I don't care about the customers

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If there's one thing my managers are always trying to pound into our heads, it's "YOU HAVE TO CARE ABOUT THE CUSTOMERS' PROBLEMS!" I don't, though. No matter how hard I try, I can't give two craps about what happened to these people to cause them to call me and complain about it. I'll listen to anywhere between 60 and 80 complaints every day, and if I had to actually care about every single one of them, I'd be a freaking wreck. I'll be polite to them and I'll do everything I'm able to to fix the issue (which isn't much, but still), but when it comes to actually caring about them... no, I don't. Is this normal?

That's silly and an unreasonable expectation so I think they actually mean for you to put on a better act, like pretend to care more. I figure if they're telling you that then it just means be more sincere in your act. Maybe say things like "Oh no, well hold on a minute and lets see if we can fix this!" etc without sounding too fake.

You might want to practice modulating your voice. Many Aspies speak with a monotone that makes you sound very disinterested.

I do think that's my biggest weakness. A couple days ago I took a call, filed the complaint and said I'd send it off, and the caller reacted by saying, "Gee, thanks for caring you f****ing p****! Why don't you just go f*** off? I hope you lose your f***ing job!" And then she hung up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSp6pjjqugY
Lots of resources on the web, I just listened for a minute on this one.

No. Nobody cares about them. Not even NTs.

I agree. No employer can actually expect you to sincerely care for each of the complete strangers you come across in customer service every day.

As to the monotonous voice, I have the same difficulties. I apparently sound like a machine (who is talking to a machine). Just the other day, I had some minor problem with my headset and I happened to hear myself say "Congratulations!" It was worse than I thought. Say "Congratulations" (or "Good job") in a monotonous voice, and you'll sound cynical and condescending. My boss tried to coach me on this and made me try to modulate my voice, but after a while, we let go of that, because I sounded like a freak android on crack.

I don't really have a solution to this. I just do the best I can without burning myself out, as freaking out over my lack of empathy or my monotonous voice won't get anybody any further.

Just pretend, the customers care and they'll get mad if they think a company's own employees aren't really listening or trying to help them after they've (I assume) spent money on products or services.

Unfortunately the NTs don't want someone who will quickly and efficiently solve their problem for them. They want someone who will: Listen sympathetically to their inane, non problem related ramblings, soothe their battered and traumatised egos, make sentimental caring noises (with a nice head tilt if possible) and ask them how their auntie's budgie is after undergoing complex bowel surgery.

I think they mean to make the person feel like you care about their problem, I doubt they expect you actually really personally care about each and every one of their problems. I'd say being polite and doing everything in your power to fix the problem seems sufficient....if anything really caring about all the problems would probably just be overwhelming and make your job harder.

Meh if customers don't like your approach, tough...if you're being polite and cordial then there is nothing they can complain to your supervisors or whatever, like they can't say 'this person was disrespectful and abusive, when i called them with my issue.'

Perhaps the real question is, are the good customer service representatives where you work? How do you rank in terms of effectiveness? It is one thing for the boss to have unreasonable expectations, as a lot of them do. It is another if your performance is much worse than average.

The point isn't that you should actually care, but you are supposed to pretend to do so

Before I retired I worked for a company that manufactured machinery and sold supporting parts (supporting parts = sand paper, cutting tools to fit our machinery, etc.), and we could also supply a service person, for repair/tune up "on site", if needed.

Some of out machinery was complex, with hundreds of parts, so a customer service department was essential to the proper and efficient operation of these machines (and the happiness of our customers).

When a customer called with an issue I could usually tell if they were distressed (can you?) or if this was less than crucial, and I comported myself accordingly. I could mentally adopt the customer's "urgency" and felt free to transmit this urgency to others (in the Parts Dept., or perhaps in Billing, Shipping, etc.). The entire company had the same "caring" attitude toward our customers. It made it easier to do my job and the customers appreciated it.

It seems as though your organization has less "customer focus" but would like the customer to think otherwise......is this the situation? And corporate geniuses, being what they are (and with their actual limits on how much the customer can be served), find it hard to believe employees can not be good enough at being phony enough to convince the customers. Pretty disgusting situation you have there. Until the company decides you and their customers deserve a better "break" nothing will change. (Maybe you have ideas that could be submitted, somehow, to management?)

The only thing you can do is be as honest as possible with the people calling and remember how you would like to be treated if it were YOU calling in.

I sure hope you get a handle on the issue (hoping for your company to change would probably be useless) and you can begin to enjoy your job more. My time in the service department, helping customers the best I could, was the best job I ever had....for 22 1/2 years before I retired (and 25 1/2 years other where before then).

I hope your situation improves...good luck.