Washington And Massachusetts Shine For Courtesy On The Phone

If you’ve ever been on a call with a customer service representative and are unhappy, please be aware that “your call may be recorded for quality service.” And always remember what mom said: "Stay calm, even when you don't feel calm."

How well or poorly you treat the customer service representative is noted and documented.

A firm named Marchex researched and analyzed over 600,000 recorded customer service calls, providing a comprehensive report on which states were perceived as being polite and which were not. What conditions cursed out the phone rep, and what states refrained from using foul language on the phone?

Customers had placed calls to businesses in just under three dozen different industries.

Marchex noted which states swore the most and which states used the polite phrases of Thank you and Please. 

Ohio was the worst state for swearing on the phone and for displaying bad manners to faceless customer service representatives.

States of phone customers most likely to curse at a customer service rep:

1 - Ohio

2 - Maryland

3 - New Jersey

4 - Louisiana

5 - Illinois

Marchex’s report elaborated that 66% of the foul-mouthed customers (who used highly foul language) were men.) 

The five states with customers who used the least amount of profanity included: 

1 - Washington

2 - Massachusetts

3 - Arizona

4 - Texas

5 - Virginia.

Seattle is one of the places that uses "the least amount of foul language" - compared to 30 other large metro areas. (Recent Axios Study)

The Top 5 not-so-polite states on the phone (Didn't say "Please" and "Thank You")

1 -  Wisconsin

2 - Massachusetts

3 - Indiana

4 - Tennessee

5 - Ohio

The top 5 "Most Courteous" states:

1 - South Carolina

2 - North Carolina

3 - Maryland

4 -  Louisiana

5 - Georgia

Marchex also reported that people dislike long phone wait times. 

AUTHOR’S NOTE: If you’re reading this and you’re in the phone customer service industry, know that we (the customer) are sometimes on hold for a half hour or longer, so we tend to multitask. When you (finally) take our call, give us a 5 to 10-second grace period to say hello. We might be slightly away from the phone, so it happens. CLICK - WE GET HUNG UP ON! When someone doesn’t instantly say hello back. Give us just a few seconds. We’re there - SPRINTING back to the phone. Thanks.