Customer abuse is a sad reality all contact centre employees have to deal with. So how do you protect your agents – physically and mentally – when these instances occur?
Our Editor, Megan Jones, spoke to Alec Bowman-Clarke, Jessica Ham, Kim Ellis, and Marianne Withers to uncover some of the best strategies you can use to help your agents.
10 Ways to Protect Your Agents from Customer Abuse
1. Empower Agents to Put the Phone Down on Abusive Customers
It’s a positive step to add “We do not tolerate abuse to our staff” messages into your IVR, but no good if it’s an empty statement. You have to empower your agents to follow it through, to live and breathe it, and make them feel confident that the protection is there.
“If a customer swears over the phone or is abusive in any way, give the advisor the autonomy to say, ‘I’m sorry, but I’m not able to continue this call,’ and allow them to end the call.
I think that can seem extreme in some circumstances, but we need to give our frontline advisors the autonomy and the permission to reiterate that “We don’t accept this.”
This is what having a zero-tolerance policy means.” – Jessica Ham, an experienced contact centre leader and receiver of the UKCCF Gold Award for Head of Contact Centre
For advice on when an agent can hang up on a customer, read our article: When Is It OK to Hang Up on a Customer?
2. Transfer Abusive Customers to Agents Who Can Cope With Them (Some Even Enjoy It!)
It can really help to assess the different personality types in your team when it comes to protecting your agents from abusive customers, as some people will be more sensitive and best left with the less emotive queries, whilst others might relish the challenge!
“When I was an agent, I personally loved the complexity of an abusive caller.
It was much more interesting, and every time someone got shouty with me, I just got better at explaining.
It was brilliant. It got to a point where other members of the team would pass abusive callers on to me because they knew I’d enjoy it and be able to handle it well.” – Alec Bowman-Clarke, WFO Consultant at Darling Solutions Ltd
3. Warn Agents During the Interview Process If Customer Abuse Levels Are High
Some industries are more likely to attract abuse than others – particularly if customers are calling up about emotionally charged issues such as prescriptions or energy supplies, so make sure you warn new recruits of what the job is really like during the interview stage. This will help them to mentally prepare for the role and also decide early on if it’s not for them.
“If your customers regularly shout at your agents because of the stressful nature of the calls, one of the best ways to protect your agents is to manage their expectations from day one and make sure they feel they can handle tough calls.
Playing examples of these calls during or even before the interview and asking, ‘Would you be able to handle these types of calls?’ is a good way to make sure you’re hiring the right people for the role who have the mental resilience to cope.” – Marianne Withers, Founder of withers jones
4. Set a Policy for Taking Your Lanyard Off When Leaving the Building
Even though agents are not physically customer-facing when they’re in a contact centre, they could still be open to abuse on their lunch breaks – particularly if the company struggles with negative publicity.
One way to tackle this is to have a policy for agents to take off their lanyard and any branded items when they leave the building.
“When I worked for an online betting company, they always said, ‘Don’t wear your lanyard outside of the office.’ This was to protect employees from potential attacks from people facing gambling debt.” – Kim Ellis, Chief Learning Architect at Go Ginger Learning Solutions
The risk is small, but it’s a simple step that can protect all staff in the long run.
5. Remind Agents the Abuse Is Directed at the Company – Not at Them
It sounds obvious, but it can really help to regularly remind agents that abusive customers aren’t angry at them. The customer is frustrated because they haven’t received the level of service that they want.
Train them to see it as an opportunity to turn the situation around. They might even enjoy the challenge and reap the rewards of the customer thanking them and even apologizing for their behaviour by the end.
Using practical de-escalation techniques can help contact centre agents deal with a challenging customer and defuse the situation. For advice on this, read our article: The Best De-Escalation Techniques
6. Provide Clear Escalation Pathways for Agents to Lean Into If They Need To
Agents can quickly feel out of their depth when customers turn abusive, so make sure you provide them with clear escalation pathways so they know how and when they can pass the caller on to a supervisor – without judgement.
“Protecting agents from customer abuse is about giving them all the right training, skills, and business knowledge to support the conversation, but also putting in appropriate escalation routes.
Because unfortunately, sometimes it’s just that that customer is unhappy and it’s best all round to pass the caller on to someone else.” – Jessica Ham
7. Play Abusive Calls During Training Sessions and Discuss How to Handle Them
Share examples of abusive customers during training exercises and discuss how to handle them.
“If you’re lucky, abusive callers are few and far between, but you still don’t want it to be a nasty surprise for any agent who has to handle one, so make sure you include these calls in your training sessions – particularly with new starters – so you can explain how to deal with them.
It’s about saying to your people, ‘These are our values. This is how we operate, and this is what we want to empower you to do in this rare situation’.” – Jessica Ham
For advice on using mock calls in training, read our article: How to Use Mock Calls to Improve Agent Performance – With Free Exercises
8. Debrief Agents on How They Handled Any Abusive Customers
…And then make sure it’s part of your ongoing QA process to review any calls with abusive customers and talk through how the agent handled them and how they could have leaned in more to available support to make the situation easier on them.
“If you pick up a call where a customer has been abusive, talk to the agent about it. Sometimes they just need reminding that even though they handled the situation really well, it’s not what you expect them to have to deal with and they could have leaned into support options to end the call or escalate it to another member of the team.” – Jessica Ham
9. Give Your Agents Extra Support When They’ve Dealt With an Abusive Customer
Never forget that dealing with abusive customers is draining for the agent and put in place practical support to reflect that.
For example, give agents access to mental health first aiders or helplines, offer them a cup of tea and biscuit immediately afterwards, or even add a code into your WFM system to allow them to take an additional wellbeing break to recharge.
If you want advice on how to give agents the added time and support they need to handle angry callers, read our article: How to Support an Agent After an Angry Call
10. Don’t Forget to Support Your Remote Workers Too
Remote workers can feel the burden of abusive customers far heavier than those sitting beside their teammates in the office, so make sure to keep an even closer eye on them.
“If your agents are virtual – which a lot of them are nowadays – then make an effort to say, ‘Look, I’ve put you off for five minutes, so you can grab a cup of tea’, or ‘Let’s have a quick chat.’
It’s about checking and making sure they are ok before they continue on to their next call – even when they aren’t sitting in the contact centre beside you.” – Kim Ellis
Address the Issues That Make Customers Angry in the First Place
There are lots of ways to give agents the support they need to feel protected from customer abuse. However, some would argue they shouldn’t have to deal with it at all!
If your agents are receiving abuse because of ongoing service issues or waiting in long queues to speak to someone, then it’s time to take a long hard look in the mirror and make some positive changes to take the heat off the frontline.
How Do You Protect Your Agents From Customer Abuse?
Join our LinkedIn community group and let us know
With thanks to the following people for sharing their thoughts and experiences for this article:
- Alec Bowman-Clarke, WFO / WEM / WFE Consultant at Darling Solutions Ltd
- Jessica Ham, an experienced contact centre leader and receiver of the UKCCF Gold Award for Head of Contact Centre
- Kim Ellis, Chief Learning Architect at Go Ginger Learning Solutions
- Marianne Withers, Founder of withers jones
If you are looking for more information on handling abusive and challenging customer contacts, read these articles next:
- A Policy for Dealing With Abusive Customers
- An Action Plan for Customer Service Agent Abuse
- Answers: Coping With Angry and Abusive Customers
Author: Megan Jones
Reviewed by: Jo Robinson
Published On: 15th Jan 2025
Read more about - Call Centre Management, Alec Bowman-Clarke, Angry Customers, Jessica Ham, Kim Ellis, Leadership, Marianne Withers, Team Management, Top Story, Well Being
