Here are your tips and tricks and automation secrets! Are you frustrated with always calling Comcast, Verizon, Hostgator, etc., for horrible support? Lengthy calls, drops, disconnections transfers? Here are your hints to save time and your sanity.
I have contacted Comcast (and the like) on several occasions to say the least, and so let us begin not with a rant because let us face it, we already know what pain we go through. Here though is simply a few of the complications and some instant solutions that will make your life easier.
First, one of the biggest problems is that the internet itself and developed technology gave way for many businesses to expand to levels they can not support. Plus they are greedy and we would not be having customer service or support issues if the company would simply spend the money in two areas;
- More staff to handle such influx of call volume, which costs money
- Proper training and education about the product or service, which requires and investment of money
We know these are the two answers because you would not be on hold more than a minute. When a company says your call will be answered in 17 minutes (and some companies wont even tell you either) it is way too long. My job is not to spend time calling companies to ask for support and then have my most valuable commodity in life (time) be taken away on hold doing nothing.
Technology has given way to automation and so you are routed or rerouted until you get to a correct department (allegedly). Press 1 for this, 2 for that, and what if what you want is not listed? So you have to wait to talk to the next person who then would have to transfer you again.
Since technology has made way to solution to most of our everyday problems, and automation systems are the norm, then certainly technology can do better by providing solutions that mean something today-if you wanted to spring for that technology.
You have robodialers and push button call technology wastsing our time selling us but no technology to assist in helping once selling us. It is the constant bombardment we dont want but are force fed. I get those calls btw and am on a do not call list. So now I dont bother with pres 9 to not receive this call again anymore. I push 1 to connect and get their info trying to get their information. In fact i have push button app on my cell phone that allows me to record on a dime the time stamp the date the recording everything, and the moment that they say their call may be recorded for quality assurance purposes (more BS) then you say the same thing back. Theyll probably think your kidding but in my state of Florida it is the law that you need to inform someone that you may be recording the call. You could even laugh it off, but you fairly informed them and they continued. You can then whistle blow should you feel you find a nice attorney to do business with suing the crap out of all these after you pay a visit to the do not call complaint site setup by the government. It only take a few minutes but a law suit against the company will certainly be proven now wont it? I believe the fine started at around $6000 per call and could have gone up to $11,000. So I will personally look back into this again because bringing a law suit is fine to do when having a lawyer send off a standard letter and settling out of court in a month. Or you could do a class action law suit and although I believe the max for that person may be only a limit perhaps $15,000 or so they still will have to break out the records on all calls. I believe that the law states the bearer of responsibility lies solely to the solicitor and not the broadcasting company running the ad campaign.
Anyway…
Sometimes your on hold so long you don’t even get the right answer, the supervisor isn’t around (another BS) or some other cookie cutter response is given whereby you have nothing else to say after you were question wasn’t properly answered other than to say ” umm, ok then” and so when they ask “is there something else I can help you with tonight?” that is a passive line because you called for a certain reason , didn’t get the answer you sought and so what else did you want to talk about? Nothing so the answer is no obviously. And then they resort to thanks for calling and have a nice day. lol grrrrr.
The classic “Do you mind if i place you on hold while I …__INSERT LINE HERE__” is also BS because you know you have to say “YES”. But what if you said “NO”? This person knows they have to ask but when I answered “no”, they didn’t have an answer to that other than to say well they have to in order to do whatever you asked. So why ask? Just tell me your putting me on hold and I don’t have a choice.
Those poor people on the phone that have this job of customer support or service is also horrendous on them.
They keep complaining that we are the problem and everyone is so mad, pissy, bitchy, and that we’d get further along if we were nicer. Nice people finish last! Here the squeaky wheel gets the oil. The truth is if the first two items were done properly (hire more people and train properly) this would not be the issue of the world today.
Poor service, drop calls, transfer back into the queue, etc… It has become so accepted now that this is the standard.
Did you know I have called hostgator so often for my hosting and the auto recorder actually says ” we are experiencing normal than expected hold-times “EVERY TIME I call. So then this is NOT longer than expected if it is everyday… it is the norm!
So lets get to the tips eh?
First off when getting a automation system to route your call correctly go in like a pro. Stop taking the nice way out and stop being the victim. You do have some power and its time you start playing this chess game instead of checkers.
If ever you know your going to be on hold a long time and there is no way to get out of it do it during tv time or cooking or some laundry not where you are specifically calling and just sitting waiting to take careof the issue because that is torture.
Find out if they are open late or 24/7. Do not need to waste your lunch hour or your sanity.
TIP #1
When you call say the word “REPRESENTATIVE” almost every time. To route your call tell me what you are looking for you can say billing, peanut butter, customer support-ish, lint hair…it doesn’t matter. Skip this and go for the REPRESENTATIVE word then say it again, again, again, again, then once more for the gipper.
OK but before we transfer you….”Representative”. There may also be a short survey after …”Representative”. remember that you ….Representative” get it yet?
Comcast for example works like that or get into this loop and that is never good. It used to be you would press “0” several times to get to someone with a pulse but they caught on to that one. So it’s back to chess.
When you call and know it is a problem place and got a rep on the phone, tell them when they ask how they can help you today that you sure hope they can. Get their name. Tell them that you have been on hold for the passed hour and a half or that you were transferred 6 times already. That is where you can play the victim okay, hoping you have someone on the phone with a heart of compassion who will then go over and above or the extra mile. If they do not know you, or felt a connection with you they can drop the call or not give a care.
Surveys are complete crap.
Dont bother. I had been doing surveys after te call for years and it does absolutely nothing. They like to think (the rep) is getting something but all those auto surveys do are data collecting and then taking tens of thousands of responses and graphing them. They do not care about each one personally by any means like back in the day. It is an indicator that today was a good day or last wk was bad, but no changes were made to specifically identify and correct these areas. Quality control is even limiting to simple compliance by law efforts so they can keep their licenses by regulated bodies.
If you want to go strait for the jugular, you can lookup “name of company” corporate number.
There are a few websites out there that have this information. They expect you to call the protocol and not go right up to the chain of command. This is suppose to be a last response, but if you felt you did a reasonable job contacting a bit before and gotten nowhere then stop accepting it. They will soon change these standards because they will not like to keep getting calls to the home office.
You can also state that you are recording the call right off the bat!
I love that one because they don’t know if you are but once you get the persons name and or id number they all of a sudden take notice and stand up even if it is in their chair, and are on their “A” game.
Now of course this isnt a blanket commentary for all companies and I have to say that these are my experiences and my opinions but many are facts and stereo typing or elses you likely wouldn’t be reading this anyways looking for answers. I also come from the call center world and the environment if sales, customer service, support, retention and all the others so I am considered an expert by every means and dare anyone to say otherwise.
You’ll feel this pain when simply trying to attempt to cancel a service like Comcast. Ever try? Want to hear the audio? [see youtube vid’s] some person recorded the horror story. They are paid well NOT to help you and waste the customers time so that they get so frustrated that they just give up. Wow shame on you!
Id love to hear your guy’s tips as well to posts.