Obscene/Harassing caller

[hskye1010]

Hi,

I'm a call center manager and working on setting up all possible call scenarios. One thing I need to cover is how to handle the obscene/harassing caller who continues to call back and say very vulgar things to our call center personnel.

What are your experiences and advice about this?
How to handle this and how to prevent the repeat caller?

Please share your idea about this!

Thanks in advance

Joan

[cjw17]

Our telephony today allows us to identify where calls originate. Not only that, but callers have to go through our IVR to get to a live rep...it takes time to get through the menu & i don't think it gets the obscene caller in the mood.
Our procedures are that if a client starts to use profane language, we tell the client we will disconnect the call it the profanity occurs again (& we do disconnect the call). However, if the caller doesn't identify themselves as a client & just starts using obscenity, our CSR's disconnect the call & notify their teamleader or supervisor. If you are repeatedly harrassed, the supervisor should escalate this & the police should be notified.
We are a financial services firm. Years ago we had a frequent caller we referred to as the "in & out man". He would call and ask what seemed to be legitimate questions about a mutual fund. Then he'd start asking about whether he could put money in this fund and then take it out...he'd go on like this until the CSR realized what he was saying. Eventually we all got to the point where we recognized his voice; we'd disconnect as soon as we were sure it was him.
Hope this helps. Amazing what people will do just because you have an 800 number.

[jlc@cfcu]

If you are receiving repeated calls from someone using vulgarity or profanity there are definite ways to deter these callers.
1. If your company has caller ID capabilities simply inform the caller that you do have there number and you are going to be reporting to the police if one more call is received by them.
2. If you have the ability to record calls have the agent or the manager begin recording and inform the caller that you are recording and this may be turned over to the authorities.
3. If neither of these options are viable then you could make it policy that your reps will transfer these calls to their supervisor informing the caller that the calling is being sent to a manager and send with out further listening to the caller...no one pays a call center rep enough to be verbally and sometimes emotionally abused by callers.
4. You also could contact your phone provider because most of them offer the ability to trace calls and record individual calls and some can link them to the proper authorities if need be...then you could use methods 1 or 2 without the cost of changing phone and or software equipment.

[hskye1010]

Dear cjw17 and jlc (Sorry, I couldn't reconize you guys names)

How insightful you are!
Thanks for the helpful advices. Really helpful.

I had bad experience in my previous company where one of my team member actually cried when a pervert made calls repeatedly. I bravely volunteered to handle the weired calls and found myself furious and mad with the crazy call.
It was hard to detect the call ID because he used public phone.
Warning about the recording didn't work.

Though our call center has a policy that never hang up on the caller, I'll make an exception with the vulgar one.
Thanks cjw and jlc, I'll talk with phone provider about this and consider some related authorities' involvement in this case.

Thanks again,
Joan