PC users can use Notepad to track their customer service issues, and 2 easy shortcuts makes it even easier.
After your call is over, just open Notepad, hit F5, and it automatically enters the time and date. Then, just type in a brief summary of what you discussed with the company, save, and close. Do this every time you talk to the company. Just open up the file and add in your notes, thereby creating a useful record, if need arises.
Or, you can get a little fancier, and try this…
1) Open a new Notepad file
2) Write .LOG in uppercase as the first line
3) Hit Enter
4) Save
5) Close
6) Reopen the file and you’ll find that Notepad automatically moves the cursor to the bottom of the file and inserts the time and date
Either way, you’ve got a quick and easy method for logging your customer service interactions.
Journaling in .txt with Notepad [Lifehacker]
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I was actually thinking of sending in my Comcast horror story and was curious how to post. So I think that this blog will be helpful.
you actually have to write .LOG as the first line, as opposed to just LOG !!
XOXO
Correction on Step 2, write “.LOG” on the first line.. Must have a period before LOG
Nice tricks! I like.
On Linux or Mac, type
echo `date` Your Text Here >> log.txt
This appends a timestamped entry to the log file
that is useful.
Or just send an email to yourself, and eventually use your mail client to look all those related emails up.
slow news day?
0r just pop down to Fry’s, get a voice recorder and telephone microphone, and announce at the beginning of every call that you’re recording the call. After all, they record us, let’s record them back.
Ah, but Major-General, what if your beef with a company is the dispute over the purchase of a voice recorder you bought at Fry’s?
If you have Viatalk VoIP service, just dial *99 then the number you wish to call (don’t wait between dialing *99 and the phone #) and it’ll automatically record the conversation and e-mail it to you. Time & date-stamped.
Don’t know when it started, but you can also save a file as .LOG in Notepad in XP and every subsequent time you open it, Notepad will automatically append the date and time for you.
Hooray for the lazy.
Ha, nevermind. Maybe I should read the whole post before mouthing off. LOL
If you have a real computer, you can get any number of plugins for TextEdit which do the same thing.
Handy. I’d never heard of these before. Thanks!
@Major-General
Some companies won’t allow their reps to talk to you if you’re recording the call, so it depends on who you’re dealing with. And, of course, if you don’t disclose that (you said to disclose it but some people will record without disclosing it first), make sure that your state legally allows you to do so FIRST.
I don’t mind the mail spam, or e-mail spam so much, because I don’t see them until I want to check. It’s the telemarketer recordings that drive me nuts, especially when the wake me up at 8:00. And when it’s just a recording, there’s no one to yell at.
I once patiently waited a few minutes until I got someone to speak to, and asked to be removed from the list. They called back the next day.
@SportsCentre:
Whoops, posted that one in the wrong thread. Sorry.
@segfault:
The point is, you know, this is kind of built-in without needing a shitty plugin.
But you know, I guess your high horse doesn’t realize this
@wring: Um, this is very useful for anyone filing a complaint who didn’t know this.
Neat — I’ve been typing it all along. If you use metapad ([www.liquidninja.com]) the shortcut is F6 or F7 (short or long format).
In Excel, you can do a similar thing with ctrl-; and ctrl-:.
From the help screens, TO INSERT:
that’s why i love notepad (other than the fact that it has zero bloat)
I use http://www.memfrag.com. It’s a link saving/sharing site but you can also save private text information. Any time I deal with a company, I log it there. Helps greatly in retrieving the info from both work and home since these interactions always cross work/home boundaries time-wise.
@justarep: Actually, if the state the rep is in requires two-party notification and you don’t announce it at the start of the call, you can still be sued in their state, under their laws – even if your state doesn’t require two-part notification!
I started to routinely record customer service calls a few months ago, and I have to always tell the reps that I’m recording them, since I’m in MA. I’ve pondered whether you could make the legal argument that the “this call may be recorded” message that most companies have could be considered an express permission to record the call (as in “this call may be recorded – by any party”), but I’d rather not risk it. In any event, I haven’t been hung up on even once since I’ve started recording CS calls.
In windows, type:
echo %date% %time% > log.txt
In Notepad++ (because windows notepad is a complete POS), the command is ctrl-F5.
My GTD system is managed mainly through folders and NOTEPAD. Sometimes I find it necessary to time and date something.