Very nice article and an important message. I often hear stories of abusive behavior from clients toward CSRs at my own place of employment. My message to them when I hear about such things is simple. Tell them to call me and I will handle the situation. Obviously having responsive and accessible management is a luxury many do not have, but if you are a CSR and you do have such channels, use them. Protecting employees at the front lines is, or should be, part of managements role. It is their job to deal with the difficult situations that fall outside the scope of the day to day. The day to day requirements of a CSR role are hard enough as it is. Being a verbal punching bag is not one of those requirements and is never acceptable.