Do you think sarcasm is appropriate for a customer service worker?

I agree with you about not being very professional to talk to the customer with sarcasim and the worker should be talked to by the boss and given a warning and maybe monitored. My daughter used to work with taking phone calls from people and from businessess who needed to get more checks or check registers and she would come home so upset with the rude people on the phone, they would blame her for them not getting their checks in time or the correct design or something printed wrong when all she was doing was taking the info and passing it on to the ones in charge. At her job they would be monitored at times and now aware if it. My daughter does like to give her piece of mind but she knew better not to do it to the customers.

No I don't think he was in the right however, depending on how much trouble the customer was giving is when the person should've transfered the phone call to someone else. I've got to say though, sometimes people can push others to their limit and can take only so much but yet that's when it's time to transfer the call. Kind of catchy though but one has to be careful if they're in need of a job.

I believe it is wrong. The company representative needs to be above the level of sarcasm and rudeness of the client, if for no other reason than that the boss might overhear them, or someone else, for that matter, and misconstrue what is being said and take it quite negatively.

sarcasm is a definite no-no for a customer oriented service worker, he/she should have better patience for these types of rude or sarcastic customers, some are even obnoxious. He/she should learn better to control her temper and learn to just relax, in the end, maybe he/she can be more professional :) cheers!

your friend definitely done a famous mistake, she let her emotion meddle with her professionalism. i don't blame her though, as a human we have the tendency to blurt out our feelings especially if we feel degraded and insulted by another person. its a human nature to depend herself however it became a custom in our world that a person working as a customer service representative should at all times please her customer and so she should behave in a manner pleasant to everyone. the saying customer is always right might be a cliche but oftentimes applicable. every businesses survive because of customers and so they should be treated well. the best thing for your friend to do is to depart her personal feelings from her professional work. we can never please every customer but we can always try. after all its what our job all about.

Yes I think it is wrong to be sarcastic when you are working in customer service. But I also know it can be frustrating when talking to some people. You still have to maintaine professionism though and still be nice and sweet to them. After all the customer is always right, or so they say. But I have to say that I have hung up on a person for being unfriendly to me. I don't think that a person has to take it when another person is rude and they should have the right to hang up on them.

LOL my husband and I were just talking the other day about how any type of customer service job or job that requires one to deal with the public would NOT be a good line of work for me..I have very low tolerance for rude ignorant ppl and would put any customer who got snotty with me in their place super quick.....That being said, I have to say that I think your friend handled himself way wrong...Like you said it was very unprofessional of him and quite frankly I think he was way out of line...

I think also he was not correct in his job. Professional life is always professional. he should have acted the right way. It is not any show on TV that he can say what he want there. he should be more careful as i guess.

I guess since the boss said it was wrong, it was wrong. It is stories like these that make me So happy I am not in a job where I either have to phone anyone or bend over backward to a customer. I wouldn't last a day in that job.It would make me homicidal.

As far as I'm concerned if you work in the customer service industry or in a customer service role you have to maintain politeness at all times. Otherwise get out of that indutry/job! I'm sick of people thinking they can get away with treating their customers badly or with no respect. You wouldn't have a job if it wasn't for them. I have never been told off in my career for being impolite to a customer be it external or internal. When people get blase about their behaviour with customers is when the business starts going downhill and it's the beginning of the end. When I receive bad customer service, I complain about it or if it's not rectified, I take my business elsewhere. More and more people are realising that they have the right to do that. Your friend was definitely in the wrong to respond to a customer with sarcasm, even if he thought the customer appreciated it. If the customer was shouting at him, would have have shouted back? Or sworn, etc? Where do you stop? A colleague at my previous company was fired for calling a client a "lazy unempoyed bum". We used to work with long term unemployed people (our clients) who we had to try to get back into full time work - the majority (90% or more) had no interest in working as they were quite happy on benefits. At times they would even try the patience of saints but working with them, we had no choice but to take their abuse and remain polite and professional at all times. The colleague who was fired was at another branch and I had never met her, we had some degree of sympathy with her but personally when it all got too much for me, I was pro-active about it and went out and got another job rather than get to a stage where I would lose my cool and behave in that way.

I do not think sarcasm is appropriate as by definition it is a humor with meanness attached to it... facetiousness might be alright depending upon the rapport that was had between the two and the nature of the call and conversation.

Indeed, what he did was not too appropriate. It is good customer service to NOT respond in kind - in that when the customer shouts, use vulgarities or pass sarcastic remarks, you as the customer service officer should not also reciprocate. I know mirroring is a technique often taught and encouraged but this above is one exception.:P

Sarcasm could be forgiven in any aspect of life, but a customer service representative is supposed to be the embodiment of patience and politeness. I feel he was being completely unprofessional, and at least here, the boss is right. after all, the customer is the lord, and whatever he/she says, however sarcarstic, is right. :) Cheers

true. very true. it's not appropriate most especially if you are dealing with a customer. it's not difficult to spot a sarcasm if you hear one. just with the tone, you would know right away. the customer would feel that you are disrespectful. and that's a minus for the company. i worked for a customer oriented company years ago. and we just always let them do the sarcasm. we just answer straightfully whatever the inquiry was. besides tha customers are our king and queen.. boss to others.

I agree with you one should never be sarcastic with a customer even if the customer is being sarcastic. I was at Radio Shack to buy a phone and the salesman was trying to joke but to me it wasn't funny. I was telling him I wanted a ground line phone. He comes back with something about getting dirt. Then I was trying to tell him about static on the line with some phones and he comes back with his wife giving him static. I was there on business not to be entertained.

I agree with you, your friend should have been more professional. If you don't know the customer personally, you really have no idea how they will take the remark and sarcasm can be taken the wrong way easily which will in turn cost you a job. All it takes is for a couple of customers to complain and that's it.

no. It is not appropriate to use sarcasm in anything in life, especially not when we are talking about working with people who are our clients. i have alote of experience with customer care, both as a simple worker and as a manager. and i can tell you that if i would see one of my workers talking like that, i would send that person home. their should be respect for people that are our customers, they are paying for somthing, and in the moment we agreed on working with them and helping them, we have to act respectfully.yes, i do know that it is not easy, there are customers that are not easy, and it is not easy to help so many customers in one day, but that is what we agreed to do, when we decided to work in customer service. sarcasm is a negetive thing. if the worker talks to a customer and make jokes, because he knew this person before, and he know that this customer can get the right messege from his joke, then and only then it is o.k.

Ive read several of the response and I agree. Regardless how sarcastic the customer might be, the person should always remember that he/she is a professional. And that any problem in the call floor must be forwarded to the supervisor. Don't they have training for that sort?

Absolutely I work in Customer Service & unfortunitly we have to take the things Customers say even if it makes us mad. I think the Customer knows it to. Usually I'll get a real nasty one and then next I'll get a sweet one so sometimes it balances out. I say just keep your cool because odds are you'll never have to talk to that person again right.

I have worked in customer service. I have been in situations where replying to a customer with sarcastic humor was what saved a sale. I read the tone of their voice and could tell they needed to be dealt with in a lighter manner. They ended up very happy with the resolutions we came to for their issue and gave me high marks. I will say though in MOST situations, refraining from sarcasm is probably THE best way to go.