Scottish Government’s Violence At Work Campaign Supports Call Centre Workers

A new ‘phone rage’ guide designed to highlight and reduce verbal abuse in the workplace is being sent to call centre workers as part of the Scottish government’s Violence At Work campaign.

Scotland’s call centre industry employs approximately 60,000 staff who handle 26 million calls every day and according to The Daily Record newspaper, customers are often bombarded with multi-choice menus, a long call queue, and repetitive music whilst on hold; resulting customers patience and frustration being aimed at customer service agents find themselves who end up in the firing line.

The new guide is aimed at educating both call centre workers and customers that it is not acceptable to verbally abuse people at work and in some cases it can even be illegal. According to research carried out by the Scottish government, 37% of staff in customer facing roles have suffered abuse.

The guide is based on a model that was created by the Student Loans Company, which helps staff understand why customers become aggressive and helps them learn how to defuse those situations.

A video is also available on the website with the name of 'Punchbag' which illustrates the effects felt by all workers who face physical and verbal violence every day at work.

Further information and the video is available from the Scottish governments campaign website here

Last month a Citizens Advice Bureau survey showed that BT and British Gas were amongst the worst at providing good customer service from its call centre's.

A Guardian news report stated on 5th Feb:

British Gas and BT have been singled out for failing on customer service, as research shows that utility company call centres have the worse track record for dealing with complaints.

A Citizens Advice Bureau survey found nearly a third of respondents spent more than half an hour on the phone to their utility companies trying to resolve problems with their services.

The vast majority (77%) of those completing a survey on the charity's website were unable to resolve their problems in just one call. Even though many utility companies provide cheap or freephone numbers, the report warned that those without a landline faced huge bills trying to get through on their mobile phones.

Advisers in the Citizens Advice Bureau's 77 offices in England and Wales face the same problems when trying to contact utility companies on behalf of clients, the report says. The charity estimates that bureau could help up to 55,000 extra people a year if calls from advisers to utility companies lasted no more than 10 minutes.

Citizens Advice Bureau chief executive David Harker, commenting on the quality of customer service delivered by utility providers said,

"Utilities such as gas and telecoms are essential services that people need in order to survive in the modern world ... yet this report shows that many companies have a long way to go."

This all adds to the daily verbal violence suffered by many call centre workers and the Scottish Government believe now that enough is enough. It considers that along with physical abuse, verbal abuse can often be seen as a crime against the individual, and has set up the new website in an attempt to support call centre workers and educate the public at the same time to understand that verbal abuse is not acceptable.

The TUC website has a special section dealing with violence at work here

Source: The Daily Record / The Guardian / Kana Newsletter

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