Yeah. I answered phones and emails for a few years at a B2B software company, and the most I got was a veiled threat that they'd send a formal complaint. In general, abusive customers were were few and far between.
People I know who've worked on B2C support got verbal abuse almost daily.
As someone who has also worked primarily B2B or at least B2(Small Busines) in the technical arena...
In these situations I'd like to remind you that the person you are talking to very likely may be copping that abuse from their customers or managers, and most don't pass it on. So try to help them out, they're literally making your job less miserable :)
> People I know who've worked on B2C support got verbal abuse almost daily.
Is this generally the case? I've answered thousands of customer service queries for my (mostly B2C) startup. I can count on two hands the number of angry/abusive emails I've received.
Yes. In a past life I did phone and email support for two wildly different industries (cellular and banking). I helped train new hires during the first couple of weeks that they answered calls, and several times people broke down in tears during the first few days. Average tenure at one company was only 3-4 months. The other managed close to a year.
I don't know how big your startup is, but I'd hazard a guess that you're small enough for your support to still feel "human." I think this is the biggest issue with most bigco CS.
People I know who've worked on B2C support got verbal abuse almost daily.