At the risk of disloyalty to my 'home and native land' i.e. Canada; I tolerate Tim Horton's coffee. I'll drink it if I'm on the road, need a jolt and there isn't anything else i.e. Starbucks reasonably available. My wife, who recently became a Canadian citizen, now thinks the same way. She told me "now I must be a Canadian; my taste buds have died."
While I may have misgivings about Tim Horton's offerings I do have tremendous respect for the staff who deliver them. They work very hard: rushing to meet sometimes simple, sometimes complicated orders and taking it on the chin for their colleagues if the coffee is not quite right or a sandwich is goofed up, and always with a smile on their face. They are worth far more than what they are paid.
So when I read the first CBC story about a New Brunswick man being barred from a local Timmie's because of the lousy coffee I initially sympathized.
Then I read a followup about the customer being aggressive...I only wish people receive what is rightfully theirs, which appears to be the case.
Contact center agents would no doubt agree with the coffee/donut chain. Except that the abuse they receive comes from the lowest of the low; the bullying cowards who would dare not spew their obnoxious language-wrapped-in-attitude face-to-face lest they risk being embarrassed in front of the other customers by being ejected. Dealing with these idiots is one of the biggest annoyances of the job: up there with terrible supervisors.
My wife used to work for one of Canada's largest contact centers connected to a major retailer. When her and her colleagues got a rude caller they bounced them to their supervisors; notes would be made in their files. Somehow that doesn't same effect as telling them the contact center will end the transaction or in extreme or frequent cases cancel the account and have the lowlife charged with harassment.
Companies like Tim Horton's, where employees interact with customers face-to-face make it clear to the clientele that these enterprises have the right to refuse service and, as the Canadian coffee giant demonstrated, will make this stick. Perhaps contact centers need a similar approach and language printed on bills and posted on web sites. Give the scum 'three strikes and you're out'. Perhaps institute a trigger of two objectionable calls for supervisors to make outbound inquiries to the dear persons to see "what's their problem?"
Contact centers have one edge over hospitality/retail or other in-person establishments in that the calls/contacts are recorded, providing proof of transgression. They should use their powers to protect their most valuable asset: their staff.
