{"id":14415,"date":"2022-06-06T17:44:51","date_gmt":"2022-06-06T16:44:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.adrianswinscoe.com\/?p=14415"},"modified":"2022-06-06T17:44:51","modified_gmt":"2022-06-06T16:44:51","slug":"new-research-finds-that-customer-service-agents-are-abusing-customers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.adrianswinscoe.com\/2022\/06\/new-research-finds-that-customer-service-agents-are-abusing-customers\/","title":{"rendered":"New research finds that customer service agents are abusing customers"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the end of March, Olga Khazan writing in The Atlantic published an article that asked \u201cWhy People Are Acting So Weird.\u201d<\/a> The article describes how, in addition to the widespread and much-lauded hand-clapping for healthcare workers that took place during the pandemic, we’ve also seen a general uptick in impatience, rudeness and, in general, anti-social behavior during the same time.<\/p>\n

The article lists how people have variously punched gate agents at airports, lost it on planes, thrown tantrums on ski slopes, are driving their cars more recklessly, causing more accidents, and being more violent towards doctors and nurses.<\/p>\n

Perplexed by this rise in rude and obnoxious behavior, Khazan investigated why we are seeing a surge in such behavior. After speaking to several experts, she concluded that, as social beings, the last two years of lock-downs and movement restrictions have changed us.<\/p>\n

That may seem like an obvious thing to conclude, but she goes on to say that, for many, the last two years have gone a long way towards loosening the bonds and the social norms that would normally bind us together, and it is this loosening that has lead to an increase in rule-breaking and out of the norm behavior.<\/p>\n

As Robert Sampson, a Harvard sociologist, states in the article, “We’re more likely to break rules when our bonds to society are weakened.”<\/p>\n

The service and experience sector has not escaped these changes and has recently experienced its own rise in hostility and abusive behavior.<\/p>\n

Research by The Institute of Customer Service in the UK<\/a> found that more than half of all customer-facing staff have faced abuse and hostility since the start of the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, on a recent podcast<\/a>, Joel Bailey of Arwen<\/a> told me that research conducted by Ditch the Label<\/a>, a charity, found that “instances of and discussions around online hate speech have increased 38% since the beginning of the pandemic.”<\/p>\n

But, it’s not only agents that are receiving abuse. Some of them are dishing it out too.<\/p>\n

Netomi<\/a>, a leading provider of AI-powered virtual agents, has just released some new research conducted in January of this year called The State of Customer Service<\/a> and some of their findings are startling.<\/p>\n

Here are some of the pertinent and startling headlines:<\/p>\n