In the world of customer service, there are many different types of personalities you could be interacting with. From the reps that are friendly and knowledgeable that provide a great customer experience, to the reps that are questionable and even downright rude – you never really know what you’re going to get until you get it.

At SAS, we’re dedicated to giving our clients and their callers the best customer service experience possible, which means we take the time to hire the most professional customer service reps. However, the same can’t be said for all call centers. To help prepare you for whatever customer service experience may come your way, we listed 30 different types of customer service reps, and categorized them into what we think would make a great customer experience, all the way down to what we think would make a catastrophic customer experience.

Great Experience

• Friendly Talker: Friendly talkers engage in conversation, and ask how  your day is going. They listen to what you’re saying, and they genuinely care about providing a great customer experience.
• Excited Talker: Excited talkers may speak a little too quickly, but they’re just so enthusiastic about their job they can’t help it!
• Knowledgeable Talker: Knowledgeable talkers know what they’re talking about, and can answer any question you have.

Mild Experience

• Fast Talker: Fast talkers are a bit hard to understand, and you may have to ask them to repeat themselves, but ultimately they provide a good experience.
• Loud Talker: Loud talkers may disrupt the people around them, and may make you hold your phone away from your ears, but they mean well.
• Life-Sharer: Life-sharers are good to talk to when you’re trying to kill time in the doctor’s office – not when you’re trying to cancel that hotel reservation before your lunch hour is over.

Neutral Experience

• Indifferent Talker: Indifferent talkers are neither here nor there. They get the job done, but they don’t really bring anything else to the table.
• Wants to know too much Talker: Similar to Life-Sharers, the “Wants to know too much Talker” can eat up time that you just don’t have.
• Joke-Telling Talker: As long as their jokes are funny, you probably don’t mind talking to a Joke-Telling Talker. But on the other hand…

Questionable Experience

• Boring Talker: Similar to Indifferent Talkers, Boring Talkers don’t really bring much to the table other than a monotonous voice and a “stick to the script” attitude.
• Close mic Talker: Close mic Talkers are hard to understand and may make you feel slightly uncomfortable.
• Winded Body Talker: Unless they just got finished running a marathon, there’s no reason a support rep should be out of breath.
• The Forgetful Talker: Um, what did you say? Forgetful Talkers are annoying because you just told them your whole problem and they’re already asking you to repeat yourself. Rude!
• Quiet Talker: Quiet Talkers provide a questionable customer service experience simply because you can’t hear a thing they’re saying.
• Distant Talker: Distant talkers sound like they’re miles away from the phone, which is miles away from a great customer service experience.
• Speakerphone Talker: Speakerphone talkers simply don’t care about their surroundings or who they may be disrupting. They’re also harder to understand and sound like a garbled mess.

Unfortunate Experience

• Cutting out Talker: Unless you’re actually driving through a tunnel, your callers shouldn’t have to piece together every other word that you’re saying.
• Slow Talker: Slow talkers aren’t the worst, but they are just. So. Boring. Speed it up, Sally! We don’t have all day.
• Long to Respond Talker: If your callers have to question whether you heard them or not because you’re taking forever to respond, or if you fell off the line entirely, you’re not providing a great customer service experience.

Unsavory Experience

• Side Conversation Talker: Side conversation talkers are notorious for providing unsavory customer service experiences because they’re always snubbing their callers.
• Robotic Talker: If we wanted to talk to robots we would have called your answering machine.
• Yawner: We get it, you’re tired. Come back to work when you get more sleep!
• Bathroom Talker: “Did I just hear the toilet flush?” Unless you’re on the phone with your mom or your best friend, you probably shouldn’t be talking on the phone while you’re in the bathroom.
• Inappropriate Story Talker: Some stories are meant to be told in public, and some should probably never be told ever. Do your customers a favor and don’t make things weird.
• Interrupting Talker: If your customers can’t get a word in edgewise, they’re going to get real mad real quick.
• All About Me Talker: An “All About Me Talker” doesn’t care what your customers have to say, which makes for quite an unpleasant experience.

Catastrophic Experience

• Disrespectful Talker: Disrespectful talkers were never taught manners from their mamas, and it shows.  If you can’t R-E-S-P-E-C-T me, then I ain’t buying what you’re selling.
• Back Talker: Customer service reps who talk back to their callers should not be customer service reps, unless they’re representing a business from hell.
• Angry Talker: It’s okay to be angry. It is not okay to be angry at a customer who is already angry because of an issue they are having with the company you are representing.
• Sarcastic Talker: Unless you’re making fun of your little brother, don’t be a sarcastic talker – especially at work.