Customer Service Agent Rant
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This post was intended to be simple tips but has turned into more of a rant from a customer support agent. Don’t take anything said here personally. I try 110% to give each customer exceptional service and strive to let each one know they are special to me. Customers like you pay my salary and I understand that. That being said, some days just plain suck!
I have been on the other side of the phone in customer service for many years now and I must admit that before I had this experience, I would call customer support with a less than a pleasant attitude, yell at the agent and was of the mind that my problem was the only problem and demanded it get fixed immediately. In the past years that attitude has changed for the better. This post is intended to give you some tips on how to deal with customer service. I will focus on wireless communications in this writing but the tips could apply to any company.
The first thing I want you to realize is that while every customer is considered important, you are not the only customer. Do not call customer service with the attitude that you are better than anyone else and demand that your issue be resolved immediately along with credits for your “inconvenience.” Having this attitude will put the agent on the defensive as soon as you start talking. This will prevent you from getting the service you deserve because the agent will be looking for ways to get you off of the phone as quickly as possible instead of working to fix what is wrong. A calm, polite customer stands a much better chance of getting their issue resolved on the first call. The old addage “You get more flies with honey” holds very true here.
Next, read your manual and know your phone. Agents are there to help you along but you can not expect them to walk you through simple tasks like how to make a phone call. Agents are glad to help you with the more complicated aspects of the service or phone functions, but not the simple things. It is simply a waste of time and resources and the information can easily be found in the first few pages of the manual.
Don’t ramble. Agents have an expectation to be on and off a call within a certain amount of time. On any particular day, the average time an agent is on each call is taken into consideration to determine that agent’s status, raises, bonuses, etc. Pleasantries like the weather and speaking breifly about a common experience are great but when a customer starts talking about their dog that made the green poopie, it’s time to close the call and move on. Stick to the issue as much as possible and I guarantee you the agent will thank you for it.
Do not call from the phone you are having trouble with. This one is a biggie. An agent cannot troubleshoot your phone if you are talking on it. In most cases the fix involves powering the phone off and then back on again. There have been a number of times where I have forgotten to ask the person if they were talking to me on the phone, requested they turn it off and the call disconnects.
Know that technology has problems from time to time. It is inevitible and cannot be prevented. If your phone stops working for 2 hours it is not a breach of contract, nor does it dictate a month’s worth of service credit. If you loose a $100,000 sale because the call dropped, it is not the responsibility of the phone company to reimburse you. That being said, if you take the first tip to heart and be polite about the issue, chances are you will get some small credit on the account for your troubles.
Finally, speak clearly and be ready to answer questions and perform troubleshooting that you may have already done on your own. Agents have specific troubleshooting that must be done in order to determine what the issue is, if your phone needs to be replaced, if the issue is within the network, etc. If you are at a party with loud music, step outside. If your child is crying in your arms, let someone else hold him/her. In other words, be ready to focus on the call and be able to provide the agent with your full attention. this will help to resolve your issue much more quickly. We understand that you are busy and have better things to do than call customer service, but the more you are able to focus on the call, the faster you will be done.
Finally, look up your account on the internet before calling in. Chances are the issue you are having has been experienced before and you can find the answer in the support area of the web site. Most cell phone companies have forums online that will help with common issues. If you are reading this post then you probably know how to use forums. Some companies even have live chat support available.
Customer support agents are people too. Sometimes it is hard to remember that fact. Not only for the customer but the agent as well.
I hope these tips don’t seem too blunt but I wanted to be straight forward and taking these tips to heart will, I promise you, make for a much more pleasant and faster resolution of your problem.
4 Comments
Buffet
June 12th, 2009
at 2:47am
Very helpful guidelines that have a broad range of applications. Thank You.
leftystrat
June 14th, 2009
at 10:56pm
Great points.
Good luck, however, asking callers to actually *do* something in the troubleshooting arena. They either can’t be bothered or aren’t smart enough in the first place.
[I do what you do without the phone]
Marc Kruskol
June 18th, 2009
at 6:41pm
I am involved in a customer service nightmare with T-Mobile. I’ve tried dealing with them to no avail. First I spoke with “Ralph” from the “office of the president.” I’ve also written to their media relations department, Robert Dotson, Brian Kirkpatrick, Susan Nokes and Hamid Akhavan, all of whom have ignored me. All I want is something fair and simple, yet the are they have dug their heels in and are being completely unreasonable—and have been quite deceptive to boot!
My 19 year old daughter has not has good luck with her T-Mobile phones. She had a Razr which gave her problems on many occasions. She eventually switched to a Wing—the source of her current, ongoing problem.
My daughter has gone through several Wings. In the beginning, they were replaced with refurbished units. She dropped one and paid the insurance claim out of her own pocket. Her current Wing (a new unit), which she received a few months back, started to give an error message saying it was out of memory, repeatedly froze, etc. It finally stopped working altogether. Research on Google shows that this is common problem with this phone. The tech at a T-Mobile store said that there was nothing they could do and suggested she go to Wal-Mart and get a pre-paid phone until she got a new Wing!
I tried reaching Ralph from the “Office of the President” (877) 290-6323 x-341-8022, several times. After leaving many messages, Ralph finally called me back. He said, “If the account number isn’t left, I won’t return the call.” To me, that is NOT customer service. All he would have to do is to look up my daughter’s records OR call me back! Finally, Ralph got back to me, then my daughter. Initially, Ralph told my daughter that he would exchange her Wing for any other T-Mobile phone. She was pleased to hear this. My daughter went to a T-Mobile store again and tried out different phones. Because of her needs and the shape of her fingers, etc., she settled on the G1.
When my daughter called Ralph back and told him the phone she wanted, he told her that she could have any phone EXCEPT THAT ONE! I’m sure you can imagine her disappointment—and outrage. He offered to give her a Sidekick 2008 (quite old) or a Dash (even older—and one she doesn’t like). These are not even close to being in the class as a G1 or a Wing. He said that she could get the G1, but she’d have to pay for it—and offered her a “discounted” price of $179.99. I then spoke with him and expressed my disappointment and how it was insulting that even though she had a flawed, lemon of a phone, she’d have to pay even MORE money for a different one—one that was also close to a year old technology-wise. I asked for his supervisor to call me.
Jennifer Martinez (877) 290-6323 x-8011 called me the next day. She basically reiterated the same offer, making it sound like we were getting some amazing deal, saying that “retail” price on the phone was $399.99. This was absolute deception, of course, as hardly anyone ever pays the “suggested retail price,” and, the T-Mobile website offers the very same price of $179.99 to ANY new customer!
I declined Ms. Martinez’s offer and told her that I would be contacting other people. She said that “I could feel free to do so, but they would tell me the same thing.” Now, I understand empowering employees, but when they come off as sounding like even the owner or CEO can’t or won’t do anything they won’t do, it just sounds ridiculous.
Apparently, my letters trickled back to Ralph, who called me and clearly indicated that he was authorized to speak on behalf of all of the executives that I had written to.
Among the many absurd things that he said, he told me that he could not (or…WOULD not) contact my daughter when I called him the first time, since I didn’t’ leave her cell number, since there were others with her name in their system. I told him flat out that as far as I knew, there are NO other people with my daughter’s name in the world! I again wrote to T-Mobile asking for some type of proof of this. The fact is, Ralph refused to be proactive and just make a simple phone call to me. He tried to cover his tracks with this ridiculous statement. Ralph also told me that the $179.99 was a huge discount—the only thing that that my daughter qualified for. It seems that T-Mobile is more is more interested in getting new customers than keeping the ones that they have.
This situation has been going on for over a month. My family has had an account with T-Mobile for many years. We’ve paid T-Mobile thousands of dollars through the years. My daughter’s Razr and now her Wing have given her problems. I’ve tried to resolve this fairly, yet they refuse to budge over $200—and an old phone—one that’s already being updated!
I appreciate the chance to share this information with your readers and let them know that the vows of great customer service by Susan Nokes and her team are nothing but lip service.
Johnny Angel
June 21st, 2009
at 10:28pm
Re: Marc Kruskol and your nightmare.
You seem to be completely oblivious to the content of this article. By your own admission, you’ve acted on several occasions as if yours is the only dilemma and that you deserve to be compensated above and beyond normal business practice.
Why are you trying to bring a complaint about a faulty phone to the “Office of the President” or their media relations department? Those people do not deal with customer complaints, period! Why would you expect a proactive response from them? That’s like writing a letter to President Obama about your property taxes and expecting a response. Proper channels are there for a reason: customer service departments have the time and resources to take care of your problem. Executives do NOT.
On top of this, you are publishing their full names, phone numbers and extensions in a rant on a blog. Why?
From what you’ve described, these people have bent over backwards to try and help you, and you always seem to think “That’s just not good enough for me and mine, I want more.” When they tell you a G1 is worth $400, they mean it! Cell providers make NO money on the sales of handsets. They are all subsidized by those lengthy service contracts you sign when you are a new customer or renew your contract. So they’ve already sold you a Wing at well below cost, replaced it several times, and offered you hundreds more in free lower-priced models or a subsidized high-end model you so fervently desire.
You’ve received better service than you deserve.
(I do not work for T-mobile, but I do work in service.)