Merchants, provider of outsourced contact centres, today reveals shocking figures on the poor treatment of UK call centre agents by consumers, which could be a key factor behind the high levels of staff absenteeism and customer service agent churn.

37 per cent of UK consumers surveyed admitted that they have shouted and sworn at customer service agents over the telephone. This 'phone rage' may be an issue which is to blame for the current high levels of absenteeism and agent churn, as agents become stressed and disillusioned with their roles. This year's annual Merchants Global Contact Centre Benchmarking report (out 22 February 2006) had already revealed contact centre staff absenteeism to be up almost 50 per cent on last year's levels (11% from 8%). The same report also revealed that contact centre agents are changing their jobs more frequently too, with an agent churn level at 21 per cent (Merchants believes the actual figure for the industry to be much higher than this).

There are an estimated half a million contact centre agents in the UK who handle customer orders, enquiries and complaints. Merchants' explanation for the high levels of consumer verbal abuse directed at agents is that the rapid access to information provided by the Internet has increased consumer expectations from the suppliers they deal with. Merchants also sees the demise of telephone etiquette as attributed to the informal nature of texting and calling on mobiles. This would explain the decrease in verbal abuse in the older age brackets - 17 per cent for those over aged 66, as opposed to 49 for those aged 26 to 35.

Martin Dove, Chief Marketing Officer at Merchants said: "As an industry we need to take steps to protect contact centre agents from customer abuse as much as we take an interest in the service we are providing our customers. Educating consumers about the impact of inappropriate behaviour on these agents' everyday lives is one part of this. Training agents to empathise as they acknowledge customers problems and empowering them to provide resolution and take care of customers is vital. Well handled calls should leave customers happy rather than angry.

"Due to certain companies delivering fantastic customer service, through clever and integrated use of technology, as well as highly skilled agents, consumers have come to expect this from suppliers across the board, regardless of size or industry. Only when all businesses have developed directing their callers as quickly as possible to appropriately engaged agents who can handle their query well will the level of customer abuse of agents reduce."