How to Navigate a 1-800 Customer Service Call
But getting angry will not get you what you want. There are many subtle tactics that will help you achieve the goal of your calls, as long as you are familiar with and practice them. First, before you call a customer care center of some sort, think for a minute about the perspective of the men and women working there with headphones glued to their ears all day, the calls coming in nonstop, and most likely not the ideal paycheck to make up for it. Take into consideration the following truths about most customer service and support techs for a moment.
1) They have all night and can move slowly if they feel like it.
2) Many (not all) but many customers who call these centers have a problem. Problems lead to frustration and anger at the company, which is taken out by default upon the first related person they encounter. Being screamed at all day over uncontrollable circumstances is surely taxing to anyone.
3) The job’s probably boring and that might involuntarily come through in the representative’s voice.
Before you make a nasty call, be sure to have your facts straight and keep the above list in your mind. And yes, sure, often times these reps are nasty and unhelpful, and no excuse can fix that because he or she should be a pleasant and efficient employee. But these people are real, just like us. Human beings. So allow them some slack.
While keeping that in mind, there are some factors you can use to make the call work in the extreme to your benefit. The following list goes for any kind of any kind of interaction with a phone rep., from computer support to your landlord’s maintenance team. Follow these guidelines and more often than not you’ll walk away with a better deal, your problems solved and a sigh of relief.
1) This one is obvious but remember to be polite. When verifying identity speak slowly and soften your voice in a slightly higher tone volume than what you’d use if you were outside talking above the wind. People often have a hard time being blatantly inconsiderate to someone who is mature, calm and understanding.
2) What do you wish to get form this call? Money back? Canceled account? Tech support? Depending on the nature of you recall it’s very easy to encounter two big problems: A) A fee for the call or whatever needs to be updated in the account, if applicable and B) Lack of a nearby and available manager when the rep doesn’t or cannot solve your issue. So in this case, you need to humble yourself and play innocent. Do not demand answers or start by saying “I need you toâÂ?¦” or a stern statement like “I need my password!” Instead, soften it up (remember this person probably doesn’t get showered with considerate attitudes all day) For example dumb yourself down to the typical customers level.
3) Start sentences with “Hi! (And even better if “Hi, Mary! Or Hi John!). I was wondering if by any chance you could by aâÂ?¦” or “I’m not sure if this is even possible but do you provide..?” This last example is extremely tactful, when examined. By throwing a negative in there, after establishing yourself as a friendly nice person, you are subtly showing defeat and disappointment with little hope to fix the manner. Now it might just be in her subconscious but people love to prove others wrong if the outcome is positive and most people generally like to be the one who surprisingly saved the day. Another crucial move is after the rep finished or tried to finish whatever it was you needed, act humble again. Show here your appreciation and your excited disbelief that she or he got something you thought was so complicated to work. It would be nice here to (while she’s looking stuff up and there’s silence) thank her soooo much for helping you. That does a subtle thing too, but is key. Because if you tell her she’s doing an awesome job, she’s going to want to live up to that and do even better quite possibly. It kind of makes her feel special, like hardly anyone probably does that calls in, so she will strive to do anything she can. You will find the person warm up to you. Everyone feels appreciated when addressed by his or her name. And what happens when you play dumb is A) their maternal/paternal instinct kicks in ad you seem so polite and considerate they find it slightly charming. B) They subtly feel good about theirselves and their work because they can see they are helping a nice individual who really appreciates it.
Finally, say thank you when appropriate end if you see an opening for a little small talk, take it.
These guidelines pertain to basically all sorts of CSR calls.
But there is just one more thing to remember if the call is to a bank or credit company. Or basically anywhere that you have to make a payment. Always remember that these companies are banking on money made from your late fees, overdraft fees, etc. And the single sneakiest charge comes often unannounced and you don’t notice until you get a new statement. It is the pay by phone charge. These reps are trained to push that option, not just for the fee collection but mostly because they caught you right tat the moment and want to get your funds while they have you on the spot. It usually works. Just always, always play it like you didn’t know there was a fee or not and that if there is, You’d like to avoid it by sending a check in the mail or dong it online. So a good one two use is like “yes, id like to pay my minimum payment for the month, can I do it on the phone? Then say, “or should I just go online or something.” 9 out of 10 reps will waive the fee “just this one time”
You win!!
