subject: Managing Call Centers Difficult Customers Through Transactional Analysis [print this page] Call center agents often experience unpleasant interactions with their customers. As call center outsourcing providers follow the rule of customer being always right, they find themselves in a hitch of what to do next. To understand the behavior of customers in a better and scientific way, let us follow Transactional Analysis (TA) which is an integrative approach to the theory of psychology and psychotherapy.
This approach works on the physiological structure of customers and is based on one of the best model of theory of personality which is Ego-State Model.
This Ego State model has three phases which are parents, adults and children ego states.
Parent Ego State: It is a phase where we copy the behavior of someone influential in our lives. It is an unconscious mimicking. For instance, a customer shouts on you because he might have seen his parents shouting at children in order to get something done.
Adult Ego State: If a person is in adult ego state, he has the most realistic view of objectives and the most positive view of a situation.
Child Ego State: It is a stage where we mentally behave like as we did in our childhood days. For example after a poor evaluation customer start crying or behave sulkily and respond joyfully, thanks with a broad smile after receiving excellent call center services.
So, call center agents should understand these states and keep them in mind. An agent should avoid the following while being on call:
1) Shouting back at your customers
2) Feeling annoyed or irritated because of their behavior.
3) Go in silent mode and do not reply.
Instead,
1) An agent should consider adult mode and try to calm the customers by applying facts and logic to achieve a positive outcome.
2) An aggressive parental or child ego state from the agents state can only worsen the situation and hinder the ability to reach a solution.
If you go by the first solution, customer will be taken aback by your response as he wont be expecting the kind of calmness after hurling all sorts of disagreeable remark on you. This would ease the situation and reduce your call time.
So, it is recommended for agents that they should apologize and make amends even if there is no mistake from companys side and to remain calm and then come up with the most suitable reply.
