The unexpected happens to everyone. If you’re a celebrity, a news reporter, a super bowl halftime show singer, you, or me – unexpected stuff just happens that’s totally beyond our control. It may be a sneeze at the worst time, a wardrobe malfunction when millions of eyes are on you, or getting flagged for lip-syncing during a New Years celebration in Times Square. Just when you think things are going well, Murphy’s Law strikes again. And unfortunately, Call Centers are just as vulnerable to Murphy’s Law as every other part of the universe we live in.

If you’ve hired a call center to represent your business, you want every interaction to be perfection.  In the infographic below, we listed the top 60 worst things that could go wrong during a call center interaction. If you keep scrolling down, we’ve also listed some of our best tips on how to avoid, and sometimes just how to recover, from these call center mishaps.

60 Things That Could Derail The Best Call Center Interaction and How To Handle Them

• What happened: Transferred to voicemail
• How to avoid: Implement a backup transfer if the first transfer does not go through to a live person.

• What happened:  Customer broke their script
• How to recover: Operator should take a basic message and alert a supervisor that the script is broken.

• What happened: Customer script is too long
• How to avoid: Encourage customers to only include the necessities in their script.

• What happened: Customer created a loop in their script
• How to recover: Operator should take a basic message and alert a supervisor that the script is looping.

• What happened: Transferred but voicemail is full
• How to avoid: Always make sure the transfer staffs mailboxes are not full.

• What happened: Transferred to voicemail but forgot what to say
• How to avoid: Include a script for operators to read if they reach voicemail so they don’t forget what to say.

• What happened: Operator gave caller the wrong information
• How to avoid: Provide operators with general information and FAQs about the companies they are answering for.

• What happened: Caller won’t stop talking
• How to avoid: Create an operator-driven script which allows the agent to control the conversation.

• What happened: Caller refuses to hang up
• How to avoid: Politely tell the caller you are going to disconnect from the call.

• What happened: Transfer number keeps ringing
• How to avoid: Test all numbers before giving them to your call center to use.

• What happened: Transfer number answers then hangs up
• How to avoid: Test all numbers before giving them to your call center to use.

• What happened: Call center system is down
• How to avoid: Implement a back up plan that allows operators to continue to handle calls and send messages through on a back up generator system.

• What happened: Operator can’t help caller
• How to avoid: Encourage the operators to take basic messages and let the caller know someone will be calling them back.

• What happened: Caller wants to speak to a manager
• How to avoid: Let the callers know they are speaking with a call center but that they can escalate the message to a supervisor to call them back.

• What happened: Heard hold music after answering
• How to avoid: Monitor hold times and staff up accordingly to decrease queues.

• What happened: Operator quits during a call
• How to avoid: Ensure employee happiness and allow operators to take breaks when they need to compose themselves.

• What happened: Heard dead air after answering
• How to avoid: Make sure all phone lines are connected and active before sending calls to your call center.

• What happened: Heard busy signal after answering
• How to avoid: Make sure all phone lines are connected and active before sending calls to your call center.

• What happened: Call center is too noisy
• How to avoid: Agents should be using noise cancelling headsets.

• What happened: Remote operator’s dog is barking.
• How to avoid: Before hiring remote employees, ensure they do not have loud pets, or make sure the pets are not in the same room as the agent.

• What happened: Transfer employee says they aren’t scheduled.
• How to avoid: Always make sure your call center has the most up to date on-call schedule.

• What happened: Operator forgets to hang up.
• How to avoid: Allow call center agents to write reminders for themselves and post them on their work stations.

• What happened: Operator can’t access customer software.
• How to recover: Operator should take a basic message and alert a supervisor that the customer’s software is inaccessible.

• What happened: Operator can’t answer caller’s questions.
• How to avoid: Add FAQs the operator can use to help answer questions.

• What happened: Operator botches the greeting.
• How to avoid: Add phonetic spellings for difficult company pronunciations.

• What happened: Operator transcribes the wrong information.
• How to avoid: Implement a system that instructs the operator to read the information back to the caller to confirm that it’s correct.

• What happened: Transfer employee is upset you’re calling.
• How to avoid: Always make sure the correct employee should be on the receiving end of transferred calls.

• What happened: Operator accidentally hung up on the caller.
• How to recover: Operator should call the customer back and apologize for accidentally disconnecting the call.

• What happened: Operator burped on a call.
• How to avoid: Remind operators to use the mute button when they need to.

• What happened: Operator cleared their  throat on a call.
• How to avoid: Remind operators to use the mute button when they need to.

• What happened: Operator sneezed on a call.
• How to avoid: Remind operators to use the mute button when they need to.

• What happened: Operator needs to the use the bathroom while on a call.
• How to avoid: Implement designated bathroom breaks for all operators periodically throughout the day.

• What happened: Transfer number comes back to call center.
• How to avoid: Test all phone lines before forwarding to your call center.

• What happened: Operator’s headset volume is too high.
• How to avoid: Have operators test their headsets before each shift.

• What happened: Remote operator’s child is crying.
• How to avoid: Ensure that remote operators don’t have children in the house during their shifts.

• What happened: Caller has health emergency.
• How to recover: Operator should calmly instruct the caller to call 911 or transfer the call to their medical provider.

• What happened: Repeat caller isn’t getting a call back.
• How to avoid: Implement a warm transfer to in-house staff for repeat callers.

• What happened: Poor phone connection is cutting out.
• How to recover: Apologize and attempt to call the customer back.

• What happened: Call center has phone lines mixed up.
• How to avoid: Test all lines periodically to ensure no mix ups.

• What happened: Caller is speaking another language.
• How to avoid: Encourage customers to utilize bilingual agents and set up a Spanish line.

• What happened: Customer is forwarded to the wrong number.
• How to avoid: Encourage customers to become familiar with their forwarding number and instructions.

• What happened: Customer software is showing security alerts.
• How to recover: Operator should take a basic message and notify a supervisor about the alerts.

• What happened: Caller reached the wrong number.
• How to avoid: Make sure your business’s lines are forwarded correctly or all phone numbers are listed in a clear location for customers to access.

• What happened: Caller falls asleep on hold.
• How to avoid: Monitor queues periodically to make sure hold times aren’t long.

• What happened: Transferred to disconnected line.
• How to avoid: Make sure all transfer numbers are in working order before forwarding lines to your call center.

• What happened: Operator forgot to put their headset on.
• How to avoid: Encourage operators to write reminders for themselves that they can post in their work station.

• What happened: Caller gets sexual.
• How to recover: Politely let the caller know you are uncomfortable and will be disconnecting the call.

• What happened: Transfer number rings busy.
• How to avoid: Implement a second transfer attempt to a different number if unable to reach the first transfer.

• What happened: Operator farts while on a call.
• How to avoid: Remind operators to use the mute button when they need to.

• What happened: Transfer number is wrong number.
• How to avoid: Make sure all transfer numbers are correct and in working order before forwarding lines to your call center.

• What happened: Operator can’t hear caller.
• How to recover: Apologize and offer to the call the customer back.

• What happened: Operator forgets to press mute.
• How to recover: Apologize to the caller and make sure it doesn’t happen again!

• What happened: Caller is upset.
• How to recover: Apologize to the caller and see if you can escalate the call to a supervisor.

• What happened: Operator wakes up employee on transfer.
• How to avoid: Only transfer calls during business hours.

• What happened: Operator can’t hear employee after the transfer.
• How to recover: Offer to call the customer back and attempt to transfer again.

• What happened: Transfer employee says they no longer work there.
• How to avoid: Make sure your call center always has the most up to date information regarding your staff and business.

• What happened: Caller is having a conversation with someone else.
• How to recover: Politely ask the caller to gather the rest of the necessary information needed to send the message through.

• What happened: Operator puts caller on hold and forgets about them.
• How to recover: Apologize to the caller and make sure it doesn’t happen again!

• What happened: Hear automated recording after the greeting.
• How to avoid: Remove all automated systems so customers always reach a live voice.