When A Little Bit Of Your Humanity Sneaks Through

I work in a call centre for an Internet provider. It can be a thankless job with bad days, and this day seemed to be one of them. For context, this is the only time I have ever said anything like this to a customer. I’m always cordial, no matter my temper, even if I have to hang up on a customer.

It had been a rough day, with a lot of angry customers and very stupid calls, and I was at the end of my rope, even though I have had days like that before, I don’t know why that day was different.

A customer had been ranting about her poor Internet service. I was sympathetic, but as an agent with no technical training, I could not help her. I had been trying for ten minutes to transfer her, but she would not let me get a word in. Finally, she started to wind down.

Customer: “…and I’ll have you know, I’m very upset!”

I responded in the most unimpressed and done tone.

Me: “Yeah, no kidding.”

It was a second of silence later that I realized how badly I had just screwed up. I apologized profusely, stated that it had been a mistake, and offered some compensation.

I don’t know if maybe she realized that the ten-minute rant was a bit overboard or what, but she accepted the compensation and let me get her over to a tech.

All my coworkers had heard was my remark and my frantic attempt to fix it. We can laugh at it now, but it was definitely not funny in the moment.