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Handling Difficult People

Question: 
We use challenge questions when we don’t know the account holder on the telephone. Today a customer went wild yelling at our call center person for asking to many questions. We tried to explain that it was for his protection, he began to swear at us. I had the teller hang-up the phone could we have handled this better?
Answer: 

Telephone muscles is an interesting phenomenon. No one is paid to be yelled at, so we believe you did handle it the right way. We would suggest a small change as soon as someone starts swearing at you inform them the call will end if that language doesn’t cease immediately. If they start again tell them strike one, second comment strike two and finally hang-up the telephone on the third word. They may call back if they start again say strike one. This should handle it for you. Another reason for this behavior could be a social engineer trying to see if the staff member will provide them the information they want if they are intimidated.
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Learn more about Barry Thompson and Arvin Clar’s webinar Handling Difficult People

First published on 06/02/2019

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