Reader Lona says that people in her family have called her a consumer advocate since she was sixteen, and now she is going to share with us 2,177 words on the customer service tactics and techniques she uses to get satisfaction. She writes, “in 99% of situations, it allows you to reach an agreeable solution to almost any problem. It is something I do for family and friends, and for myself.” Some of her methods have been mentioned in various ways on the site before but others are completely unique. And by the time you read her true success story at the end, you’ll swear she has Jedi mind-control over customer service reps. It boils down to, without raising your voice, asserting control over the conversation from the beginning and then never relinquishing that power.
Lona writes:
“Keep in mind, please, that these rules require that you keep a calm, even head, or at least the appearance and sound of one, and you must have the audacity not to ASK for anything. You will be rude, and you will seem to have entitlement issues. But you will get the job done.
Here are the basic guidelines. The longer and more often you end up doing this, you will find yourself using your own language and tricks. Eventually, you will be able to determine within a few seconds whether the person you have on the phone is the correct person to speak to.
If all of this fails and you happen to be female, try asking a male relative or friend to do it, following the same steps. It sounds wrong, but people respond to voices, and in today’s society, a male voice will sometimes go farther. I am female, however, and if you have a strong enough tone and voice, in most cases, you won’t need to resort to that.
1. Always maintain a calm, collected tone
Keep your voice even, keep your tone low, and do not lose your temper. If you find yourself getting upset, place the person on hold for a moment, take a slow, deep breath, and pick the phone back up. If they have hung up on you, mention it when you call back.
2 . Before you call, outline the situation for yourself, and decide how you want it solved
Write down several options you would be willing to accept, and keep the page in front of you when you call.
3. Always get the name of the person who answered the phone, even if you speak to them for only a moment
Write the name down, as well as any other person you connect to. Keep notes of who said what.
4. When you get a CSR on the phone, immediately ask to speak to a supervisor
When/if they insist that they can help you, keeping your tone low and even, state again that you need to speak to a supervisor. Not want, need. If they again insist, state in a clear and calm, low tone, that they WILL connect you to a supervisor, now. Do not yell, shout, or raise your voice or tone. “No. You are going to get a supervisor for me. Thank you. I’ll wait.” Say “thank you” immediately. Do not wait for them to answer your request first. If they again insist, hang up immediately. Call back. If you get the same person, make the request again, and if they again refuse, hang up, wait one hour for a shift change, and then call back. Do not give the initial person your name. They do not need it.
5. Once you are connected with a supervisor, introduce yourself, and then inform the person that you have a situation that they are going to fix
Do not say “that you need to fix” or “that I want fixed” or “that I need fixed.” You know they will fix it. “I have a situation that you are going to fix for me today. I appreciate your patience.” If they say they will try, state again that you’re sure they will fix it for you. “No, you’ll fix it. Don’t worry.” Reassure THEM. It will confuse them enough that they will allow you to explain your situation.
6. Explain your situation in a calm, even tone. Do not pause for them to respond until the entire situation/story has been told
Simply tell it as if you are dictating a letter. Once the entire situation has been explained, do not pause. Immediately give them the first option of how it should be fixed, in a simple, declarative sentence. “…this is the situation as it stands at this moment, and the reason I am calling. So what you will be doing for me today is…” or “..so what we need to do today is…”
7. If the supervisor insists that your solution is outside of policy, ask for the full policy
Do not accept “It’s just not policy to do this.” You want a full description of the policy. This does not mean twenty pages, faxed. A simple description of the section they feel affects your situation is what you need from them. IF they again simply say “It isn’t policy to __”, you say “That isn’t a policy. What, exactly, is your policy in this situation?” If they refuse to give you the policy, ask for their supervisor, or a corporate number – if you choose to or must call corporate, refer to *A – however, this will most likely not be necessary. If they give you the policy, continue to step 8.
8. Listen carefully to the policy, then scan your list for solutions that fall within it
If none of your solutions fall within their policy, inform them of your viable choices, and ask them how they are going to solve your problem. Do not ask if they will. Ask how. “So, how are we going to resolve this issue?” not “Isn’t there anything you can do?” or “there must be something you can do.” There is always something they can do. Do not ask. It is fact. If they inform you that there is nothing they can do, again ask for their supervisor or a corporate number.
9. At this point the person should be working with you for a solution. Continue to keep a calm tone until you reach an acceptable solution
Be sure to refer to the person by name at least twice, to make sure they know you remember it. If they say they will call back, ask for their direct line. If they do not have one, again ask for their supervisor or a corporate number.
10. You SHOULD now have a solution
Write down the details, making sure to read it back to the person on the other end of the line, and make sure to repeat their name, as well as writing it next to the solution that has been reached. If it is not an immediately solvable problem (returns, or delivery, etc) get a time estimate. “And this will be here by….”. You can, at this point as well, ask for a direct line, in case you have issues and need to speak to them again. Then thank them for their time and hang up.
11. If longer than the specified time goes past and the solution has not gone into effect, call the same number and ask for the person by name
If this person is unavailable or does not exist (there is always the chance) go back through your notes and ask for the person you spoke to immediately previous. Throughout this conversation remember to keep your tone calm and even. If the person you spoke to is unreachable, again, ask for a supervisor, and then immediately ask that supervisor for a corporate number. If the supervisor offers to help you, you may either attempt to work with this person, or simply call corporate.
*A – Calling Corporate
12. Keep your tone even. Introduce yourself immediately and ask to speak to a person who can solve your problem
Use those words. “Hello, my name is ___. I have an issue. Please connect me to someone who can solve it today.”
13. When you are connected, introduce yourself again. Repeat step 6
More than likely, the person you are speaking to will either do what you’ve suggested, or will offer an alternative. At this point, if you continue to follow these basic guides, you should reach a solution fairly quickly. Remember to continue to escalate until you reach someone who will solve your problem.
This works even if the problem is not your own. This works even if the problem is not your own, and you are dealing with the infamous Best Buy. I have a success story to share now.
Currently living with me is my sister-in-law. She moved from Texas. A year or so before she moved to California, there was an issue with her computer. Her parents are fairly computer illiterate, but had purchased the PC as a gift for her, and therefore did it on their own. They purchased a floor model, and were not informed, and did not know to ask, that the OS disk was not included. They were not informed that they would need to make a boot disk themselves, and neither was my sister.
Six months later, my sister’s computer ran out of space, and she followed the on-screen instructions to free some up, running Disk Cleanup. Disk Cleanup removed essential files from the OS, causing the computer to brick. A full re-install was necessary. She called Best Buy and they told her it would cost over $100 to reload the computer. She called me in a panic, as she and her parents were living off her father’s Army pension at the time and could not afford the fee.
I called the Best Buy store’s direct number, and asked to speak to a manager. I was told none was there. I waited one hour, and called back. This time I got Jose. I introduced myself and let him know that I was calling on behalf of a friend that was having an issue, and thanked him for solving it for me today. I then explained to him that my friend had been given a computer without an OS disk, and now needed to reload the computer, but had been told it would cost quite a bit of money. He informed me that she was told when the computer was purchased that she needed to create a boot disk. I informed him that she was not, and that he would need to reload the computer without charge. He said he could not do that. I calmly pointed out that it is very bad policy to charge a customer for something he should never have done in the first place, and that the operating system was sold with the computer, and since the disk was not included, we basically had two options available to us – he could either issue her a free copy of Windows XP, or reload the computer free of charge. I asked him which solution he felt would be best for her. He told me that they could do neither, and I asked him how he would be solving it. He asked me to hold for a moment, then came back on the line, and told me to have her come in, and he would take care of it.
I called my sister and gave her Jose’s name and told her to ask for him directly once in the store, because he would be taking care of her problem. She and her mother went, and he met them. Again, they were informed that it would cost to reload the computer. The exact charge came to $97.53 with taxes. In a panic, my sister called me, and I told her that he was not going to charge her. She said he was. I asked her to put him on the phone.
Here’s the clincher – when faced with having to speak to me again, he quickly changed his mind and offered an acceptable solution to the problem: he would issue them a gift card for the exact amount, and they would use that to pay for the service. We all agreed to the terms, and he came back exactly two minutes later with a gift card for the exact charge, and handed it to the cashier.
At no point did I yell, or in any way raise my voice. I did not threaten him, or mention lawyers or the business bureau. I simply informed him of what he would be doing, and he did it. While it took a bit of reinforcement, eventually he did come up with a solution that was both within his policy, and right by the consumer. This is not a ‘talent’, it is a skill, and by following these steps you can usually avoid the horrific experiences many consumers have.
Not to mention gain a wonderful story. My sister tells it to anyone we meet who is having consumer issues similar to hers.
I hope this helps at least one person. You will really be amazed just how effective these methods can be.
- Lona”
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The success of this “mind control” basically comes down to how much each person minds being controlled…
Everyone agrees being calm and polite is paramount, after that common sense would dictate to first try simple straight forward resolutions before
A: assuming the CSR is an evil, incompetent, talking stone barrier standing between you and your ultimate happiness, and
B: assuming the Customer is an evil, scamming, ranting imbecile calling merely to rob your company of it’s resources and you of your dignity.
One does this because all things being equal, we can forever be assured that all things are NOT created equal. Tactics that work at one company will not necessarily work at another and what satisfies one customer is never going to satisfy all. The best part of this article wasn’t the article at all, it was getting “ears on” experience from a whole range of CSR’s and Customers without having to suffer the accumulated losses associated with some of the poor products and services that we’ll all encounter sooner or later!
This article should instead be titled: “How to Get Things You Don’t Deserve”. The steps listed are pretty much just as effective as yelling, whining, and begging to most CSRs because you will eventually, in essence, be paid to shut up. The only difference here is that this leaves you feeling “in control” in the end. I personally look forward to calls from people like this with glee, because I represent a brick wall to this mentality. “No, you will not get the solution that you think you deserve. You will get the solution that you paid for.” Sprint has taken a bold step recently in severing service contracts of particularly painful end users, and where I work we can do the same.
As far as I’m concerned, you are essentially a thief when you escalate a call up the way up to corporate so that your call costs more than the item/service you don’t deserve and the company is eventually forced to “give in”.
Typically, if you do actually deserve the service you are requesting, using tactics like these are far from required.
I am the director of quality for a large company and have worked in a similar capacity for other companies.
If you are polite and direct, you will generally get the results you request as long as they are reasonable and the remedy is equitable for the failure.
When people call with a complaint the receiver of the call is generally open to helping the person solve the problem. If not, they are the wrong peronality for the job any way and will soon fail and leave. These people are generally obvious – ask for the supervisor. Part of the openness is understanding the consumer’s issue from the consumer’s point of view and helping identify a remedy that again is satisfactory to the consumer and cost equitable for the company.
If you had a problem with an airline, don’t start by asking for a free first class ticket. Be reasonable and ask for something within the ability of the person to provide. Ask for a coupon good for your next flight or say they can’t make this situation right but they can make it easier by giving me 25,000 miles to my account. Give them some options as to what you think is equitable. Also, compliment their company as well as tell them that you realize it is not their fault but that they are on the front line and so they have to hear it. Empathize with their position. They don’t get empathy often. If you’re a butthead, you will get zip. I can guarantee that. Give them something they don’t get often – kindness. 85% of the time I can promise you will get the desired result (if reasonable). When that fails, write the CEO.
Be emphatic, not a butthead. There is a difference.
This is exactly what it sounds like. Bullying. Make yourself the bigger more powerful person and keep moving until you find someone small enough to pick on. I have dealt with customers like this, both on the phone and in store. I won’t connect them to a manager and I will hang up on them. In store I will get another employee to pretend to be a manager and tell them exactly what I did. 99% of the time the ends to your “skill” are to get what you want for little or no cost. Your sob story is probably the only story you tell, and most certainly no one would hear a “I broke my own iPod and got Best Buy to get me the new 400 dollar model”. Its consumers like you that force us in retail to have such strict policies, else we would get walked on by your bullies.
As a CSR, I would not recommend this tactic. CSR’s and technicians are exactly that: they are trained to do the job such as fixing orders, correcting bills, and the like. Supervisors are trained to manage a group of employees and, although it helps, do not have to be trained on the products and services of the company to manage their employees. You are passing up the person who is employed, trained and willing to assist you.
In my employment, we MUST attempt to help the customer with their problem. That is why we are there. If you are calm and polite with the CSR, explain the situation, and work with the CSR to get a solution, you will save yourself time and money. And have a better solution and better results.
One other point. In our company, it costs about $9 per call that comes in to the call center. That is provided we help them within the “Average Call Time” of 6 minutes. Longer calls and calls that are transfered often cost more. Who do you think pays for that?
I have to admit, I ran into a big problem recently with UPS, and tried to adapt some of these techniques when I called their line. Not a direct translation– a few things I just couldn’t get comfortable with (terrifying flashbacks to my former life behind a customer service desk). Maybe I’d be better with some practice, I don’t know, but I know that I finally started making progress when a very nice CSR responded to my tired (long day on the phone) “Hi, I need to speak to a supervisor” by kindly asking me to explain the problem. Tired of the alpha dog routine, I broke down into my old system of “just treat them how you wanted to be treated” and explained the whole thing, answering her questions along the way.
I gained as much information in that one call as I had all day. The thing is that outside of a cut-and-dry problem like the one given, you really want to gain as much info from the CSRs as they gain from you. Every company has a different structure, and if you don’t know what you’re dealing with you could be screwing yourself out of the solution. Maybe the person CAN’T solve your problem (not that I could ever bring myself to declare they were going to) but they might be able to tell you who can if you give them a chance.
If a customer trying to solve a problem is like a detective, CSRs are like witnesses; just remember that they have valuable information you need, and just because they’re involved doesn’t mean they’ve committed a crime.
It sounds like a really good plan. It just doesn’t work like that. It may on a rare occasion. But not normally. My agents are fully empowered to make decisions on an account. They might need to come to me for an approval of something, but if there is an error, they can fix it. Escalating to a supervisor annoys the supervisor when you don’t even give the agent a chance to fix the problem. And if it is a routine thing, my agents will do it faster than me. They take WAY more calls than I do in a day. They have the practice. My job is supporting my agents, developing them to be the type of agents my company wants, and, in the rare occasion a situation cannot be resolved by them, I resolve it. But if you just escalate for the sake of it repeatedly, my company may just prevent you from calling in ever again to get your problem solved… it’s email and snail mail at that point.
Well the first thing that I noticed that will surely get you hung up on is NOT aollowing a rep to assist you. In most companies, and I know this because I do Custoer Service consulting, there is a policy that a rep must try and assist the caller first and foremost. Secondly, the rep has to at least KNOW the issue before they can put a CS Supervisor on the phone. The reason behind that is because in the long run it saves time. They can already have your account pulled up, and be researching what the problem is. Lastly, when dealing with a CSR and getting them to resolve issues for you, NEVER demand things. What you will run into is a person who will no longer want to help you because you’re demanding something. Who wants to help someone that has just talked down to them repeatedly? NO ONE! That’s who… I wouldn’t follow most of the tips given here if you really want to get somewhere…
Speaking as a Call Center Supervisor, These tatics do nothing but put me on my guard. You have to realize, in most cases Supervisors are not trainned on the systems, and going straight to one has harmed you more than helped. You are now speaking to someone who can quote policy with out taking a breath, and read you exact qutoes from the Terms and conditions, but when it comes to fixing a techincal issue we are depending on the agent you were just speaking with. When it comes to a credit, we’re just working off policy and account notes, just like the agent. Unless you’re having a problem with a rude agent, a Supervisor is useless. I’ve had a Cell phone with Sprint for over 3 years and had every problem fixed with out talking to a Supervisor once.
Second note: when a customer calls in saying we “Will fix a problem” tends to set off rude alarms. It’s being implied that the agent you are speaking to is not already going to try and fix your issue. My team has jumped through more hoops to help the lady who called in and said “Please, I don’t want to be rude but this isn’t right.” Than the customer we had call last week who told me “You WILL fix this,” the pervious seven people she had spoke to had already done everything possible, there is no magic button, you do have to wait for the network ticket to process, and her attitude does not make me either want to rush the process, or put her on the top of my list to call back.
I could poke more holes, but in short, this is something you should only use in worse case.
Ps. Waiting for Shift change does not work. Generally agents have staggered shifts, they don’t all leave at once. If an agent can’t stop a customer from asking for a supervisor, they will tell their co-workers that a customer called in demanding a Supervisor, and when they (the agent) kept asking for information the customer hung up. All agents will expect this call, for we assume they’re calling back, now and it will become a game of who can get the customer to give up their information. Most likely, if that step works, you have reached a completely different call center. We’re not all in one building, there’s about a thousand of us and we’re all over the US.
@topcad: Why would you put them in a position of power? That’s just asking to be taken advantage of. You’re the customer. They work in customer service. They are there to serve you, not the other way around.
As far as the customer service employees in here, I’d just like to say to any of you who think that you don’t owe the customer anything that you are poorly mistaken.
Cue to recording of Lona’s voice sounding just like James Earl Jones’
This stuff is a bunch of crap. I work in a call center (Though I do technical support, not customer service), and I promise it won’t work. Anyone who asks to speak with a supervisor is an asshole, straight up. You’re thought to be an asshole by the rep on the phone, and the supervisor will immediately hate you.
When someone asks for your information.. GIVE IT TO THEM. It’s not for their health, it’s for their job. When asking someone for their info, I’m not just looking at what they pay for services, etc.. I’m looking to find out WHAT THEY CALLED FOR PREVIOUSLY, IN ORDER TO GET THE CORRECT SUPERVISOR TO SOLVE THE ISSUE.
About explaining the situation without even letting the rep get a word in will not work either. I’ve had people ramble on to me for about 10 minutes straight using this tactic. You know what I’m doing for those 10 minutes? Browsing the internet, listening to only the key points that you’re making and ignoring the rest.
About asking for what the policy says.. You’re going to get a load of crap. No one is going to search 20+ page document to find something. They’re going to make it up in their words. If you’d like more, they’ll fax you the policy and you can skim through it and give up and accept one of their solutions after wasting time.
You need to understand that there’s not always something that can be done. I work at a cable company and there’s people who demand a tech to fix their problem RIGHT NOW. That will never happen. We will give you an all day appointment if it’s necessary, and that’s 10-8, and only if you call before 3. After that, it’s next day at least. No one can get a tech to the home at that point because they simply don’t work that late and that’s the end of it. Sure, this is just one example.. But like I said, there’s not always something anyone can do.
And like stated before, one of the things that we are judged on while working at a call center is our ability to control a call. We do it more than you do, you’re not going to win, and if you do try to control the call, like instructed by the article, you’re going to have problems.
The BEST way to get what you want is to be kind and have a gentle tone and ENGAGE IN CONVERSATION. Not sit there and spit out your problem and your viable solutions.
Never worked a call center, but have worked plenty of retail including 4 years at a Customer Service counter.
Why when you call would you immediately assume you’re speaking to the brainless, evil minions of the corporation? Talking down to CSRs and demanding supervisors for no reason really does just annoy them. The article implies that they’re uncooperative and uninformed while instructing you to verbally poke at them with sticks.
The majority of the time they are PEOPLE who want to help you resolve your problem. By telling them what they WILL do you’re tying their hands and making matters much worse. We can probably safely assume that even the newer employees know more about the company and products than most consumers who are calling. By telling them what they will do when you know very little about the product/service will rule out many viable options the CSR may have had to resolve it. And after copping an attitude I’d be much less likely to give you those options anyway. I know the instructional section just states that “you WILL fix my problem”, but many times (as in the example) it becomes “this is what you will do for me.” If I were the Best Buy manager you wouldn’t have gotten a giftcard. You would have gotten to practice your techniques on HP or whoever made the laptop. They are the ones responsible for not packing in a CD.
Don’t even get me started on the “That is not acceptable!” comment that many times goes hand-in-hand with the “this is what you will do” attitude. That’s an immediate sign to me that there is nothing that will make you happy. Customer service is all about bending rules and making exceptions, but no CSR or supervisor HAS to bend them for you.
I don’t agree with any of what you say about dealing on the phone. As a former CSR for several companies (and before you say that there is a reason that I am a “former” CSR, please know that I always left those jobs on good terms under good circumstances) I would usually disregard your tactics as pompous and elitist. I would give you a false name and prevent the call from being recorded.
Now, here is what you need to know. At a health insurance company I used to work at, access to individual policies was recorded every time the policy was accessed. That way they could always track who answered the call. That way, even if the person who took your call gave you a false name, they can track who actually handled the call. But the way a CSR can beat this is to do a manual shut-down of their computer (press and hold the power button for at least 5 seconds). Then there is no record. I only did this once, because the person on the other end of the line was a mean, condescending bitch of a nurse at a local hospital. It was not an emergency, et the world had to stop for her.
I agree that face-to-face is much better than the phone.
Lona is wrong on how she handles this. I used to work for a decently sized cell phone company. One of the things that I always found myself (and supervisor’s) annoyance were customers who called in and immediately demanded supervisors. Often times our supervisors would deny them their requests simply on the fact they treated CSRs like shit (that and really the contracts we have are fairly air-tight). But I digress.
Telling someone right off the bat that “you’re going to do what I want because I say so” will get you put into a queue that gets you passed on and on.
The point is that you shouldn’t need to step back on what you want. But you don’t become a snobby bitch, 9 times out of 10 MOST companies WANT to help you out.
You know all these CSR out there that are all up on arms about being spoken to like that – first of all, she said that these are tactics to use when an attempt to resolve the issue normally has already failed!! So if I have already tried to speak to the regular CSR or the store employee about a problem and immediately dismissed THEN you move to these tactics. Second of all – there is a big difference in the inflection of someone’s voice. She did not say that you should call and say “you WILL solve this for me…. or else!” is her best scary and deep voice. What she is saying is to simply be firm and not leave it open ended which allows the person to choose the option of doing nothing. So for instance “hi, I have blah blah problem and I tried to get it fixed. they couldn’t do anything for me but I know that you can help me resolve it.” That not only creates a situation without an open ended question and therefore a million possible solutions, it also lets the person know right away that, I’m not calling because I want to bitch or take my frustrations out of you or get validation or closure or anything else. I am calling because there is a problem, I want it solved and I know that you are the person who can make that happen. Also, by proposing a firm solution, it lets the person CSR know right away what you are looking for. Some people are going to ask for ridiculous things (go back in time and make it not have happened..) or are just so upset that the CSR isn’t sure what they can do to help you. But if I simply state, hey I want this as a solution it at the very least gives you an idea of what I want, what I might accept instead and how realistic I’m being. Finally, as to going directly to a supervisor, she says right in the beginning of the article that you’ll eventually get to know right away whether the CSR can help you or not, in which case just go directly to the supervisor. We all know when you start talking to the CSR whether they are on the same page as you or not. I have USAA (which rocks by the way!!) and every time I talk to a CSR there, I know they are competent and want to help me. i have never had a problem that had to go as far as the manager. Then i have had CSR who are stating that they can’t help me or it’s not company policy before I have even finished my first statement – they don’t even know the problem yet! Maybe it is an easy fix they could do, but nothing is going to get done if they won’t even listen in the first place. In which case, it makes sense to speak to the supervisor. Also, if you know that the problem is particularly complicated, etc it doesn’t make sense to waste everyone’s time spending 20 minutes explaining the situation to a CSR who is then going to put you on hold and then have to start over again once you get to the supervisor. you guys are jumping all over her s**t because you are taking it personally as if she was personally attacking you. If you do your job well and try to help out a customer with a legitimate problem who is calm, then she ISN’T TALKING ABOUT YOU!!! And as to the supervisor who promised he was going to be in a bad mood and then not take care of her, well that really says a lot about your job skills, huh? Because last time I checked you get paid to deal with the problems. And if it is in your ability to solve the problem, you job is to do it – your mood should not come into it!! Yeah, you probably do have crazy customer that you deal with but that is part of the job and it is wrong to dump that on a customer that maybe has a very legitimate complaint. Companies make mistakes all the time – it is just the nature of business and paperwork and human error. That is why you are there!! If this is all confusing you or you have gotten to the point where you always hate the customer and believe they are always trying to “cheat” you out of something – please get out of the customer service business and find a job where you don’t have to interact with customers!!
@clayverde:
Sometimes there isn’t anything that can be done about a problem. Not all of life’s problems can be fixed. For example you dropped your cellphone into the toilet. You don’t have insurance and you refuse to pay full price for a new phone.
The phone company isn’t going to accept that there is a solution that will make you totally happy and screw them out of a cellphone. You’ll just have to bite the bullet and purchase a new cellphone at full price. Nothing the supervisor can do and nothing anyone should be concerned about. One thing I always hate about the consumerist is that they take companies to be big evil corporations. Sometimes that’s not always the case and it’s just a bitchy, snobby customer who thinks she’s god’s gift to that company.
Using this would just make you sound like an ass. I work in customer service and a: if you don’t give us your name, we don’t help you. we need that to verify that you’re a viable contact for whomever you say you work for (the product I support is not something a normal consumer would purchase) and b: if you ask to speak to MY supervisor and you tell her that she will fix your problem in this tone, you will regret it.
The best thing to do is to state your issue, if that tech cannot help, ask to have it escalated, repeat. Don’t be so presumptuous that you’re THAT special that ANY issue you call about will be fixed. there are some things we can’t do simply because of policy or contract restrictions. Period.
as a long-time super “successful” CSR.
this article is GARBAGE.
if you want to waste your time….follow this for the most part.
really, a trained rep can see RIGHT through you, and most of the time is using “reverse” tactics without you even knowing it.
EVERYTHING and their DOG is thrown at us on the phone. We see through it all.
BEST practice would be be aware of the business you’re dealing with. The in’s and outs of your products. As a consumer, its YOUR responsibility to know what you’re signing up for. As a rep, its our job to enlighten the 90% of consumers that DONT follow best practices.
If you get an ass hole rep, hang up.
If we get an asshole customer, whether they’re covering up that fact by “acting smart” or not…
best thing is to be GENUINE and know if you’re getting genuine back.
otherwise, hang up and call back.
OR just ask to be transferred to another department, then get transferred back when you get them.
Dragging a supervisor away from their OFFLINE tasks is only going to prolong the wait for your issue to be resolved. Not to mention, you’ve now got a pissed off rep with all your information in front of them.
For security purposes, you’re gonna HAVE to give your name AT LEAST in order for the call to progress.
so yes, waste your time, and follow this article. or just be LOGICAL about your products, and pay your bills on time.
Bad consumer.
I worked at a small cable company doing tech support. The way this person acts would get her nowhere there. Asking for a supervisor immediately would only work if:
1. You already spoke to that supervisor within the last week.
2. You wanted to complain about an specific agent.
3. I can see record of a chronic issue on your account.
I sympathize with her plight with Best Buy and glad she got it resolved the way she did. Just be careful who you use this on. I non-teenage experienced rep will shut you down.
I think the thing to take out of this post is to stay calm. I had taken 1,000′s of calls and know how to get your issue resolved, just work with me to do it.
Having read through all 222 comments (at this point), I have several comments of my own. So, in no particular order:
I liked the comment (sorry to not give credit to you but your post is lost in over 200 comments) that someone made about “personal polices” vs. company policies. I have never thought of it that way before and I agree. My first policy would be that if I am treating you respectfully, I deserve the same respect.
My mother once bought a recipe magazine from Walmart. The magazine itself was defective because some of the pages were upside down, some of the pages were duplicates, and some of the pages were missing. Keep in mind that all she wanted to do was to exchange it for the SAME magazine (only not defective), but the CSR told her that it was “illegal to return magazines” and when questioned futher, stated that it was their “policy” because “some people could just go home and copy the recipes they wanted and return the magazine for cash”. My mother caught up with me later in the store and she was crying because she was frightened that she had done something illegal. I immediately went to customer service and asked to speak with a manager. He, too, tried to tell me it was “illegal”, but could not produce a written “policy” to prove it. I found it funny that with all of the policies listed on the wall at Customer Service, NONE of them addressed magazines. Even open DVDs are allowed to be exchanged for the same item if defective. And the manager also admitted that you can return a book (another form of written material that could be copied and returned if that was indeed their concern), but he still wouldn’t budge on exchanging this defective magazine. I finally gave up dealing with this Customer Service manager and went over to the Jewelry counter and asked to speak with the Store Manager. He offered to exchage it, but as I went from one checkout to another, I found that EVERY copy in that store contained the same exact defects on exactly the same pages. The Store Manager finally allowed a refund, but I was angry because we NEVER received an apology and this whole process wasted more than an hour of my time. I contacted WalMart Corporate offices by registered letter and they also hid behind a mysterious unwritten “policy”. I haven’t stepped inside a WalMart since. I am telling this story because it’s not good enough for a company to just say that they have policies. They need to display those policies in a conspicuous place (ie, the back of the receipt, on the wall in the store, etc.), NOT just on their website (as a few posters have suggested, since not everyone has access to the internet). Companies can’t just make up and hide behind non-exisitent “policies” when it suits them.
Another example of this would be a Best Buy cashier telling me that they can’t take a manufacturer’s coupon on a sale item because it’s policy? Really? Show me where that’s written! And when he was unable to produce proof of such a policy, the manager tried to tell me that they weren’t set up to take coupons from that particuar manufacturer (it was for a specific DVD title, which is exactly what I was purchasing). Again, really? Then where is that list that most certainly must exist so that they can train their cashiers what to accept and what to refuse? I also haven’t done business with Best Buy since.
These are the kinds of situations which give CSRs bad reputations and the reasons that people like the OP have had to come up with methods to combat them.
As far as the comments some have made on the stupidity of not making the boot disc: In her defense, the OP did state that this was a “floor model”. I can’t be sure that all brands are like this or even all models within a brand, but when I bought my HP laptop, I made a backup. A year later, I wondered if it wouldn’t be a bad idea to make another, but when I tried it prevented me from doing so because it said that one had already been made and it would not allow me to do another. So, since this was a floor model, I wonder if the OP’s sister may have been prevented from making that disc that so many posters have bashed her for. It is certainly not out of the realm of possibility that she was unable to make this disc (for whatever reason) and just didn’t mention it in the OP.
One of the things that angers me the most is when CSRs insist that they have no supervisor. For any CSRs that may be reading this and do this as standard practice, unless you are the owner or the CEO or equivalent, you answer to someone and I WILL eventually find them and give them as much detailed information about you (name, location, ticket number, etc.) as I possibly can. From the point that you refuse to admit that you have a supervisor, it’s no longer about the issue in which I originally called, but it’s now become a second issue regarding customer service in general.
There are quite a few posts telling the customers how to handle calls, but what about the CSRs? In my opinion, what’s the best way for CSRs to handle a problem?
1. LISTEN to the customer. Acknowledge the frustration that the customer faces, regardless of whether you feel the problem is your company’s fault.
2. Demonstrate an understanding of the problem and the solution that the customer expects
3. Apologize for the problem and the time that the customer has spent trying to resolve it. No, the CSR didn’t cause the problem, but they ARE a paid representative of the company and many angry customers can be calmed if they would just take a moment to offer this courtesy.
4. Resolve the problem efficiently and accurately the FIRST contact. If you don’t have the ability to do that, be sure that the customer is efficiently forwarded to someone who can at least resolve it as quickly as possible.
In my opinion, Amazon is the best company that I have encountered that works hard to acheive all 4 of those steps. And no, I don’t work for Amazon. I am a caregiver for a family.
If problems were resolved in this way, there may be no need (or at least greatly reduced need) for the tactics that the OP listed. I understand the frustration of the OP after personally making phone calls to Tech Support and the CSR tells you to reboot the computer. Fine. I understand that rebooting resolves many issues, but once that resolution is ruled out, they have no idea what to do next and tell you to send in the computer for service. (BTW I wouldn’t list this as an example if it was an isolated incident…this has happened to me several times with computers, GPS, and other silmilar electronics)
I also find suspicious the comments of a few of the arrogant CSRs that claim that if you would just deal with them, your problems would be immediately resolved. Really? And how many of the mistakes that you cause actually come back on you? So when you try to resolve problems that are so far above your training and worsen the problems for your customers, what do you have to lose? Most likely, the customer has to call back and gets someone else. By that time, they ARE angry and DO take it out on the next rep. BTW, to head off angry responses to this comment of mine, most likely, if you’re angry enough to respond, I wasn’t talking about you.
For those CSRs that seem proud of causing more problems for a difficult customer, I wonder just how much more the customer ends up receiving from Corporate when they finally contact them to complain about Customer Service? You’d be amazed at the free electronics or full refunds that I have received and not even asked for after contacting Corporate because of an untrained rep who didn’t or couldn’t help me. Did I get stress out of all the time (hours and sometimes days to ultimately resolve a simple problem) and trouble I spent? Yes, but I ultimately received satisfaction, whereas the CSR just ended up with the stress. In my experience, if it goes as far as contacting Corporate officers, I end up receiving so much more than what I was even asking for.
I’ve seen a few people take issue with the phrase “the customer is always right”. You’re right, the customer is not always right, but smart companies know that it is easier and cheaper to correct these problems before they get bad press like you so often see on Consumerist.
As for the CSRs who complain about customers calling in and immediately demanding a supervisor: I believe that many of these calls you receive are only after your customers have already tried to resolve the problem. What about those customers that call back after you lose their call during a transfer (accidentally or on purpose)? There may be dozen reasons that people would call back and immediately insist on speaking to a supervisor, only one of which is the OPs reason. And I’m guessing that if someone immediately requests a supervisor, they are probably not calling to complain about you (assuming that you really weren’t able to speak with them first), so why make them angrier?
I read this and it made me angry. Telling a customer service rep that, “you are going to fix my problem.” is a command, not an assurance. It doesn’t matter how you intend it, but if I wasn’t on the clock at my job, my first response would be, “And how do you know that?”
This is a guide on how to be a really annoying customer that representatives will either (a) help because the customer is annoying and we want them to go away fast, or (b) make the rep not feel like helping the customer all since they are showing such a commanding attitude. I am disgusted. The only reason (a) would ever happen is because of lazy, poorly trained, weak willed, etc. representatives who won’t last long.
I don’t know how this worked for face to face business but I GUARANTEE you this is a flawed strategy for any call in business. Maybe in the past it would work, but people in general have become so self-entitled that coming off as entitled in the least is the quickest way to get any comments or pleas you have completed ignored and absolutely no service to be provided to you at all. DEMANDING that someone do something for you is a horrible way to approach anything whether in normal life or dealing with customer service. Immediately requesting a supervisor while refusing to give your name or issue is also horribly tactless. Some companies will, and have every right, to refuse to get you to a supervisor until you give these things. Most supervisors aren’t very inclined to help you. If you immediately bypasses their employee, especially without giving them a chance to help, all you have now done is created extra work for them and possibly unneedingly. Why would they feel inclined to help you? It’s this kind of behavior listed in this article that makes most customer service agents so embittered and why they treat even nice, appropriate customers badly(which they of course shouldn’t do, it justs hard to shake it when you deal all day long). It’s also the reason companies have cracked down on what they will and won’t provide customers.
I’ve been a CSR in call centers for almost 6 years now and the best thing a customer can do to get what they want is to be polite and courteous to the representative and if they still say no then accept it and move on.
Refusing to give any account information to identify you and then immediately demand a supervisor doesn’t work at all at the company I work for. We are prohibited from escalating to a supervisor unless we have the account up and offered at least twice to assist the caller. If the person refuses to provide any info again (and your account didn’t auto-load because you called from a different phone number than the one listed on the account) then we can release the call.
I was a retention rep at Cingular and I’m currently in the retention department at my current employer. Asking for a supervisor rarely works anymore, unless the CSR suggests it or hints at it. In some cases, a supervisor can do more than the rep and if you’re nice and have good account history (meaning you don’t call in all the time expecting something for nothing and have had tons of adjustments for no other reason that being a whiney cheapskate) then the agent will drop hints that perhaps a supervisor may be able to override a certain policy, or they will ask to place you on hold and then they will go to a supervisor and try to get approval to override a certain policy.
For that to work, you must deserve what you are asking for. If retention draws a hard line it’s because either they can’t give you want you want, or because you’ve been an a-hole and they don’t want to reinforce the behavior. Keep in mind if you just cussed a person out, got rude, yelled, called names etc, the supervisor they get you is going to back their agent. They have several supervisors to chose from and I guarantee they will find the supervisor that will NOT give you anything. In fact, if someone has been a jerk to me then they try to sup up, I convey that to the supervisor and usually the sup will not even give the customer what I had offered. The sup basically tells them, “that offer was on the table until you escalated, now it is not available either, oh you want to cancel? okay, your service has been canceled. Have a nice day.” Supervisors have the power to hang up on your rude butt and not be reprimanded for it. If you try to sup up on a sup where I work you are promptly told the call cannot be escalated any further or they will give you the email or PO box for you to complain to corporate. Corporate will likely do what the retention rep had offered you or they will apologize and give you nothing.
These tips are largely BS. The only point that will work at all is being polite and courteous. Chances are that if you think you need to use these jedi mind tricks, it’s because you know that you are outside of the published policies of the company, but think you’re special and that the rules don’t apply to you for some reason.
I was pretty disgusted after reading this, especially the part about calling in and telling an agent that they “fix this problem for you.” That is simply unacceptable advice to be handing out. I work in tech support for a Fortune 500 company and I can assure you we do not tolerate that sort of nonsense. We are not there to magically fix problems especially when you consider when the sad fact of reality is that 90% of the problems are due to blatant user error. We are there to provide troubleshooting steps to HELP(that’s the big keyword there) the customer fix their problem. Ultimately, it’s the customers responsibility to fix the problem they’ve created and in the process of conversing with us, understand and learn how to properly use the sophisticated modern equipment they’ve acquired. Our company provides top of the line tech support/customer service FREE of charge. All of our agents are well trained, speak fluent English and we are located in the US(no outsourcing to india here). We expect our customers to regard this as a privledge and to NOT call us demanding we fix something that’s typically of their own wrong doing because they tossed away the easy to understand manuals/instructions and then have audacity to demand we fix it for them. Take it from me people, no matter how frustrated/upset you are, NEVER call a customer service line demanding that they fix the problem for you. Be polite and professional and ask for help. You will get the best possible assistance the agent is capable of providing when you do this.
Ok, so I have to chime in on this. I am a phone rep, the problem with immediately asking for a supervisor in my case is that the supervisor will flat out refuse to take calls when we don’t know whats going on, stubbornly refusing to give the csr any information about your situation at all or even enough information to at least pull up your account makes our job incredibly difficult and unless you are prepared for ridiculous hold times and pointless runaround just tell the rep you get what is happening and allow them to pull your account information up so that when they get a supervisor the supervisor can come on the line informed about your situation ready to help instead of having to fumble through explaining things that may have been able to be resolved from the rep you were just speaking to. Supervisors should be saved for when things cannot be resolved from a normal rep. It seems that a lot of you have absolutely no idea how the logistics of a call center or customer service on a mass scale works. Each customer feels entitled and I can understand that, but really, we have a business to run and can’t always give everything to everyone or we quickly will not have a business to run.