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Japanese office worker accidentally calls angry customer stupid, things turn out surprisingly well

Casey Baseel Dec 3, 2020
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You won’t find this technique in the employee manual.

Working in customer service, if a customer calls with a complaint you’re dealing with one of two types of people. The first is someone with a legitimate problem who’s looking for some kind of reasonable help. They’re the easy ones to handle.

But then there’s the second type, which is someone who’s just calling because they want to yell, fume, and otherwise make noise to show how angry they are. Since they’re not looking for any kind of feasible solution, you can’t do much to call them down, so when Japanese Twitter user Hayahiro Uki (@hayhironau) was working in an office and got a call from an extremely pissed off customer, he didn’t try to fight the guy, but instead figured he’d just go through the motions of pretending to listen to him.

会社員だった頃に激情型クレーマーの電話を取り「確かに・なるほど・そうですね」の3語しか発さないモードで30分怒鳴られ続けたんだけど「お前俺のこと馬鹿だと思ってるんだろ」って言われて「そうですね」と返事をしてしまい、気まずい沈黙の後に「そうか…俺が馬鹿だったのか」って呟かれて終話した

— 宇城はやひろ (@hayhironau) November 26, 2020

As Uki recalls:

“When I was working in an office, I was on the phone with a super angry customer. For about 30 minutes, I didn’t say anything other than a loop of ‘That’s correct,’ ‘I see,’ and ‘Yes, that’s true’ while he kept yelling.”

It’s an understandable tactic to protect his own mental well-being…until Uki got a little too comfortable in his response pattern.

“But then he suddenly asked ‘You think I’m stupid, don’t you?’ and I said ‘Yes, that’s true.’”

Regardless of whether or not it was an honest answer, Uki hadn’t meant to comment on the caller’s lack of intelligence. Luckily, it turned out to be the perfect response.

“There was a really awkward silence, until the guy softly said ‘I see…so I was acting stupid?’ and hung up.”

It’s a happy ending, and also a reminder that sometimes the only way to deal with someone who’s riled up is let them tire themselves out.

As for Uki, he’s since become a manga artist with two currently running series, Kirenu Pai Nado Anmari Nai and Yurumi-chan.

１：北海の孤独の女王
２：楽しい登校
３：空中騎兵の凱旋
４：見習い錬金術師の夜学
今年は明確に自分の色の塗り方を変えようと思った。
光と影でごまかしごまかしやってく良い感じの絵になりそう。
来年も頑張ろう！#2017年自分が選ぶ今年の4枚 pic.twitter.com/AqMHTDpA0g

— 宇城はやひろ (@hayhironau) December 23, 2017

As for the guy on the other end of the phone, no one knows what he’s up to, or if he ever got any smarter, but at least he’s now a little more self-aware.

Source: Twitter/@hayhironau via Hachima Kiko
Top image: Pakutaso
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Follow Casey on Twitter, where, for the record, he doesn’t think you’re stupid.