Your Customer Service Call

A lot of times, you are to be asked of several information before you'll be given the assistance you need. Most often than not, this leads to your irritation adding up to your pent up frustration to whatever your reason for calling the customer service hotline. But if you think otherwise, the representative who's asking you all the questions is just doing his job for your own good. That is to ensure security of the account and the information to be given away. They won't ask you all those questions if they are not really necessary.

Do you know that they have a what they call as Call Handling Time? This is the total time they spend on every call and they only have a few minutes to provide resolution to all your concerns. They will be given incentives if they hit their target. So keep in mind that they don't and won't need to ask a lot of information from you if they are totally irrelevant.

A common scenario in the call center is when a customer would not want to give out any information being asked. If you're the one on the other line, you might think this person might be attempting a fraud. Especially in cases when an account log-in and password is involved. I can't seem to understand why most people had the tendency to create such security question that they will soon forget when asked to verify. Most probably they were doing something else during that time and the first thing to ever pop up in their minds were the one used for setting up the account. Which is of course very obvious that in just a week or so, that information have already been forgotten.

You should laugh at your self when you can't even tell your place of residence or physical address. You must be aware about the prevalence of fraud activities and the representative is just tasked to verify your account for your own security and for your good yet you manage to be uncooperative and impatient in doing this initial step when calling to a customer service hotline.

Some would say the lines, that they've moved and it's hard to recall the previous information. So, was it the representative's fault? Isn't it your responsibility to inform your service provider about any change in your location, phone number, or email address? How are they suppose to know that you have moved to a different location? Are you thinking they have a magic ball?

Sometimes, there are people who would call without any account information at all except for his name. If you are in a corporate world and calling for a fax repair service, do you think that machine would be listed under your name and not under the corporate account. And some service repair assistance needs a unique serial number for proper equipment identification. All equipments n general have this identification label or sticker that can be found at the back of the machine, in most cases near the main power cable.

There are also cases where you would call for service but would give out a different product information about the machine. The files you have in your drawer may not always be accurate. That could have been created ages ago and you're still using it as a point of reference. And if the writing are not legible enough, that information may either lead to pull up a different account or nothing at all.

What if you're machine needs on-site repair, replacement or maintenance and the address listed on the account was incorrect, the phone number was invalid. So the service repair man would go to that wrong address, tried to call the invalid number when they realized the contact person they are looking for is not at the location given to them. Then you're there waiting and waiting then will decide to call back screaming!

It's not unusual that you would do several things all at once. So you picked up the phone and call the service hotline while doing other tasks and ignoring all the voice prompts from the telephone automated system. Then a person answers on the other line, took all your account information only to be transferred to another department. You might have considered wasting 1 minute to listen to the voice prompts and get your your concern to the right person rather than just waiting for someone to answer who could not help you and will later on transfer your call again. It is not the quantity but it's definitely the quality that counts!

Don't think that you know everything. You wouldn't be calling for assistance in the first place if you do. Try to consider that other person's feelings as well before making any harsh comments or discriminating remarks. You may be surprised if you can only hear what the other person is thinking or saying about you and the people who call for assistance. Don't discriminate and become a racist. Your accent does not mean anything good to uplift your social standing. In fact, those with Asian s and Latin accents are the most appreciated customers because they tend to be more calm, cooperative, friendly and appreciative rather than the usual callers.

For most US residents, you are often irritated to speak to a representative whom you think lives outside the country and you would request to be transferred immediately to someone in the USA. If you think they are no good because they are Asians or do not have a good accent, think otherwise. They may not be able to speak your native tongue the way you do it but in most cases they will be the one who would clearly understand your concern.

Remember that they are just the one who creates any service repair request but they are the one who will be physically present to fix your machine. If no one showed up, or the problem was not fixed, you would still put the blame to the rep in India or Manila who took your concern and requested an on-site visit rather than the American guy who serviced the machine.

Some companies are sending survey questions to their customers about the quality of service that they have received. And some of the comments were about having an outsourced company to handle customer service.

Different companies have different rules, regulations and policies. What you think you want doesn't necessarily mean it's the best thing to do or most of the time, you're trying to request for something impossible.

Like getting an on-site technician to be dispatched right at that very moment. Remember that you are not calling 911 or a hospital emergency service. Even if you go inside the church and pray to God, he won't give answers to your prayers right away. You are calling that customer service toll free number for service support and assistance and not for a miracle. Otherwise, you might want to go to Vatican instead.

Regardless of how badly you need the service for a certain equipment, machinery, software or Internet connection, your service providers also have their own system of handling their customers concern. Most of the time, you would make a call asking for urgent assistance and want instant resolution without considering the fact that maybe, there are other people elsewhere who is also using their service but is experiencing a much worse scenario. They can just be one floor or one block away from you, you don't know, all you know is that you have a problem with that certain thing and you want it fixed right away. You may think your case needs an urgent response when there could also be someone who needs more urgent assistance than yours.

The point is that everyone is just doing their own jobs. You're doing your job and the representatives are just doing their job as well. Don't blame them if all of a sudden your equipment or gadget or whatsoever just suddenly started to act up and quit working. It is not his fault, he did not invented that machine, he was not the one who designed their computer programs to facilitate your service request. A delay with your service may not be the fault of the representative who answered your call, it could have been the last rep's or maybe by someone else or could have been an honest mistake or may even be caused by an accident.

Have you ever thought of these things? I would say no, not even once because your main concern is always the resolution to your problem. You would not even remember the person who have given you the best quality of service in your entire life of calling that customer service number but you will never forget that one who have caused you a lot of inconvenience. You would always forget the good things that was done or given to you but you will never forget all the bad.

There were also cases when a service call is made by someone who is in the car, in the grocery, or wherever in the world but far from the actual place where the equipment or service is being called for. So the caller would not be able to give out specific details about the problem, they'll just call and say my machine is not working.

Common sense, 90% of the time you would not call if the machine is in proper working condition. The remaining 10% will be for general information, billing inquiries and disputes (credit requests), and product return or account cancellation. So the point of saying "it's not working" is totally non sense.

If you're in a hurry then why not not consider giving the specific details about the issue, if there's no signal, no power, not printing, no channels, poor reception, slow connection, etc, etc. If you think you're super smart enough, think twice. Try to visit a call center industry and if you will be lucky enough to hear all the representatives reaction while they put you on mute, hahaha, you'll surely be ashamed of yourselves.

This were actual recorded calls from different customer service: (US accounts)

There was this arrogant "IT" guy who called and said this certain online program is not working with their computer and printer. When asked about their computer's operating system, the IT guy said he doesn't know and what has that something to do with it? Yeah, he's a graduate of Information Technology!!!! :P

There were a lot of jokes about computer's operating system, some would proudly answer, it's HP (Hewlett-Packard!), some would say it's DELL and it's brand new! A sweetie socialite replied, I have a MAC!

When asked if they need a dialing prefix, a number that needs to be pressed before getting an outside line; the customer said I don't know. The agent laughed while on mute and remarked, So maybe they haven't tried to call out using their phone lines, maybe they were not allowed to, or they are only allowed to accept incoming calls from their phone service provider. :D

Someone called that her PC won't turn on, she checked the power cable and the outlet is good. She said the power switch on the CPU is broken for it can't be pressed at all. Found out the customer was pressing the manufacturer's logo and not the actual power button.

A customer called complaining their receipt printer is not printing, its sounded like it is but is not dispensing anything. Because there's no paper inside!

Someone called about her newly bought portable satellite radio that it's only broadcasting 3 channels. "The dealer said it's already activated yet I could only see three channels." After a few minutes of troubleshooting, the agent found out that the sticker display is still attached to the radio's LCD screen.

I could publish a series of bloopers about customer service experience. But I won't do that for the purpose of humiliation but rather to make a change in the way most people treat those people who would willingly offer help despite of everything. They are also human beings who are experiencing the same problems you have and even worse. Yet they were able to give the best quality of work that they can deliver, even if they are just working with you over the phone.

There was this one recorded conversation wherein a happy and satisfied customer expressed her comment, " You guys were so amazing. You can fix things over the phone without holding and seeing this when here I am who's physically standing by my machine yet I wasn't able to think of a possible fix."

There was a point in time where I would always call my internet service provider because of connection issues. I guess most of the documentation on my account included the remark that I was very upset because I was always on a high screaming voice due to their terrible service. But then I thought how would they hold the biggest name in telecommunications and ISP and they belong to the Top companies if this is the kind of service they are giving to their customers. I did a few research and observation and I found out that there may be some few people in the know who could be sabotaging their service, especially the internet connection. And to my surprise, the customer service representative, indirectly confirmed that it could be possible that their onsite technicians can be doing that. 

For what reason that they will try to sabotage their own work?

Most of the field repair service are not actually directly hired by the company but they are being paid for the service they provide for the out sourcing institution. And therefore it clearly states that if there's no service repair call, there's no income for the service technician too. Although they maybe receiving a minimal compensation, much of their income would still depend on every service call they make. So the more service call, the more money they could get. Makes a lot of sense!

On the contrary, the phone support people - those who would try to fix everything over the phone, they are also getting additional compensation for every success call they make. And since the calls are being recorded for quality purposes, it would be more likely to get instant resolution over the phone rather than having someone to physically come and visit your place for repair. But this is applicable only for some gadgets, software, hardware and minor technical issues for some equipments. Some larger equipments or service may really require an ocular visit for maintenance or repair.