Please don't yell at me

[trickykitty]

It's a very surreal feeling at work when someone calls for a plumber and is actually, obviously nervous about calling. It's as though they are worried I'm going to yell at them through the phone. At the YMCA I would have stupid as hell people, but never actually nervous people.

I wonder what it is about calling out for a plumber or an electrician (as I'm sure they get these types of calls in that field as well) that causes a person to actually be nervous as though they are going to say the wrong thing and have the CSR jump down their throats.

Granted, putting the customer on hold or after the call has finished and then cussing them out for being dumb is a common occurrence for just about any CSR employee. But I still can't figure out why the caller would actually be nervous. Weird.

Comments

[channonyarrow.livejournal.com]

I wonder if any of it is connected to the sense of privacy around much plumbing? I mean, you haven't said if they're calling because their washing machine isn't draining or because they have a clogged toilet, but I think that in very broad terms, the context of "outflow" in plumbing is directly equivalent in some peoples' minds to their own bodies, and there's a lot of privacy and shame associated with bodily functions, particularly ones that go awry.

I know that in thinking about it, I would have more comfort calling because my water heater exploded than because my garbage disposal backed up - what am I putting in the garbage disposal, and how stupid am I to see that it is not working properly? I would wonder what the plumber was thinking when they came to solve the problem.

Of course, it's probably "god, not another one of these" rather than "oh god, it's probably a dead moose wrapped in shit because this person is just that classy", but I would be surprised to find out that electricians get calls with a tinge of shame to them.