What does an American get irritated during a customer service call?

Thanks for the comprehensive description jjzone44! Thats one thing I am afraid of. Dealing with customers who have advanced knowledge with regards to troubleshooting. By the way, why did you have had to repeat the issues all the time? Did they not asked you for certain case number? I believe that everything should be documented unless I think if the agent that have dealt with did put "resolved" on the issue.

I know they can really be helpful since you can immediately go to a certain step without going step by step. On the 2nd paragraph, It is actually a routine procedure to mark in resolved at the moment it seemed to be resolved regardless if it is gonna happen again. Even at times that the agent finds out that the issue doesn't have something to do with his product, he will transfer your call to another department and then he will actually record in there as "resolved".

Don't be afraid of folks with advanced troubleshooting knowledge; they can be a big help as long as they are not rude. Sometimes you get folks who think they know a lot (they usually don't) and they want you to take their word for it that they tried the steps you are asking them to do. Just explain that you have to follow the routine to document it, and they should go along with you, I know that I would. Now as to why they had me repeat steps, I think it was just poor record keeping and a poor system when I had the old ISP. Perhaps when the "elevated" the issue the Level 1 people felt it resolved as it would not come back to them. They should have documented this problem, and referred to it when they got another call, and just elevated it immediately.

I am so sorry for making the topic too specific. But I guess this is the best way for me to sit down with all of you and get rid of the bad impressions that I might have or have heard from other people, especially those who has got years of call center experience. I dont want to keep them inside my heart and behave in an undesirable manner. you know, I want a career in the call center. This is why I really look forward to hearing from the Americans specifically. You are the best people to discuss this with me. I dont think this topic is gonna be helpful to me if I make it like a general question. I need Americans' opinion regarding this. So i really and badly need your help. And it is also nice to know that you dont take the emotions against the people because you reserve them against the company or product itself.

I am an American and I;d say that the language barrier is the biggest problem for us. Of course when we buy a product, we want it to work and we are also aware that sometimes things go wrong. That is why we call customer service. Its frustrating enough spending money on a product that doesn't work but when we call and can;t understand the person that is trying to help us, well, that is just ridiculously frustrating. I;m sure it is frustrating for the person on the other end as well. I feel as if they aren;t aware of just how heavy their accent is.

The information you shared confirmed the training that we've gone through. Almost every member among all the groups believe that Americans are outspoken. And whenever they have something in there mind, they will really say it. Sad to know that UK people behave as extremely irate. I just thought that they are more reserved for proper conduct. And that they are very tactful. By the way, does the UK guys also yell, or swear or like cursing too?

That actually form "Never say NO" of our training. I already have something to know how to say a thing properly if the request of a customer is quite impossible. Thanks, I appreciate your response.

It is worth noting to avoid taking the failure to resolve to personally cause you know, earlier this day, everyone has been asking what if, what if, what if. They doubted too much on their ability to help the customers. It feels like I have an edge here by using myLot as a means to obtain first hand information. Thanks a lot.

I didn't get to have an experience with an impolite agent because everytime I call, they would always speak politely even if I was complaining about somethnig.

I would understand that. I am a customer too and I also did call a customer service. yeah, it is nice to note again that being able to give a good communication skills really helps to get the job done.

Im so sorry Ambie. Yeah it is fact that other nationalities too, get irritated during Customer service calls. It is not unique to Americans, I know. But the way you have understood this discussion meant is not the same as my intention. I hope you wont take this personally as if I am targeting Americans for such kind of a behavior.

This is really something that I would really have to work on. The communication skills. I may be good at using the language however when I hear it from native speakers on an actual call, it sounds so fast that I could barely hear what he just said. In that case, I would really appreciate it if you could suggest a good thing for me to do while keeping the customer from getting irritated. Aside from familiarizing myself with the sounds native Americans make as they speak, can you suggest another thing? I am really interested to know what I am supposed to do. Would it be okay if I ask to repeat the account of issue for like 2 to 3 times? How would I do it in the best way?

just based on your own perspective though.

that is it in a nutshell. These big corps pay much much less to hire foriegners to do these jobs while we have people here scrounging for jobs. Those people are willing to work for 1/3 of the pay that we even could work at. If they passed those savings on to the consumer, it;d be fine but they don't. Beyond that, I pay for a product and I expect it to work. Nothing is more irritating for it not to work and call for help and not being able to understand the "help". It kind of makes my time and the money spent pretty useless.

I think. companies pays less if they outsource some manpower requirements in keeoing their business.

thats right,because most of the asian countries currencies are less than that of a dollar,in other words the dollar is stronger than their home currency,so these companies save a lot outsourcing these call services.

I really appreciate the complete detail of your response. All of those really makes sense to me. I feel lucky to have myLot community educate me with what to do on the calls. Language barrier is really the first thing. I can speak good english but then again, the knowledge on using the language could really be nothing if I don't understand the customer right at the moment he tells what the problem is. I really find it hard to figure out what native speakers try to say if they do it too fast or with too emotion. Another fear that I would like to find way to conquer, is dealing with the emotions of the customers. Though I can speak good english, I might get intimidated and distracted with the customer's emotions. People are already on the floor doing the stuff and I see that they are happy and successful with their jobs and that is what I am looking forwards too. I hope the start could not be as mean as I am afraid for.

Not being able to understand the customer and having to ask them to repeat themselves several times is going to be enough to make some customers extremely upset. If it only happened one time, most would probably be okay. But if you needed to ask them to repeat themselves several times on more than one occasion, people are going to get angry. Communication is huge. Since it has become a common practice to outsource these types of calls, speaking with someone with less than great English speaking skills has also become common. People are already frustrated with it before they even speak to you. If they encounter it with you, it won't be a matter of them getting frustrated and becoming angry because they're already there. As you mentioned, people who call you are frustrated and the frustration leads them to speak faster and with more emotion. The more frustrated and angry they get, the faster they're going to speak and the louder they're going to get. All this sounds bad. But there are a couple things you can do. While sensitivity training is important and will help you a lot when you have very clear communication, your caller really doesn't care how sensitive you are if you can't communicate. I would suggest that you start getting regular practice speaking with a native English speaker. Using myLot and writing in English is helpful. However, when getting the response, you have all the time you need to read it and determine what it says. In addition, the words are written. So there is no accent or other factors that would change the way it sounds. You then have all the time you want to compose a response. You can change it as often as you like before your reader sees it. If your reader doesn't understand you at first, your reader can take all the time he wants to read it to understand it. This isn't the way it works when you're speaking. As you know, you have to understand what is being said as it's being said. You have to create your response immediately and you don't get a chance to redo your response before it's heard. In order to do this well, you have to hear the language on a regular basis and you have to practice it, often. There are many websites online that offer chat with native English speakers. Do a few searches and see what you can find. There is at least one through Skype. This should probably be one of your top work priorities. Also, though, remember this. The people who are calling you, are calling for help. As long as you assist them in getting closer to fixing their problem, most people will be greatful to you. The people are upset because they have a problem before they call you and then they see the communication as another problem on top of the first. Your job is to not let the communication become more of an issue than it needs to be and to make sure you provide some type of help for their problem. One thing you can do is to paraphrase the problem. After they have explained their problem, answer them by saying something like, "I'm sorry you're having a problem. Let's see how I can help you. I understand your problem is.... Is this correct?" This tells them whether you understood their problem (that's why you don't want to repeat their problem word-for-word - if you paraphrase it shows you understand). It also tells them that you're listening to them. And very importantly, if you say it like you mean it, it shows that you understand they actually have a problem and you want to help. If you say it though without any expression, it will sound as though you are talking down to them. You have to show emotion when you say it. If you paraphrase their problem incorrectly, listen again and try again. If it's still incorrect, nicely tell them you want to find someone else who may be able to assist them. If you are having difficulties understanding their problem, you know that you'll have problems understanding the rest of the call. Save yourself and your customer a lot of grief by immediately transferring them. I don't think customers are generally mean (although you will sometimes find this). They just want you to do something and get mad when nothing is done. A very simple thing you can do that will sometimes calm people down is to APOLOGIZE. It doesn't matter if you did it or not. If the company did it or not. The customer is mad. Hearing that you are sorry will make many people feel better. That's why I suggested saying you're sorry before paraphrasing their problem. You're not saying the company or you did anything wrong. You're saying you're sorry that they are experiencing problems. (Unless it's something like "I can't understand you!" Don't say you're sorry they're having problems. This sounds like you're blaming them for not understanding you. Take the blame yourself. Say something like, "I'm very sorry. What I said was.....). People want somebody to blame. Although you'll always get the few people that want to try to use the words against you and your company (that's why you never admit company fault - just say you're sorry that they're having problems), most people hear a heart-felt apology and instantly calm down.

Also, I was just thinking that there's something else you might try. I think it's great that you've asked what makes people angry. You probably have a pretty good idea of a few major things. Now you could ask your friends a new question. Something like, "When you're angry with someone at a call center, what would you like for that person to do that will help calm you down?" That will do two things. First, it will give you a lot of ideas of things you can do. Make sure you emphasize you want to know things that you can do at that very moment. Although knowing things you can do after the phone call or things that your boss can do would be helpful, it wouldn't be nearly as helpful as finding out what simple things you could do immediately. Kind of like what I said in my earlier response - you can paraphrase the problem, you can apologize. I'm sure others have some great ideas for you. Also, it will get people to think about the sitution. Some people may even realize there's nothing you can do - they just want to yell. (For those people, let them yell. Don't interrupt. When they're done, either apologize and state the problem or ask what the problem is. Be very professional. Resist the urge to argue with them. Be very careful of your tone of voice. You can say all the right things, but if they're said in a way that sounds like you're putting the person down, you're just going to make matters worse.) Talking about it might help them realize that you're only human.