What Do The Notes On Your Account Really Say?
Pretty much every problematic customer service story these days includes some reference to the Notes—that unseen record of what you've been told, and by inference what you've agreed to, on previous calls. The funny thing is, you never get to see them.
The Notes on your account are meaningless to you. In theory, they should provide some institutional memory of your calls, so any CSR can pick up where you and the company last left off. In practice, they've taken on the status of sacred text, with call center managers positioning themselves as the high priests and priestesses—after all, only they can see these Notes, and relay the information back to you. The Notes are Law. The Notes are Truth.
Except no, no they're not. You have no say over the Notes. You can't even see them to confirm that the correct information was recorded. There's only one real record of your previous calls, and that's any audio recording that may have been made. Wait, let's clarify that: any audio recording that you may have made of the call, since the company will almost certainly not bother to retrieve or share their recordings with you in a future dispute.
On many smartphones, you can install applications that let you record calls. The iPhone has some options if you jailbreak your phone. There are services you can use as well, like RecordMyCalls.com, which I personally don't like because it requires a subscription as well as per-minute rates, or Google Voice. If you didn't get a Google Voice membership back when it was GrandCentral, add your email address here to eventually receive an invitation. Refer to the post below to determine how to legally record any customer service calls in your state:
"Is It Legal To Record My Customer Service Calls?"
The Notes issue could be resolved if companies would make the notes visible to customers, and give them a way to sign off on them at the end of a call. Yes, it would require additional work on the company's part to set up a visible "notes" section—but if you can log in and see your latest bill, or receive messages from the company from within your account view, then they've already proven they know how to share data with you.
Until that happens, the next time a CSR refers to the Notes, we suggest you politely remind them that you can't see those notes, you didn't sign off on them, and you have no idea if the previous CSR actually entered what he said he would. It's time to let companies know that as long as these fabled Notes are off-limits to customers, they're off limits in the conversation as well.
(Photo: Eustaquio Santimano)
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When I worked for a call center, we were told to record things as detailed as possible and try to leave out the "mean" stuff unless a customer was being overly ridiculous/obscene ("customer called my mom 'a flaming bag' of shit", etc.) because, one day, that customer would call and ask for the Notes, and we'd be forced to fax or e-mail them to him. A couple times, a customer did call in and say "I'm not sure that I'm getting what I was told I would... Would you e-mail me all the Notes from your database so I can see what's going on with your rep?" and half-and-half it resulted in the customer getting a rep fired or a customer realizing that he himself is a total dumbass. Or that he calls WAY too much and wastes our time.
I'm not sure what most companies' policies state as far as Notes, but ours was to keep them as detailed as possible because one day the customer will ask. I wonder how this varies.
"It's time to let companies know that as long as these fabled Notes are off-limits to customers, they're off limits in the conversation as well." - I suppose this applies when those notes would be helpful to the customer as well. "Well Mr. Johnson I see where we offered a 10% credit, but since you can't see the notes we can't offer that now".
Excellent advice. I think it would be ok to record the phone call if you hear that recorded voice say that the conversation may be recorded "for quality assurance". No need to further inform them that you will be recording it.
@hellinmyeyes: I should add that I do like the idea of some sort of sign-off at the end of conversations to make both the customer and the rep accountable for what was said, but I doubt anything like that would come to fruition.
Also, I should add that at the company I worked for, they were in the process of creating an online portal so that customers could view their own notes and certain, limited account details to add accountability to the process. I left a number of years ago, and I highly doubt this ever occurred.
I hadn't thought about using google voice. That couldve saved me a lot of trouble with t-mobile, wells Fargo, etc.
Another option is to use the customer chat service that some companies provide. A simple cut and paste and you have a record of what was said. Of course this works with email as well. Not everythig can be resolved this way, but it is an option.
I always find it frustrating when I have to call back to a call center or get transferred to another department and have to start over at square one with what my "issue" is. I don't understand why reps can't take better notes to make things easier on the consumer.
I worked in customer service for a large timeshare company where we recorded notes when dealing with customers over the phone or in person.
We had certain guidelines when writing the notes, because although a majority of the customers never even knew they had notes written about them, should a legal case arise then the notes can be used as evidence in court. Therefore, we were not allowed to show opinions in the notes, no matter how stupid the customer was. We were required to use "irate" instead of "rude", and would get written up if we expressed any signs of opinions or getting offended in notes, because each note had our username and timestamp permanently affixed.
Fark you "irate" timeshare owners!
What's nice about that wording is that it implies consent to record, as well as informing you that they might be recording the call.
NOte sare used mostly to communicate what was told to the customer , so the customer cant call back and say they were told 1 thing when they in fact werent. That being said, you get more flies with honey. Im a CRS and when you call me, if you are polite on the ohone and I think you are honest I will do my best to give you whatever you need, even if its not my companies fault. However, If you swear and try to bully your way into getting what you want, I gaurantee Ill do my best to make sure you dont get it, even if it is our fault.
Questioning this practice is long overdue. Several times I've asked for a copy of the 'notes' to be sent to me, and of course have been refused every time.
Once at a wireless store I walked around behind the sales rep and started reading over her shoulder as she reviewed and typed notes on her computer.
Another time I walked into the cell phone store with a mini-recorder in my hand, in plain sight. It wasn't even set to record, but it had the desired effect. I was treated fairly on that particular visit.
I work for a major ISP in Canada and notes are nothing to be afraid of. 90% of them are about changes made to your account and business stuff. When your a prick we simply note that you are a difficult customer. My company has a policy that if a customer wants to see his account we can give the information requested.
Did you work for a government agency or a private company? If it's the latter, people have to realize that normal corporations have no legal obligation to share the "notes" of their conversations with anyone, unless they're supboenaed (sp?) or forced to in court. Now, if it's a city/county/state/federal/etc database, you could do a FOIA request to demand the "notes" they have on you. But if I call my cable company and ask them to fax or email me all the notes/comments they have on my account, they can tell me to get bent and be well within their legal rights to do so *lol* The only way private companies should be expected to turn over these "notes" is if there's a lawsuit and they have to be entered as evidence - any other circumstances, and they'd be considered proprietary company inforation. Anyway, that's just how I understand it after 6 years of being a paralegal and making FOIA requests from various groups and government entities - somebody please correct me if I'm wrong!
This reminds me of the Seinfeld episode where Elaine tried to get access to her medical file at her doctor. She kept getting busted trying to read it and kept switching doctors but her file kept magically following her around.
Sort-of on-topic: I'm an authorized user on my fiance's Hollywood Video card. One day I was renting a video, the girl at the desk laughs and says, "did you know on the account information you're listed as 'a booty call'?" Suffice it to say that I was not amused.
"It's time to let companies know that as long as these fabled Notes are off-limits to customers, they're off limits in the conversation as well."
That's just stupid. The most frequent problem we hear about when someone deals with multiple CSRs is that a CSR told them something and didn't record it in the notes. How is it going to benefit you to refuse to use the notes that don't contain what you think they should contain? The notes on your account are not intended to be a comprehensive list of everything that is said, so they can't say that if it wasn't in the notes it wasn't said.
You've given no good reason for refusing to accept the use of these notes. You'll be inconveniencing yourself by having to start fresh with every new CSR, and to what end?
Recording your conversations legally is the only worthwhile suggestion here. I think it'd be interesting to hear how these miscommunications occur.
@Jason Rouse: Oh, I know why. It's because they're either stupid, or don't give a crap, or both. That's what you get for ten bucks an hour.
When I worked for a call center, lots of times people either didn't bother to make the notes they were supposed to make, or whatever they wrote was inaccurate or insufficient. So even if you're lucky and get someone who really wants to help you the next time you call, they don't have the relevant information.
THE BEST EVER is when you pull up someones acct and it's filled with YOUR NOTES OF PAIN AND SUFFERING.
That's when it's best to fall on the phone and mistakenly disconnect the call.
@djmichaelangelo: When I worked in collections we were told to keep our notes short but accurate, and completely clean because if there is ever a lawsuit those notes will be read in court. And you don't really want to go before a judge and read "this customer is a pain in the..."
At an old company we had a hidden field on each account labled Tag Code. It would have colors similar to the old terror alert system. Green = Reasonable. Red = Send to Retention Automatically.
For those that wish to record their calls (and save money on calls) you could look into a software-PBX solution such as Asterisk -- provided you have a broadband internet connection. There are free versions such as PBX-in-a-Flash (nerdvittles.com) and Trixbox. These are cheaper than other services (e.g., Vonage) and provide all the same services.
I now record ALL calls (made or received) and have a friendly web access portal to them. I don't worry about where the recordings are stored, because they are stored on my PC. Oh, and my "phone service" (including multiple local numbers and toll-free calls, voicemail, callerID, etc.) costs me about $5 (yes, $5) month, plus a few dollars of calls at around $0.02/minute. International calls cost about the same, except to mobile numbers.
It would be nice if a company like DELL used notes.
Oh, how often I've called with an issue with my computer or warranty, to go through the whole story with one rep, who turns out to be the "operator" and transfers me (after verifying all my account information, so they did pull up my record) to the "correct department" who could help me...
Only to start telling the issue again, and being told I need to be transferred to another department...
Start the story of my issue from square one, only to find out I've been forwarded to the "operator" again, who will have to transfer me, and does so...
Then to tell my story again, to find out I've been transferred to the same place that couldn't help me, and being transferred to the right department....
To tell my story again, from scratch, only to find out that I'm with the "Operator" again, and they will have to transfer me.
DO you see where I'm going here?
Oh how nice it would be if they used notes.
When I call Dell, the first thing they play on the phone is "WELCOME TO DELL"
What I hear is "WELCOME TO HELL"
I record all important calls to any CSR. Since I live in CA and must have consent from the other end, as long as they infer that they are recording or monitoring, that is consent for me to record. It's paid off in the past when I had a clusterfrak with BoA. I played back the recording and got results PDQ. I'm probably listed in their notes as NSA or something.
"Customer called demanding we give them free month's service because they downloaded Party Animal Poker using our connection and are now buried in pop-ups. Customer was calling over Vonage at the time. Customer's network link was, in fact, compromised for approximately 90 seconds, call lost."
When I worked tech support, we had a notes section that a "customer" (it was internal corporate support) could see if they checked on their ticket on our website. We also had a private notes section that the customer could not see. We used the latter to say things like "customer has an an incredibly hard time understanding even simple concepts, so talk slowly to him".
Of course, this was for internal corporate tech support for a large pharma company, not a company open up to the public. Also, the customer had no say over what was in the notes.
@kingofmars: The last time I used online chat with Sprint, they automatically emailed me a log of our conversation the moment it ended. I thought that was pretty cool. (Never used chat with another company, so I don't know if that's SOP.)
@YourTechSupport: Heh. I knew a library where they would code relevant claims of patron-lost books with LLPOF--"Liar, liar, pants on fire."
Also a handy tip "ID10T" or "Idaho Delta Ten Tango" as we'd infer to our field units. Is, in fact, a diagnostic troubleshooting code that concisely indicates the nature of a problem. If you see this on record you obtain, the problem is usally, in fact, on your end.
@I_am_Awesome: Also, don't /TELL/ the techs that you're recording the conversation or plan to start. It doesn't help anything. One time I told a customer to go ahead and start and i'll review his case history of pass harrassment calls. I even gave him Ben's email address to no avail.
Any time I am talking with a CSR I sometimes ask them if they are even checking the notes and they pretend they have no idea what I am talking about.
My notes with Chase from October explain in detail what I needed to do to fix a recent tax issue.
Of course, the rep decided not to actually tell me any of this, and now it's costing me several hundred dollar per month. Asking people to read your notes to you on a follow up call is sometimes very useful.
Also for recording calls, if you use just a regular land line, there is a handy suction cup device that you can plug into your computer or a tape recorder (as a mic) and it picks up the electromagnetic audio of the incoming speaker. Very handy.
@kingofmars: TWC's tech chat won't let you copy and paste. And the wont email it to you if they say something that could get them in trouble. Thats why I get screen shots of the convo. TWC sucks but I have gotten so many free months of service out of them because of my records and such. I just wish I could get a job as a TWC "tech analyst". the don't know crap and do nothing to help but tell you what number to call, then disconnect you when you prove them wrong about something. But hey I've had them for 6 months and only paid for about 2 and a half months worth.
as a customer service rep for a small company, we keep notes and have never had to give them to anyone (or been asked to.) They usually just have notes about exchanges or refunds or a standing credit for the future. Problem customers get an entry, which is usually, "major pain in the butt." Sometimes, it is, "The user started screaming profanity at me." If one of those users wanted the notes, I assume telling them that they scream profanity would just make them scream some more profanity.
@krispykrink: I wouldn't count on their admission of possibly recording a call as acquiescence to your recording of it. For general dispute purposes it may be ok, but most states require explicit consent for it to be disseminated - especially in a judicial proceeding.
@samurailynn: When I worked at the Sprint Call Center, I had a tough time with notes for several reasons for several reasons:
- Notes were considered the infallible and unquestionable truth. Whatever was in the notes was accepted as fact. I once had a lady call in saying her contract had been extended WITHOUT HER CONSENT, but the notes said she'd agreed to an extension, my Supervisor said this was proof enough the extension was valid and nothing she could say would change his mind. I saw other notes like this too that were apparently flat out lies put in the records by unscrupulous CSRs. I had to violate policy a couple of times and go against what the notes said because I thought it was the right thing to do.
- I had a penchant for writing - *gasp!* concise but detailed notes explaining a situation as best I could in as short a time as I could. Apparently this was not good enough, they said it was driving by AHT (average length of my CS calls) and to start writing shorter notes. Nevermind one of the major reasons my AHT was running high is because the notes from previous calls were so shoddily written I had to back to the start on almost every issue.
- The official rule on the notes from out Sprint policy reference was: "Account notes are considered confidential and proprietary information of Sprint and are NEVER to be given or read to customers."
- On top of that, I was told by multiple supervisors to NEVER read back notes from previous calls when I was on with a customer. I was allowed to give a "general idea" of what the notes said, but could not read them verbatim.
I know this is only one company and one call center, but these stupid rules and near complete faith in what the notes said (when oftentimes they were inaccurate if not flat out false) was extremely aggravating. Not shocking I consider this to be, stress wise, the worst job I've ever had.
One last thing I have to say. At least with Sprint, account notes were filled with abbreviations and jargon that only someone that has either worked with Sprint or been in the wireless business would understand. Just because you'd get a copy of your notes doesn't mean you'd be able to make heads or tails of them.
I used to work at one of the super-hated credit card companies. 99.9% of account notes are boring and useless, auto-notes put in by the system. There is no nefarious customer gossip going on underneath your nose.
Recording calls is useless too. I would never believe a customer who tried to push an audio recording of a promise they felt a company didn't keep. With all of the audio editing software these days...
@hillsrovey:
Elaine: I was looking at my chart [at the doctor's office], and it said that I was difficult. Why would they write that?
Jerry: They've gotten to know you.
@Mike Ingold: Because for everyone here saying "Notes are nothing to be afraid of; they're polite and responsibly written" there's some jack-ass writing stuff like that.
In your situation, I think I would be livid.
Actually, most cell phones (not just smartphones) have a record feature on them. It's usualy enabled by pressing and holding down the voice dial button or speakerphone button on most models. It records your conversatins while the phone is in use and voice memos when it isn't on a call. Some regular phones have a decent amount of memory on them, so you can record for quite a long time. Just check you phone first to be sure you'll have enough memory available to record the call. And I have actually told CSRs that the call is being recorded for quality assurance.
@Andrea Viera: This is particularly interesting because the words "rude" and "irate" have two totally different meanings. I can be rude without being irate and vise versa. Tricky.
I'm sure after my last call to AimCo about renewing my lease at a $200 increase when the market rate has dropped $110 will cause a big red flag on my account.
I'm pretty sure the notes on most of my accounts (especially aetna!) say that I'm a stubborn b*tch who won't take no for an answer....