Common courtesy/manners down the drain.

[MoonChild2007]

We were taught by our parents to NOT INTERRUPT somebody while they are
talking cause that is really rude, well, in my call center, those manners does not apply to customers. I can explain something to a customer and the customer will not let me finish but I can't say anything until the customers finishes but they CAN be rude and interrupt me while I am explaining what THEY want to be explained to them

How fucked up is that? I can't believe that customers can treat us like crap and nobody cares. BTW, I got this info from my supervisor. She is very nice and all but I can't help but say out loud that I found that "ridiculous". I don't know what came over me to say that, maybe I shouldn't have.

It also doesn't help that yesterday was halloween and that mostly 60% of my calls were people being assholes.

[Crescent Cat]

It's the exact same way at my work. It's so frustrating and I get interrupted everyday on over 90 percent of my calls. I guess they figure since I have a cute little girl voice that it's okay to talk over me or something.

One time I had a horrid beast that literally interrupted me every two words I spoke then would go off on a long rant about how she needs this for her job and I wasn't being helpful and she was missing a wedding for this (because it's totally my fault she waited to call in to a very busy call center on the day of her friend's wedding). Then she'd yell at me because we'd been on the phone for over and hour and it took every ounce of my will power to not say - "That's because you keep interrupting me. If you would've just shut up and listened to me we'd be off the phone a long time ago."

Finally got her off the phone after two hours - with an issue that would've taken 15 minutes max if he hadn't been constantly cutting me off. Is it evil that I hoped she missed the entire wedding and her friend was angry at her for it?

[UncleImpy]

First call center job? Sadly, welcome. Unless you happen to get one of the positions like GK's that works by themselves, or one that has an awesome supervisor that will let you get away with cutting customers off...this is how its probably going to be with any call center position you have.

The trick I've found is to talk in a manner that does not LET the customer cut you off. I have yet to find a supervisor that got on my case for not letting the customer interrupt me. So when you start explaining something and they start talking? DONT STOP EXPLAINING From my experience, once someone figures out that you arent going to let them talk over you, they either shut up and listen (or just shut up and wait for you to stop talking), or they hang up. Either way, you get out what you were trying to say, and in a manner that SHOULDNT get you in trouble if you get coached. Though you might want to check into that

[Evil Queen]

Manners? What's that? Is it some kind of booze?

[MoonChild2007]

Finally got her off the phone after two hours - with an issue that would've taken 15 minutes max if he hadn't been constantly cutting me off.

Exactly. Sometimes a customer will bitch about their services being off for non payment but yet don't bother to pay for it. Like aruging is going to being back her services.

[elysia]

When a customer interrupts me, whether in person or on the phone, I don't resume speaking when it is again my turn for at least a good 5 seconds. Let the silence drag out, just so it becomes more obvious they've interrupted me. A lot of the time it works and they stop interrupting - a lot of the time, it doesnt.

[Sonoma]

When a customer interrupts me, whether in person or on the phone, I don't resume speaking when it is again my turn for at least a good 5 seconds. Let the silence drag out, just so it becomes more obvious they've interrupted me. A lot of the time it works and they stop interrupting - a lot of the time, it doesnt.

That's exactly what I had to do yesterday. Had a lady that had denied every effort we made to help on previous calls. We needed a form filled out, which she had supposedly mailed out in Sept. By early October, we hadn't received it, so we offered to fax her a new one, with a fax # where she could send it back. That way we'd know exactly when it was coming in. No, she didn't want to do that. She also didn't want to go online & fill out the same information that way. Finally called me on Oct. 20. I was able to get the information that they had done online about a week after the previous phone call. Great, but since she had initially refused to do it that way, nobody was looking for it to come in. I found the info, and was able to send it on so they could complete the processing. Everything finalized on the 28th. Of course, she was now upset because ift had taken so long.

Now that we're up to the present, the on-topic portion of this post is that every single time I tried to speak, I could only get as far as "Let me look...", or "I'm seeing..." ,or "It's processed...", before she'd jump off on another tangent, telling me how we were not helping her. OK. Every time I try to help, you start talking over me. After 2-3 times of her cutting me off, I'd just stop talking until she had been silent for several seconds, then I'd attempt to speak. It took her a few tries to realize that if she was talking, I wasn't, and nothing was being done to solve her problem.

And, I have to say, she actually got it resolved pretty quickly, once we were aware that she had submitted the information online. I knew about it on the 20th, and by the 28th, the check was cut & on it's way. Not bad, considering it normally takes 30 days, and they'd been backlogged recently.

[DevilBoy]

When a customer interrupts me, whether in person or on the phone, I don't resume speaking when it is again my turn for at least a good 5 seconds. Let the silence drag out, just so it becomes more obvious they've interrupted me. A lot of the time it works and they stop interrupting - a lot of the time, it doesnt.

I did more or less the same thing when I worked phone support.
The only difference being, when I was interrupted, I would wait... let the silence drag on a bit... and when I felt they were done talking, I would start at the beginning instead of picking up where I left off.
I did this every time they cut me off.
After a while, the act of you repeating things over and over becomes annoying to the person on the other end, and they finally just shut up and let you finish your sentence.

[Angry_Hippie]

I always was a big fan of saying "may I place you hold for a few moments while I look into that further" I'd then place the customer on hold briefly, look at all relevant info and figure out what I was going to say. After the hold I'd spit out whatever info in a continuous stream with no way to be interrupted. This works wonders for order tracking calls because the hold gives you time to translate USPS/UPS/FedEx tracking info to smooth thorough story-like conversational english. "I see your order was placed on blah and shipped on blah, we allow blah-blah BUSINESS days for standard shipping, the most recent tracking info we have been provided is that your package left a regional sortation center yesterday and your local delivery post office has been notified to expect the package shortly, next they will sort and deliver the package this could take a day or two depending on you local post office". I found with tracking info done in that manner very few customers interrupt or even ask ?'s after, I've notice with co-workers that just read the garbled crap the tracking sites give without taking a moment to translate will go around in circles with customers who try and interpret tracking speak wrongly. Wow, I've gotten way off topic. The best on topic advice I have is just keep at whatever your saying in a continuos (but natural) stream and sound confident.
I miss call center work dearly and am glad I have interview with one on Tuesday.

[SapphireSky]

This has to be one of my biggest pet peeves at work. Nothing makes me want to strangle a person more than when I am in the middle of answering their question and they interrupt me and ask a totally brand new question! To add insult to injury it's even better when 5 minutes later after interrupting me multiple times again they ask the first questions I had attemped to answer.

I find that falling completely silent and asking them, "Are you finished now?" works well, if you have a job that you can get away with that.

[ThePhoneGoddess]

As security, I am permitted to say things like "Can I finish speaking, please?" which either works well or makes them so angry they scream and I get to hang up on them.

[Gingernut]

First call center job? Sadly, welcome. Unless you happen to get one of the positions like GK's that works by themselves, or one that has an awesome supervisor that will let you get away with cutting customers off...this is how its probably going to be with any call center position you have.

The trick I've found is to talk in a manner that does not LET the customer cut you off. I have yet to find a supervisor that got on my case for not letting the customer interrupt me. So when you start explaining something and they start talking? DONT STOP EXPLAINING From my experience, once someone figures out that you arent going to let them talk over you, they either shut up and listen (or just shut up and wait for you to stop talking), or they hang up. Either way, you get out what you were trying to say, and in a manner that SHOULDNT get you in trouble if you get coached. Though you might want to check into that

That's certainly my strategy. The waiting five seconds tip also works a treat.

[elysia]

I just had an interrupter and it reminded me of this thread - they asked me a question, i began to answer, they interrupted with a new question, and I said, "Would you like me to answer your first question or your second question?" They looked annoyed, then apologized for interrupting. I WIN.