I’m not much of a ranter these days. It just takes too much effort. But I’m sooo tired of call center assistors who assume I’m a man.
Now, my voice is a little low. But it’s not that low. And even if I sounded like Barry White, look at my name! It’s Melanie. Pretty feminine, right?
Most recently, this happened with HSBC, where I have enough money in a savings account that you’d think they’d bother to check, and, yesterday, United Airlines. I’m going to Las Vegas in February with an old college roommate, and I received a cryptic automated call that I needed to call United about my itinerary. I thought it was a little weird that I wasn’t given the option of pressing a button right then, but I did what they wanted.
Assistor No. 1 started the conversation by calling me “Sir.” I said I was a woman. She became flustered. I’d gone online by then, and said it appeared the first leg of my return flight had been canceled. She said yes and that she could get me on a flight that left Las Vegas five minutes later. I asked why they hadn’t just said that in the message (or sent me an e-mail) since my layover in Denver was two hours. She then said I would need to talk to a supervisor. I waited five minutes, then hung up and called again.
This time, I got a male assistor. He called me sir. I said, “I’m a woman.”
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“I’m not,” I said. “I like being a woman.”
“I’m sorry.”
Knowing a little bit about call centers, I then asked him if the assistors got dinged if they didn’t refer to a caller as “Sir” or “Ma’am” immediately. “Oh no,” he said. “It’s just more respectful if we do it.”
“How is it respectful to me if you call me sir?”
“It’s more respectful to say sir or ma’am.”
At that point, he discovered that I’d used miles and cash to buy my ticket, and passed me on to Web support. And guess what? There, I got an assistor who actually looked at my name and called me ma’am. She didn’t have good news at all–the flight had been canceled, and there was no other routing available that would get me home before 10 that evening. I wasn’t thrilled about it, given I’m speaking the next morning on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. But she was patient as I worked through my thoughts and plans.
I told her that I hoped the call was recorded, because she’d done a great job of customer service–and she hadn’t called me sir like two of her colleagues. She apologized for them, and gave me a $150 United credit.
I just hope when I use it, I don’t have to talk to anyone who calls me sir.
