Last week, I attended SAP and the Americas’ SAP User Group’s (ASUG) user conference, SAPPHIRE, in the friendly and extremely hot confines of Orlando, Fla. While I blogged, live tweeted, and wrote for the Web site about some of the key takeaways from the conference, there was a not-so-subtle lesson about customer service that I personally learned.

If you look up Type-A personality in the dictionary or, in my case, Wikipedia, you’ll probably find a picture of me. If not, you should. I like being early, having things done, and I can’t function without a to-do list nearby. I called a shuttle service the day before I was to fly back to CRM magazine’s world headquarters in Manhattan in order to arrange a pick-up from the Orange County Convention Center to Orlando International Airport.

Mind you, when I spoke to the customer service representative (CSR) at the time, she told me to be at a very specific location at a very specific time  — outside the North entrance between the two escalators at 3:50 p.m. OK. I also obtained a confirmation number, which turned out to be a lifesaver.

Fast forward to Wednesday afternoon at 3:40 p.m. Of course, I am outside in my designated location 10 minutes early on the off chance that the shuttle arrive early. I have the slip of paper with the confirmation number in my right hand, and in my left hand I have my mobile phone at the ready in case the shuttle doesn’t show up.

At 3:55 p.m. I see the shuttle coming around to my location. A small smile of relief took away the epic frustration I had for the shuttle being five minutes late. (Type-A? Me? Never …)

That smile was quickly turned upside down — again — as the shuttle slowed down slightly but didn’t bother to stop. The shuttle drove away, much to my chagrin and despite my waving frantically and yelling, “Right here!”

I immediately went to call up the shuttle service to give them a piece of my mind, and vehemently demand I get a free shuttle magically sent back immediately to pick me up. I was in the proper place at the proper time, so why should I have to suffer for the driver’s incompetence? Thankfully — for both myself and whoever would have picked up the phone — a convention center employee approached me and asked what happened.

I not-so-calmly explained my plight, and he took it upon himself to call the shuttle service and rearrange the pickup. His calm, soothing voice made me calm down as I waited a half-hour before another shuttle came to pick me up. I had two hours before my flight was to leave, so my straits weren’t dire.

In that half-hour, I thought about a couple of things. One, that man went out of his way to help me when it wasn’t his job to either help or deal with me. Two, I thought about all of the other people who didn’t have someone come up to them, make them take the time to breathe, and consequently calm down before picking up the phone and giving some defenseless CSR hell. I imagine it happens more often than not.

I can’t say that I would have been cordial had I immediately called the CSR after the shuttle drove right by me. In fact, I can assure you I wouldn’t have. I would have unloaded my frustrations on this poor agent while my anger should have been directed toward the idiot shuttle driver who was too lazy to stop for two seconds to see me running with my conference badge flopping around my neck, bouncing off my chest and hitting my chin.

Thankfully, I wasn’t in any real danger of missing my flight and I had someone on-site who took it upon himself to help me out in my time of need. But, I learned a valuable lesson. In the heat of the moment, it may feel good to call up the CSR, scream at them, and tell them how inadequate they are. In the end, though, it won’t help matters. In fact, it may make them worse.

The CSR may hang up on you, or refuse to help the next time you call up. If something unexpected happens, take a few deep breaths (for Type A-ers like me, maybe 10 or so) and then think about the best way to handle the situation. Most likely, the answer is not cursing out a CSR.

For contact center supervisors and managers out there, are there rules in place to safeguard against hostile callers? Are they empowered to simply hang up the phone if a caller is disparaging the agent, or is it immediately escalated?