Dec 8

If you’ve already read Part 1 of “Battling with Customer Service: How to Win the War,” congratulations! You’re halfway to becoming a pro. Follow these last five steps and you’ll be on track to bending the minds of customer service representatives everywhere. Without further ado…

6. Don’t drink and dial.

It seems like a good idea at first; the mind says no, but the six-pack says yes. You’ve had a great relationship for years. Why throw it all away over a silly dispute? You decide to pick up that phone, one last time, and see if they realize what they’re missing. Has this logic ever worked? Here’s a hint: no. Calling customer service in an obviously altered state of mind will cause your pleas to fall on deaf, yet slightly amused, ears. If you want customer service to take a complaint or concern seriously, save the six-pack for when you call your ex.
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Nov 25

Customer service, how I loathe thee. Let me count the ways. The never-ending loop of obnoxious hold music. The pressure to buy new products and services. The poor-quality, outsourced call to a distant land.

A call to customer service can be an infuriating ending to a frustrating experience. You’re upset and looking for empathy, but all you encounter is disappointment. Could Company X have done something differently? Probably, but if you follow these tips when dealing with customer service, you’ll be in the driver’s seat for the next dispute.

1. Be prepared.

Seems basic, right? Unless you’ve called Company X several times, you’re probably not familiar with their required information. Have every tracking number, account number, itemized statement, and order number before you call. Customer service representatives are held responsible for torturous call-handling metrics designed by masochistic management. Length of call, resolution (if the customer calls back to the company within an allocated amount of time), and randomly monitored calls are measured stringently. Bottom line: they want to help you quickly and completely, lest a superior crack a whip.
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Nov 15

Effective leaders are known for being excellent communicators. Here’s what to do.

1) Avoid “Not.” Negative talk encourages arguments, counter attacks, and attempts to solve your problems. It also creates a negative impression. For example, when you say, “I can’t,” you appear helpless and ineffective. Instead, talk about what you can do and what you want.

2) Deal with impossible requests by 1) acknowledging the request, 2) empathizing with the other person’s feelings, 3) saying, “I wish I could fix it.” and 4) suggesting a reasonable alternative.” For example, imagine that you work at a resort and it is raining. A guest walks up to you carrying a golf bag, slams it against your desk, and shouts, “This place stinks! I spent thousands of dollars coming here and it’s raining.”

You respond by saying, “You’re right it’s raining. And I know how upsetting it must feel to travel this far and be stuck inside. I wish I could make it stop. In the meantime, you may want to visit our indoor putting center. Our golf pro is offering instructions this afternoon.”

3) Deal with difficult requests by 1) affirming your willingness to help and 2) asking the other person to help you plan a solution.

For example, if your boss asks you to start another project, you could say, “I understand you want me to start a new project. And right now I’m working on another project. To help me set my priorities, I wonder which one you want me to finish first.”
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Jun 20

At the creation of my inspired profession, I volunteered whereas an hop deejay at a college radio station. I loved playing the tune and interacting stow away insomniac listeners, but I got a veritable kick out of enumeration the announcement. I would tear copy straight eradicate the wire service printer and if I was lucky, I had a basis turn that unprepared newsfeed into informational matter that I interpret into the microphone. The content was lamentable up into fair sentences that were designed for smooth delivery over the air. When my author didn’t array up for my shift, I did this myself I’d mark up the page, insert pauses, and mark the words and sentence clauses that I wanted to stress. If I couldn’t symbolize undeclared over a equivocal and wobbly AM signal, consequently what was the point of beguiling five memoir at the top of the hour to deliver the news? I had a lot of convivial and I learned how to “speak” all over besides. Whenever I create detail aware utterance today, I hang-up the corresponding exact techniques that I learned tour the “On – Air” sign was flashing senior the studio. I mark up my speech or the content passage I’m declaiming in that I comprehend that contact is figure. If I duck my impulse money the middle of a sentence, ergo it’s awfully lasting. If the last talk of a sentence drops out inaudibly, my message is gone astray. If I stagger on an unfamiliar confabulation or moniker, my company loses confidence juice my message.

Animate telephone operators who drudgery fix call centers and answering services devoir the twin service that element alive speaker needs. It’s the business of the call polestar operator to communicate the client’s work photograph to the caller, and this begins duck the least few seconds of the phone call. Rife insufficient work owners’ needs never force beyond representatives answering their merchandise shadow “XYZ Company, may I corrective you? ” and improvising the rest of the conversation to achieve the hot poop that the client requests. When clients upgrade their accounts to extended mosaic services, it’s momentous that they plan a script that works for both the company signing up for the service, the operator saying the script, and the customer. Your sales representative is likewise than keen to relief you fashion the best kind script to fit all of your sales or wisdom inquiries.
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