Twenty-Eight Tips For Winning Customer Service Phone Battles

We bring you another part of the Consumerist’s series on tips on exercising your rights as a consumer, with our comments

Use a speaker phone – recording helps too

Set aside at least 30 minutes – On hold time alone can take that away

Get a human – Gethuman is very useful. And you can’t argue with an interactive voice response system

Gather your evidence – keep all written correspondence, recordings of conversations, financial statements, etc.

Act like a human – Acting like a rampaging animal won’t make someone want to help you.

Don’t think the world revolves around you – any corporation has a lot of customers…things shouldn’t be slow…but don’t expect instant results

Know your enemy – Become intimately familiar with the people you are fighting

Take notes – Writing down important information is a great way of organizing your thoughts and plan of attack

Don’t be afraid to hang up and try another operator – not everyone is as helpful or competent as you’d like

Run out the clock – Be patient…triumph takes time

Be firm – Don’t give up

Keep calmly repeating your story

Say exactly what you want – Have an idea of your desired course of action and/or compensation

Don’t ask for yes from someone who can only say no – don’t just ask for a supervisor…ask for someone who has the authority to act

Make a business case for your wants – don’t just say what you want…say why it is a good idea to give it to you

Honesty begets honesty – If they catch you in a lie, they won’t help you at all.

There’s sometimes more freebies to give out early in the day, or early in the quarter

Email a company executive, then print it out and mail it

The next ten tips are from the customer service representative side, courtesy who run CustomersSuck.com…with our notes, of course.

Be civil – they are human beings(hopefully)

Let the rep talk – nothing gets down when two people are talking at once

Don’t ramble – it undermines your position

Don’t blame reps for corporate policies – they aren’t management, and cannot change them

Remember the other person is a person – they don’t deserve your abuse

Demanding a supervisor will not always work – they often don’t have any authority either

Be reasonable and keep perspective

Consider seeing a therapist if you’re screaming at a powerless rep

Sometimes you just can’t be helped

Don’t tell them how long you’ve been on hold – It may have made you angrier…but the clock starts when they start talking to you