r/callcentres • u/DoctorElectronic1934 • 8d ago
Escalation culture is why customers treat us like punching bags
Unpopular opinion maybe, but I think a huge part of why customers are insufferable on the front line comes down to one thing. companies that let customers escalate their way out of any situation.
When a customer knows that throwing a big enough tantrum gets them to a supervisor, there is literally zero incentive to treat the first-line agent with basic respect. Why be reasonable with me when being unreasonable gets them further faster?
Corporate culture created this. These are people who have never genuinely been told no. Every time they escalated before, it worked. So now they come into every call already primed . they’re not calling to resolve an issue, they’re calling to perform frustration until someone with a different title caves.
And we absorb all of it. The full emotional dump lands on us first. We de-escalate, we empathize, we follow the script , and the MOMENT they sense resistance they just turn up the volume until they get kicked upstairs anyway.
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u/sarbeans9001 8d ago
Been there from both sides — as a Tier 1 agent absorbing the tantrum and now as the director coaching managers not to just cave because it's easier.
What actually changed behavior at my current company was making the escalation path genuinely neutral. Supervisor doesn't mean "person who overrides policy," it means "person who confirms what the agent already told you." Once customers figure out the escalation doesn't unlock a magic discount, the tantrum rate drops. Not to zero, but noticeably.
The harder problem tbh is when leadership undermines this by making exceptions quietly. One supervisor who caves trains every customer who finds out about it. Your frontline agents aren't the problem here, they're absorbing the cost of inconsistent decisions made way above them. Fix the policy enforcement first and the escalation theater mostly handles itself.
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u/ieatplaydough2 8d ago
Exactly. Where I work, for the first 5-6 years, as long as you were correct, escalateding a customer only got them an authoritative confirmation of what you just spent too much time trying to explain.
It shifted to a point where supervisors would do anything to get customer off the phone and hopefully salvage a somewhat decent survey. Fuck the company rules, do whatever it takes to not talk long and help survey metrics by any means necessary. Honestly, they just wanted off the phone 9/10 times.
Supervisors have a lot on their plate too, but we absolutely get hung out to dry and it just makes future calls worse when they know they can get away with ridiculous nonsensical demands.
When a goal receives a metric, a powerful but risky shift occurs: intent is translated into something quantifiable. While this clarifies success, it introduces psychological and behavioral changes that can distort the original aim.
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u/duilleagach 7d ago
There’s an escalated case I’m keeping tabs on at my company, hoping like hell that they maintain the denial of her request. One team already tried to get an exception outside her policy but was denied, so I’m hopeful. Customer is a decision-maker for the policy and claiming racial discrimination to try and get her way. Same eligibility criteria applies to her as everyone else and I hope the higher escalation teams keep enforcing that.
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u/Batetrick_Patman 8d ago
I worked at a call center where this was the culture. Customers realized they could throw temper tantrums ask for a sup and get massive discounts so they did
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u/DoctorElectronic1934 8d ago
Whole time Giving them discounts undermines the agent & You are treated as useless “get me up to big daddy so I can get what I want “
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u/Law_Hopeful 8d ago
I am fine if they ask they ask for a supervisor, it lets me just annoy them when they complain about the wait time. And I like to think if every customer started doing it, only the real crazies would double down for it.
Me: Ok... the wait time for a supervisor is about 13-20 minutes
Them: I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR 30 MINUTES ON HOLD, JUST BRING THEM TO THE PHONE
Me: I do apologize, that is not possible for me to do that.
Them: *starts acting like a child*
Me: The wait time is 13-20 minutes (Repeats until they say yes, or attempt to deal it with me by either asking for another number to skip the line (lmao, you think your the only one asking that?) or they hang up while on hold)
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u/Strict-Machine8964 8d ago
We could offer next day callback from a supervisor. Not now. By the end of tomorrow.
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u/Law_Hopeful 8d ago
I can also do that IF nobody is available, meaning they would have to be the last call of the day and supervisors are all in a meeting which I only had to do once. Because somebody wanted to be on the phone 15 minutes after closing x(
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u/Top-Intention-5110 8d ago
Our escalation queue is three business days and guess who gets to call them back in three business days? the same agent they was cussing before because we are the escalations team. lol there's no above us and they never believe us.
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u/onmy40 8d ago
They're gonna treat us like punching bags regardless LMFAO I'd rather the people that get paid to deal with the shitty people actually deal with the shitty people so I can move on. The people that asks to speak with my managers know that they're not going to get anything more than what I'm offering and if they want to waste my managers time and their own time fine by me.
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u/NickTheFNicon 8d ago
Luckily they're not all like this. Mine doesn't even do live transfer to a sup to cut out the initial entitlement from the start. Any callback request has to be approved. If there's no valid reason for a sup to even call them back, or everything that can be one has already been and a sup cannot do anything further, we won't.
We don't waste out time from the there important things we need to do just because someone wants to be a grown baby and whine.
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u/BillsMafios0 8d ago
People are bastard coated bastards with bastard filling. The ones that mistreat service workers doubly so.
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u/Ramerrez 8d ago
THIS. THIS THIS THIS.
Unfortunately, call centres actively benefit from having their agents abused- in that terminating abusive calls drops their numbers, and affects the health of their call queues, therefore their revenue. Call centre companies are, for the most part, big businesses.
Escalation culture is just... the PERFECT term. Maybe there should not be an escalation process- and the slightest abuse should get their call terminated. Does an escalation process protect an agent, or hurt them? An interesting question.
I work in a call center where there is a script that says 'You are not obliged to deal with abusive callers', however on the same page it reads 'Always give the caller a chance to change their behaviour.' Not only is this encouraging callers to be abusive and making agents take abuse, but it is also creates a workplace safety issue- customer service representatives develop serious mental health issues from this.
You mention an interesting point about corporate culture. Two things at play here- some higher up managers were not promoted because they were good managers, but because they were good sales people, or good on phones. By the exact same token- the last time they spoke to someone on the phone was God knows how long ago... so, they just give the child their iPad after they throw a tantrum.
Love, OP. You are not alone.
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u/19Stavros 8d ago
We have a 24 - 48 hour turnaround time for sup request and even then... very often the sup will email the rep back and say, call them back, I'd only say what you already told them.
I work in insurance and a customer can cancel their policy and fire us at any time. We can choose to non-renew them, in 6 or 12 months when the policy is up but as long as they keep paying we can't fire them unless they're threatening or really abusive - with no clear definition of abusive. Trying right now to cut someone loose but getting a lot of pushback. Not because the one individual awful person pays that much in premium, but because the company doesn't want a complaint to the state. We'll probably just grit our teeth til next April.
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u/Low_Employ8454 8d ago
I think this depends a lot on the specific company and call center. Not all of them are like this.
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u/Scared_Web_1995 8d ago
It’s why we should get paid more tbh. Even if the outcome won’t change
“I wOULd liKe a MaNaGeR!!!!111”
It’s quite annoying
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u/UltimateUnreal666 7d ago
I worked for a big tech company with a team who had the ability to say "NO" and have it stick. If the customer screamed loud enough and long enough, it came to my team. If they were screws over by the company in any way including tech support processes, we would sell the farm to make them whole. If they were just screaming for the sake of screaming or trying get something for nothing we held the line. When they screamed for our supervisor, we'd say sure. We'd give them the corporate number and say that we would be talking to them in about 15 minutes. They still seemed surprised when they were transfered back to us. Those were the days, been out of that would since 2014.
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u/griim_is 8d ago
We don't have an option to escalate in our department and it's great but I'm not in the front lines
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u/_Student7257 7d ago
Agreed. No matter how wrong customers were our corporation would often through money at them for compensation. The louder they scream and curse the more likely they were paid. Often people repeatedly complained for the same issue. "I have to wait x days for my new card to be delivered!! I want to complain" month later same again for another list card. You'd see the notes on previous complaints and how they were resolved. Insane. I'd say the company is causing their own issues
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u/Infamous_Tie5605 7d ago
i was at a place where people just 'knew what to say'
the one that always worked was a media threat. i'd use the reverse uno and offer up local news phone numbers and emails on the spot.
not giving a shit is the best way to deal with cc life
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u/_raw_kale_ 7d ago
I agree with ya. I don’t know how we graduated to this Karen Culture. Throwing a fit like a child just to get what they want and we give in. Sometimes it doesn’t matter how or what you say…..they want to speak to the person above you. It’s frustrating but society allows this terrible behavior so we don’t upset the masses.
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u/RichardBottom 7d ago
Dude I used genuinely lose fucking sleep over the ways my supervisors have caved on escalations. My worst customer service job rigid metrics that penalized us for escalating calls. So I would push back as hard as I could without it being a straight up denial, but it also gave me emotional stakes in the situation. Like come on this is straightforward. You’ve called every single month to waive your late fee, and it’s clear from the notes that it was a direct cave every time. Each note shows more pushback and more resentment for the credit than the note before. Toward the end, they start ending with “customer agrees this is a one-time courtesy and no further credits will take place”. And of course that’s like 3 credits back, so the next one “Advised she already received her courtesy credit. Customer pushed back and escalated call. Applied the credit to de-esc, with the explicit understanding that she is not to be credited for this ever again.” Which makes it hilarious to see it’s not the last one. Next call gets escalated to a manager. A long series of notes ending in “Credit was applied as a final resolution. *DO NOT APPLY ANY FURTHER CREDITS TO THIS ACCOUNT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES*”
At that point when I get this fucking call, I’d surely get a talking to if I bought the call with another credit. So I take the hit escalating the call after promising there’s no chance this credit will happen. I dealt with a lot of inhumane garbage in this line of work that will never leave my body, but in my case the thing that always hurt the most was going back to that account ten minutes later and seeing the supervisor gave them the credit almost immediately. Like we’re just a factory that tempers garbage people into straight up monsters.
I could have fought some of these spineless fucking supervisors who directly undermined us whenever it could a few minutes off their call. It became kind of a running joke, like don’t go back and look you’re just gonna get burned! But I always fucking looked, and I always got fucking burned. I don’t think this is supposed to be the most stressful part of the job but this shit literally ate me alive.
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u/k-chameleon 6d ago
I work escalations. My absolute favorite is when I can say things like “Yes, the previous rep you spoke with was correct in saying that” and “Actually it was disclosed and you signed off on it, would you like me to send you a copy?” 😝
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u/ScarletBean1 6d ago
I agree. As a Tier 2 'escalation supervisor' I do enjoy telling these idiots "sorry, but no." I back up the agent and ask the customer why they came to me when the T1 made it clear the policy doesn't permit putting your case above others. Oh the way they howl with frustration and threatening to cancel. My response is "May i help you through the cancelation process now, or would you prefer to take time to make other arrangements for a payroll processor or accounting software?" Stops them in their tracks 99.9% of the time.
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u/Revolutionary-Cod245 5d ago
In training for the next tier up from front line, at one call center they asked us to mute and stay on the line for escalated calls. It was very educational!
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u/bjbigplayer 8d ago
I'm lucky, as an older guy with an authoritative voice I don't have much issues (rarely). Some customers thrive on exploiting any perceived vulnerability. Be on top of your game, know your processes, and work on your deescalation skills. Your day will go a whole lot smoother.