How do you handle people demanding to speak to a manager RIGHT THE HELL NOW!?!?
I do tech support. I work for a small company, however people seem to think that I work for a huge company with tech support outsourced to India or something. I very, very commonly have people demanding to speak to a manager.
The manager is almost always busy with other stuff, or simply not available because he's handling some other crisis. The entire department is made up of 4 people. And most of the time people demand a manager because they are unhappy with the policy. The manager will most certainly not change the policy. I have 95% the power of the manager and there are very, very few things that he can do that I do not have the authority to do.
I just go with the "he's not available" route, because most of the time he's not available, he's busy dealing with something else. When the person pushes and pushes for a manager I repeat that a few times, then reiterate the policy. I can be extremely, extremely stubborn when I want to.
This almost always ends up enraging the person to the point where they begin using obscenities, at which point I have justified reason for ending the call.
Note that I am tier 1, tier 2, tier 3, customer service, and the complaints department. Corporate? There is no corporate. There are only 4 people who answer phones. We all sit next to each other. Want to go over my head? There's just the manager who knows whats going on because he overheard my conversation, and by now is probably in a very bad mood. He's the head of the entire department.
I find that people often times are utterly confused and baffled at how their usual tactics for call centers simply do not work. Most departments in the company I work for are only a single person. That person is out of the office or on lunch? Too bad, leave a message, there's nothing I can do.
My stubborn approach has generally worked well and the only times I get in trouble are when I am insufficiently stubborn. This usually involves much yelling and screaming from the customer, but we aren't there to give them money.
My job is essentially to bleed money as slowly as possible while keeping complaints to an acceptable level.
I do tech support. I work for a small company, however people seem to think that I work for a huge company with tech support outsourced to India or something. I very, very commonly have people demanding to speak to a manager.
The manager is almost always busy with other stuff, or simply not available because he's handling some other crisis. The entire department is made up of 4 people. And most of the time people demand a manager because they are unhappy with the policy. The manager will most certainly not change the policy. I have 95% the power of the manager and there are very, very few things that he can do that I do not have the authority to do.
I just go with the "he's not available" route, because most of the time he's not available, he's busy dealing with something else. When the person pushes and pushes for a manager I repeat that a few times, then reiterate the policy. I can be extremely, extremely stubborn when I want to.
This almost always ends up enraging the person to the point where they begin using obscenities, at which point I have justified reason for ending the call.
Note that I am tier 1, tier 2, tier 3, customer service, and the complaints department. Corporate? There is no corporate. There are only 4 people who answer phones. We all sit next to each other. Want to go over my head? There's just the manager who knows whats going on because he overheard my conversation, and by now is probably in a very bad mood. He's the head of the entire department.
I find that people often times are utterly confused and baffled at how their usual tactics for call centers simply do not work. Most departments in the company I work for are only a single person. That person is out of the office or on lunch? Too bad, leave a message, there's nothing I can do.
My stubborn approach has generally worked well and the only times I get in trouble are when I am insufficiently stubborn. This usually involves much yelling and screaming from the customer, but we aren't there to give them money.
My job is essentially to bleed money as slowly as possible while keeping complaints to an acceptable level.
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