if you are rude to a linden should they be able to be rude to you?

I vote yes! absolutely

Of course. I'm imagining that right now, they are easily just as frustrated with the current situation as the users are--they don't need to be taking abuse from people, and if they do, they should be able to be as rude back as they want. There are people behind that text.

It is not a proper way to conduct business.

Proper shmoper. They are people, and they're obviously very frustrated with the new update, just as we are. If they start getting rude without being treated rudely first, then THAT is completely unacceptable.

Often times, being treated rudely after treating someone rude gives someone a wakeup call. I'm reminded of times that I've been rude to the phone company.

Nope; walk away, maybe, but not be rude. They represent Linden Lab, not themselves. It's never easy, but you just have to bite your lip.

hes right!

when you are building the "future of everything," you don't need to take shit from anyone

I fail to see any point to this, as customer service tactics in the business world are fairly consistant. An employee often has to deal with angry, upset and dissatisfied customers. This is a given. It is also a given that an employee will occassionally also have to deal with someone with no reason to be upset who is still just plain rude. How should they handle any of these situations? Clearly they do their best to reason with the customer. It is acceptable to be firm and even pushy at times with customers who step beyond an acceptable limit in their displeasure. But it is never acceptable to be rude back. "Rude" is not acceptable in business dealings in my experience. Insistant, forceful, and if necessary, even commanding...but not rude. If the customer is getting to you...you step away from the situation and ask someone else to handle it...or simply end the situation with, "I am sorry, sir but I can't help you until you calm down. Please contact us at that time." End of conversation.

No employee should have to deal with abuse from a customer. But any employee should refrain from abusing a customer in return. That is simply bad business. If you can't calm the customer, remove yourself from the situation...but don't stoop to their level and take part in a shouting match.

Every employee I ever managed was told this...Never take abuse from a customer. If you can't handle them, hand them off to someone higher up who gets paid more to handle them. BUT...if you fail to do that and are rude to the customer, you will be standing in an unemployement line. That should never be tolerated.

P.S. - I refuse to answer a poll that is intentionally biased and does not offer any valid options.

As a tech support person, I really sympathize with this situation. I know from personal experience what hits the front line when the systems fail.

It's hell.

That being said, I have to vote 'no'. Not that people who abuse support should not be delt with, but that it's a bad habit to get into. Where does it end? Who determines 'abuse'?

Now, is the situation right now a bit extreme? Aye. It's bad. A lot of people are making it worse in SL by abusing the people that link them to LL's office. I still think that support reps have to be held to a high standard of customer service, and that they have to learn not to take the job personally. If someone abuses them, it should be sent up to the Linden supervisor for him to determine the situation, and deal with it accordingly.

The person involved should not have to resolve this kind of conflict.

Of course, the industry standard is 3 strikes. If the person used profane or abusive language, you say "Please don't do that. I want to help, but we have to keep this on a professional level"... After the third warning, the line is disconnected and the supervisor warned of the situation. If the user calls back and does it again, he can lose support privilages. Period.

What LL's method is I don't know. So I can't comment on that.

Well, you all brought up very good points. When I have been rude to the phone company, which has happened about 4 times, they've been firm, a little pushy, and have said things like, "Sir, I am not a manager, and I don't need to be your verbal whipping post"--now, that might be considered rude to some people, but just firm by other people. I guess when I was thinking of a representative being rude back, I was thinking more on the lines of that example. Swearing or name-calling is never acceptable.

Even is teh customer gets rude an abusive, they got to stay professional. That's what customer service is, or should be, about. The most they can do is a be firm, but not rude. Customer service requires infite patience, if you don't have it, work elsewhere.

It's not that black and white. Lindens are being paid to do a job, that job entails dealing with the public, often unhappy public, which can mean encountering degree of unhappiness which may be expressed as rudeness.

Having said that being unhappy with a company or it's products or services is not an excuse for taking it out on an individual employee - other than the senior management directly responsible.

One would hope that, while training their staff to handle unhappy customers professionally, Linden Lab have procedures enabling staff to disengage in extreme circumstances and log a report.

Likewise one would hope that Linden Lab also have procedures to discipline staff who do not meet the required professional standards in dealing with linden Lab's customers.

Quoted for overwhelming truth.

This is very true

The Linden employees are representing Linden Labs not them selves. There are ways to handel rude people with out being rude back.

A employee that is rude and other not nice stuff, makes the company look bad when it might not be.

like for example the few U.S solders that do bad things like rape kill people in the country's they are deployed in. reflect back on all of the 1000s of good soldiers, making all of them look bad when they are not.

But it has to be pretty much black and white, at least as far as the procedue goes when dealing with problematic customers. There are a lot rude & aggresive customers out there that will make you want to reach for the nearest baseball bat lol, but you have to follow a procedue, and stay calm. The three strikes that Foolish mentioned is a good example.

I think we also have to appreciate that we all have off days. As long as someone having an off-day realises they are, and apologise, I think most people are pretty forgiving. When the off-days start to add up, though, it's perhaps time for a career change.

Not be rude, they should have every right to get impatient and even refuse to talk to you depending on how rude we're talking. Although it shouldn't get as far as being rude to a Linden. Even non-Lindens should TRY to be civil . My POV anyway.

Edit to add: Someone who worked in customer support told me that they were told customer support was their top priority, because if someone goes somewhere/buys something and has a good experience, they'll tell 1 or 2 people. If they have a bad experience they will tell EVERYONE. 12 or more people usually. Customer support should always be a very high priority.

Zap

Refuse to talk to you until you calm down? Yes.

Get impatient with you? No.

The key to being an effective customer service employee is to never, ever, under any circumstances lose control of your own self.

Yes...the customers will often be totally out of control. That is all the more reason you as they employee needs to remain logical, calm and most of all in control of the situation. Impatience is the sign of someone losing control of themselves as well as the customer.

If the situation can not be handled effectively with the customers current state of mind, either pass them to someone up the chain to handle or end the conversation firmly and in full control until they can calm down. But there is no excuse for an employee to lose control in any form. That is a luxury they have in their private lives but never when they are representing a company.

I have been in the retail business for 25 years and most of that I have had to deal with the general public one one one. I followed a very simple rule if some one is rude i let it go and still try to help them although the level of help will be directly proportional to the level of rudeness they display. If some one is rude and abusive as in cursing at me i end the conversation and walk away. no one should ever have to be treated in a degrading way. If they are rude and abusive in a physical way they are shown the door and asked to leave.
As for the customer that's nice and friendly they are always treated with the utmost respect and given my full attention and helped with what ever they need.

why would they lower themselves to resort to being rude?
the people being rude are fools and should be ignored and not validated by resorting to their low levels.

Well, I suppose it depends how far you take "get impatient". If I get impatient with a person or situation I generally walk away until I can handle it or are less frustrated with it (something to put in the ResMod brochure ).

I didn't think it this far through when typing it really , but I thought it went with "walk away" at the time, getting frustrated up to a point where you think you need to take a step back I suppose.

Zap

I think that if you're rude to a Linden they should be allowed to feed you to a bantha.

First, they would need to build a Bantha.

And with this release, that's bloody unlikely, isn't it?

haha you beat me to it

Rule of thumb customer service or a place of business should never be rude. But.. There seems to be an overwhelming amount of rude people in the world. It is difficult to not react to kind at times, and I am sure they go out of their way to hold their tounges, but when is enough?

So stop being rude you frigging people and maybe someone will not be rude to you!

While I think that they should be able too, I have to agree with Gave that they shouldn't do it.

It sucks, but that's just the way business works. Customers are idiots and you just have to suck it up.

(to a point of course)