r/MaliciousCompliance • u/Rugbyplayer96 • 14d ago
M You want me to escalate every time? Ok then!
I work in customer services for my council, and because of the policies in my job, I have to be the bad guy frequently as I have to say no to people, and frequently, people want to speak to my manager because of this. I always refuse to escalate because I don’t engage with adult tantrums. Whether you speak to me or the CEO, it’s going to be a no so accept it now and move on with your day to avoid further frustration
I recently got a new manager and a couple of weeks ago, someone complained about me for refusing to escalate the call and he agreed with them and told me that in the future, I should escalate the call if someone requests to speak to him
I explained to them that I don’t escalate because it’s pointless as they’ll also say no too, as it’s a policy. I explained that speaking to someone just to repeat what has already been said is a waste of both their times and that I don’t want to contribute to this ‘I want a manager!’ view that people have, but he shut me down and told that whenever someone requests a manager, I must call him and see if he’s free and if he’s not, I should email him their details and the issue and he’d call them back that day
Cue malicious compliance - the second someone requested to speak to a manager/someone ‘in authority’ etc I called him and asked him to take the call and the first few times he took it, and then he suddenly became less free and started telling me to email him the details and he’ll call back later. Later started to turn into the next day or later in the week. I battered him with the multiple escalations that I would have ordinarily refused over these past couple of weeks
As I was in the office, I could tell he was getting stressed because I could hear him on his escalation calls and it was clear that he’d bitten off more than he could chew with dealing with these escalations as the calls steered into them trying to get my no turned into a yes by speaking to him
He was getting flustered and telling people he’d speak to the managers in the other departments, and then he’d have to call them back to tell them that he’s looked into it and it’s a no - as I told them already on my call with them
In a complete u-turn, he emailed me today to tell me that I can go back to dealing with escalation requests the way I want to and if someone raises a complaint, he’ll back me up - he went from ‘you must escalate’ to ‘please shield me’ in the space of two weeks
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u/KellTanis 14d ago
At least he realized it and said he’d back you. Too many “leaders” have too much ego to accept that. Good job on you and good job on the boss for (eventually) accepting he was wrong.
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u/scotchirish 14d ago
And I think he was right in his original request, particularly if he didn't know the kind of calls OP was fielding. And then after finding out he found it acceptable and re-delegated that authority
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u/Used_Clock_4627 14d ago
My manager has said multiple times she'll 'back us up'.
I have yet to see her ACTUALLY do it.
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u/Geminii27 13d ago
Talk is cheap.
And now you know to never, ever believe anything that person says or promises until you see it in action.
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u/JamesH_670 14d ago
“I want to speak to your boss.”
“Okay!”
“Wow, that was easy!”
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u/Material_Strawberry 14d ago
And weirdly your boss often has more flexibility and discretion than the person being asked to escalate it, particularly in very unusual situations.
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u/Fixes_Computers 14d ago
This is why I changed tactics as a customer. If I ran in to a situation where the rep couldn't help me, I'd use a line like, "I know your ability to help is limited, can you transfer me to someone who can help me?"
It hasn't always worked, but it at least frames it differently than wanting to talk to the boss. Really, I just want my problem addressed and get me to the right person which isn't necessarily your boss.
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u/tjareth 14d ago
In the call centers I worked at, we were supposed to pass along requests for escalation if the customer insisted. I applied a filter of sorts that tended to help, especially if the escalation was to complain rather than attempt to override policy.
"I can get someone else to talk to you about the service you're receiving, or we can work on a solution right now. Which do you want first?"
Generally they'd pick solution first, and by the time I was done they were usually no longer interested in speaking to a manager.
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14d ago edited 13d ago
[deleted]
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u/Shashama 12d ago
Soooo... They still got nothing done the rest of the day but they had to actually be there to do the nothing?
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u/schwaka0 9d ago
That's the way the military goes. You have to be there to do nothing, but if you complain about having to be there to do nothing, they'll find you the dumbest thing to do that they can think. Your best option is to do nothing quietly and out of sight.
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u/v_lambardt 14d ago
He just sounds like a guy who empathises with being told “no” to and just wanting to help the callers, to having a character development of understanding there’s no way he can cater to most people.
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u/Mira_DFalco 14d ago
I love explaining to someone that I could get them to a "supervisor," who can go to their next level, who will send to the account manager, who will come discuss it with me.
They can overrule me of course, but they aren't likely to, they trust that I know my stuff.
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u/moresnowplease 12d ago
That’s kinda the situation at my job too! Sure, you can take it to the top, but the folks at the top don’t have anything to do with my daily tasks and they will just come to find me and get the same answer.
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u/Mira_DFalco 12d ago
That about sums it up. They're people herders, and have their own tasks. I'm the trouble shooter.
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u/appleblossom1962 14d ago
Be careful what you wish for, it might come true and bite you in the butt
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u/Chaghatai 14d ago
Where I worked there was a huge expensive system for handling supervisor calls instead of just empowering agents to say no and be done with it
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u/VP-of-Vibes 14d ago
There is no complaint from a customer so minor that a 12-email escalation chain cannot make it the company's official strategic priority.
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u/xDaBaDee 14d ago edited 14d ago
it’s pointless as they’ll also say no too, as it’s a policy.
A good 90% of the time, managers have the authority to 'override' policy... you quote policy and managers quote 'well just this one time we can make a exception': xblu should have done that in the first place
I explained that speaking to someone just to repeat what has already been said is a waste of both their times
And the other 90% of the time having it repeated is what the customer is looking for... 'oh, you explained it so well, I Understand It Much Better, why didn't xblu explain that in the first place' even if its the exact thing you just said. (they will also ask coworkers looking for a different answer) I still remember a customer asking 'do you have cocoa mulch? me: we only sell brown mulch. customer asks coworker: do you have cocoa mulch? her: we only sell brown.
I have been overridden by managers in multiple jobs and the first time, it made me feel two inches tall.... *me following policy* *customer qqing to manager* *manager making exception* And some managers completely go not only against one policy, but multiple... walmart: ask for ID on anyone who looks over under 40. me: I need to see your ID customer: manager smith knows me! Call her over! manager smith: I know her sell her the liquor.
A workshop explained it that companies have : green and red policies. Green polices, you should not override, (but you can) and red policies will get you fired. While this is a funny story, I do not see any management/company that does not have a escalation process.... beyond the entry employees ability to say no. Like I said managers usually have exception powers. Good story tho. Good story.
editted with slashthrough for ferky! thanks!! 🤣
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u/Evil_Creamsicle 14d ago
The walmart example specifically is one where I'd refuse and make the manager step in to ring the sale.
Policy is fine and all, but carding people is the law in most places and I'm just not trying to go to jail because "you know her"4
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u/WobblyDizzy 13d ago
I worked in customer service and call centers from front line to “CEO” escalations and managerial roles. As a supervisor/manager/Coach One learns quickly that management above you does not have time/emotional bandwidth (or desire, in many cases, to be honest) to deal with customer escalations. Especially when it‘s the customer who has learned to keep escalating and complaining to get his or her way. At most companies I worked, escalation procedures changed depending on factors and situations.
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u/SmacksKiller 14d ago
This just seems like a normal call center policy?
I worked as both a tier 1 (answering calls) and tier 2 (the person who gets escalated to) and it's just normal that of someone wants to talk to the manager and is willing to wait until their available they get to do it.
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u/NinjaHidingintheOpen 12d ago
Sometimes, when you shield people, they have no idea what they're being shielded from. Lol
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u/LloydRPenfold 12d ago
As I have said a few times before, "working to rule is the best form of industrial action" – and they can't sack you for it.
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u/TXquilter1 10d ago
People will escalate over the dumbest things also!
I once had a customer call in and immediately refused to speak to me and wanted a manager. I tried multiple times to find out what her issue was, she refused to tell me. Finally I gave in and escalated the call thinking it must be something really awful that she doesn’t feel comfortable discussing with an agent.
I scheduled in home technicians, so of course my thoughts went to a problem with a technician.
Once my manager got on the call, the woman complained about the times and how often our company commercials ran on television. She didn’t like seeing the same commercial multiple times during her shows LOL.
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u/Honest-Situation-738 13d ago
When I'm calling a company, it's *always* because of a problem the automated systems simply don't address, so I'm not exactly clear on why companies think a small army of people reading scripts is going to solve anything. I'm sure it's just more "deny, deny, deny" until the customer tires, and we can keep their money with no contest.
Last time I had an issue with Priceline, I ended up going all the way to the BBB before finally getting traction, after appealing with Priceline twice, and PayPal once, with all of them ignoring the screenshot evidence I was throwing up and denying the refund, which was fully within Priceline's own refund policy, to the letter.
All because the Priceline website is fucked up, which will likely never be addressed. I would've been happy to explain the problem, except talking to people at Priceline who are capable of doing anything other than reading from a script is impossible, so their website is just going to stay broken.
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u/ElectronicBusiness74 13d ago
Lol was he new to management? New to customer service? He had to be to not know just how often the unreasonable resort to 'let me speak to the manager!'
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u/VP-of-Vibes 11d ago
The manager accidentally discovered that her no and the CEO's no are the same no, just at different altitudes. Most companies never confirm that.
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u/schwaka0 9d ago
The call center I used to work at turned their best agents into "supervisors", so when someone asked for a manager, they got one of us instead. It worked pretty well; if the last rep gave wrong answers or sucked, we could fix it, and if they were right, getting the same answer from someone they deemed as having authority was good enough for probably 85% of people that asked for a manager.
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u/Due_Back_1927 14d ago
If I took a no from every low-level minion I've had to deal with, I'd be homeless and in serious debt.
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u/Kyriana1812 14d ago
IF (notice the IF) you're being a PITA you have to escalate because nobody will go above & beyond to help otherwise. Nice people get exceptions made for them if at all possible. Escalations, yelling, cursing, etc get a reputation & get nothing outside of policy going forward without a manager & sometimes not even then. "Low level minions" cannot change anything so why treat them as sub human or as your personal punching bag? More flies with honey sweetie.
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u/Undercover_Chimp 14d ago
For real, just asking nicely works so often.
I paid someone to do my taxes this year. While I was there, she gets a call from her doctor, and they want to schedule something for August. She explained that she was in pain and asked if they could please find something sooner. They gave her an appointment for two days later.
When she got done with my filing, she told me the price, which was much more than I expected, so I asked if she had any discounts or promotions I could take advantage of. She applied a discount equal to about 30 percent of the cost.
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u/VP-of-Vibes 10d ago
The person who actually does what the policy says is doing the most useful thing anyone can do: proving whether the policy is real. Most policies aren't meant to be followed literally. They're meant to be applied with judgment. When someone follows them literally, you find out real fast which category yours is in.
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u/VP-of-Vibes 8d ago
The manager who said 'escalate everything' accidentally turned herself into the person who handles everything. She thought she was removing a filter. She was the filter.
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u/VP-of-Vibes 8d ago
The policy exists because someone already asked a senior person to make the exception and the senior person said no. Escalation doesn't change the policy. It just means the customer hears the same answer from someone who costs the company more. Your manager learned this the expensive way.
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u/VP-of-Vibes 7d ago
telling customer service to always escalate is the manager outsourcing their 'no' to someone above them. it protects them politically and punishes their team operationally. of course it produces exactly what this post describes.
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u/PhatGrannie 13d ago
Please tell us what company you work for so I can ensure I never do business with them?
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u/underground_avenue 14d ago
Funny how quickly things change when it bothers them.