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Three Parts:It isn't about youPutting on your kindness bootsDealing with provocative and obstructive rudeness

If you feel that a customer service representative has been rude to you, start by seeing the bigger picture and not relating it to yourself. It also helps to realize that customer service representatives have to deal with a lot of people each day and just like you and everyone else, they have their bad days as much as their good days. However, sometimes the rudeness is so egregious that you might also consider raising the matter with the representative's employer.

Part 1 of 3: It isn't about you

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    Don’t take it personally. Unless you actually know this person, in which case you've got other ways to deal with the situation, this person isn't singling you out for bad treatment just because of who you are. If you were a fly on the wall, you'd probably discover that this person treats most people with similar transactions, problems or sales as you. If the person is having a bad day, that's what it really needs to be put down to, not seeing this as some sort of personal vendetta.
    • Sure, it sucks to be treated rudely. But most rudeness consists of a failure to acknowledge or be polite and what really hurts is feeling that you don't matter as a cog in the system of the company or business in question. If you can remind yourself of that, you can help yourself to see the bigger picture.
    • This is not about excusing the rudeness, it's about putting aside the "personal" aspect of how you take it.

Part 2 of 3: Putting on your kindness boots

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    Kill rudeness with kindness.The best thing for you to do is to take the high road and silently wish them well. This customer service representative is obviously having a bad day or maybe even a bad life. Granted, that is certainly no excuse for them to take it out on you. However, you will feel better if you treat this customer service representative kindly, than if you sink to their level.
  2. 2
    Smile and say something empathetic.  For example: “Busy today, huh?”. Or try to take them off their guard and get them to smile by making corny joke. For example: "What do you call a bee who is having a bad hair day? A frizz bee."
  3. 3
    Don't stoop to the same level of crappy behavior. The worst thing that you could do is to get angry and think in terms of exacting revenge by being mean and acting just as rudely as the representative has.

Part 3 of 3: Dealing with provocative and obstructive rudeness

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    If the kind words or corny jokes do not get them to lighten up and they continue to be rude to you, ask to speak with another customer service representative or even the manager.
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    Politely explain to this other worker or manager how you have been mistreated by the rude customer service representative. Perhaps mention that you have genuine concern for the vitality of the business. That way you will not appear overly emotional or give the impression of being a vengeful customer.  More importantly, your comments have a better chance of being taken into consideration.
  3. 3
    Thank this other worker or manager for having listened to your concerns.
  4. 4
    Depending on how strongly you feel about the incident and the feedback that you get from the manager, you can contact the head office/owner and make your concerns known there.

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Tips

  • Rudeness that is worth your effort to follow up further includes swearing at you, being abusive, threatening you, revealing personal information about you in a way that sounds threatening or abusive, name-calling, defamatory comments, racist or sexist comments, etc.


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Categories: Work World

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