May 01, 2007

How to get great customer service .....

I use to be a customer service rep so I basically know how the system works. Sometimes it can work to my advantage. So let me share my experience to assist you in getting help faster.

I had to call ATT on a phone issue. My daughter had the phone transfered to the new house but there's no line from the street to the house. Repair line says wait time is about 25 minutes due to a high call volumn. 25 minutes!?!?!

Hummmmm, hang up the phone and call again saying I wanted a new service. In about a nano second there's a very nice lady on the phone just waiting to help me out. "Oh sorry but that's not something I can help you with. While it is a new service it's actually just a transfer of an established service. It's a repair issue so I'm going to have to get someone on the line who can assist you," she says in one of those overly happy voices that would normally piss me off.

I wait for maybe 5 seconds and get transfered directly to a repair person who is happy to take the info from me. "So sorry this happened. We'll have someone out there tomorrow morning and the repairs will be completed by 1." Total phone time? 7 minutes.

The key is to: Be pleasant so whoever is on the phone wants to help you. Even though you've intentionally called the wrong department make an excuse like "well since it's a new location I figured it was a new service." They feel bad that they can't and most companies have a policy called "warm transfer". Warm transfer is that they will not put you into a que of phone calls to wait your turn. Instead the rep you are speaking with will stay on the phone and call someone internally in the department to assist. The internal reps don't have time to waste on hold so their calls are answered asap.

**Since this is a knitting blog I'd just like to share that there are 2 lace shawls on blocking wires in the attic room drying. In addition I'm on the foot of the sock for D1. Oh the things I do to get to cast on another project!

7 comments:

Deborah said...

That is too funny, those companies all love NEW MONEY!

Whenever I call the power company, I always punch the - smell gas button. I'm not fibbing, I have gas and I can smell it!

Anonymous said...

Gotta love it....their quick to help new customers but want to make their current ones wait.
I hate calling customer service so I generally let my hubby deal with it.

gypsyknits said...

What I dislike the most is when the landline telephone goes out and one must call from the cell only to be put on hold for 1 hour! I'm not kidding, this actually happened. Then the battery went dead on the cell and I had to go to my mother's whose phone was also out and I used her cell minutes to report the incident. Or I call because I have no internet only to hear the recording tell me to go online and check the site to see if there is a problem?! How can I do that if I don't have internet?aaaarrrrrrrrgggggghhh!!!!

Anonymous said...

Oh, good tips! On some of the systems, you can also bypass the "Press 1 to..." routine by press 0 several times. Useful for those long convoluted systems. My cable company used to send you in a circle if you tried to report a problem.

Karen said...

That good information to have. I'll have to remember that!

monica said...

It is that wine and dine them process and then you are forgotten once they have you. Thanks for the info. How are you liking the blocking wires I have got to get some

Patricia said...

Hey, I agree, just be pleasant but persist. I just jumped to the Apple side due to great service repairing my nano. Apple got at least $3000 out of me from a simple repair.