so T-Mobile, who was the client call center, was far more strict, and it led to supervisors literally standing behind you breathing on your neck listening to every word you say to make sure everything you said was perfect to the script. People got fired for very little things. You badmouth the company, you swear, its a big no no. The company can do no wrong. If a customer complains about how the system works, I've never worked at a place where you can take those complaints and give them to someone. You can't leave the desk, you raise your hand and help will go out of their way to avoid you in case its an escalation call, and even then they don't have any feedback system either, you have to wait for this other outbound department to call the customer and grade the person you were talking to, but not the system itself. Most call centers aren't even owned and operated for the company they worked for, so the company can pull ship and fire everyone when another call center offers a cheaper contract. Not only that, but you aren't free to deal with the situation as you see fit. When I worked for Rogers, I had to apologize as if it was my own personal fault Rogers screwed up, and it drove customers crazy that I would apologize all the time, but I was supposed to. I had to make a internal credit check and bridge to a sale even if they just called in really quick to check their balance because they were at the store ready to pay, or I'd get a zero on the call and get written up. If you called in to complain how we're always bridging to sales, I'd have to apologize, and then bridge to a sale. No exceptions. "Sorry we're always calling you trying to sell you a new cell phone! BTW, how would you like a new cell phone?"

Most people who worked there were extremely unhappy and neurotic as a result. Once I got a telemarketer who sounded like she was about to cry, and I had to say no thanks, and felt really awkward that I'd get her in trouble if I acknowledged she sounded sad and tried to cheer her up.