Rant: My shift lead at the call center bet me $20 that saying sorry first makes angry callers worse, and he won | Customer Service Nightmares - Talk Freely
Rant: My shift lead at the call center bet me $20 that saying sorry first makes angry callers worse, and he won
I work at a call center in Boise taking insurance calls and I always thought you should never apologize first because it means you admit fault. My shift lead Marcus bet me $20 that leading with "I'm sorry, that sounds really frustrating" actually calms people down faster, and I took that bet thinking it was easy money. I tried it on 40 calls over two weeks and my average handle time dropped from 14 minutes to 9, plus two people who started screaming actually asked for my name to leave good feedback. On call 27 a guy who had been hung up on three times already just went quiet after I said sorry and then told me his wife was in the hospital, which had nothing to do with his claim. I paid Marcus his $20 and I've led with an apology on every call since, though I still feel weird about it. Has anyone else had a boss push a phone script on you that actually worked, or am I just lucky with these callers?