Customer Service Hotlines
Created | Updated Jul 13, 2002
I am an expert on customer service hotlines. Not because I have called them enough times to become an expert, but because I am the voice on the other end of the line. I am the dreaded Customer Services Representative.
My name is Elle and I work for a company called Screwfix Direct. The purpose of this article is to make your life, and hopefully mine, a little easier by providing a few guidelines on how to deal with people like me. Before I start a few things you should remember when calling.
1- Customer Service Reps (CSRs) are people too. Most of us have other lives. In fact, most of us are students who only work at weekends.
2- CSRs do not have complete knowledge of every product sold by their company. In most cases we have very little knowledge of what we sell. The company I work for sells tools, screws, fixings and various related products to tradesmen. I am a history student. As you can see the one fact entirely fails to enhance the other.
3- CSRs have very little power. We cannot authorise any action ourselves. I know the music when you are on hold is annoying and trashy, but we really do have to speak to a supervisor. If you seem to have been on hold for a long time, be happy. Actual action takes a while to organise, polite refusals of action are very fast.
4- CSRs have feelings. If you prick us, do we not bleed? So please don't shout and swear when things don't go your way. Nine times out of ten you will get a better answer by being understanding about difficulties at our end. A nice customer makes us want to help. A brash voice making demands makes us want to run away so we take the fastest course of action.
Right, now you know who you are dealing with, here are the essential tools to help speed things up.
+ Your invoice, if you have already placed an order and it has arrived. I know it is hard to remember but I would advise keeping this for up to twelve months, or as long as the product guarantee lasts. If you have the invoice number to hand we can bring up your details in seconds, as well as the specific order you placed.
If you don't have an invoice you will need
+ Your full address and postcode.
+ Your telephone number, in case we have the wrong postcode on file.
+ The address the parcel was delivered to.
+ A rough idea of when the order was placed.
+ Finally, if at all possible know the product code of the item that is faulty / you want to ask about / has been sent to you by mistake.
Now, you are ready to place the call. A few pointers.
- Speak clearly, but don't shout. If you know you have an accent use a word to clarify any letters you need to say, for example; D for delta. You don't need to know the phonetic alphabet, but you'd be surprised how alike B C D P T and G sound depending on whether the speaker is Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Devonish etc. It is annoying for you and embarrasing for us if we can't find your details because we can't understand you.
- If you have an unusual name or it is spelt in a strange way (like Smyth), spell it out. It makes things much quicker if we know what your name is.
- Explain the problem as fully as you can. It's no good just saying "I've bought this drill and it's broken." You're only going to get asked what kind of drill and what the exact problem is anyway, so you might as well save yourself the breath and say the first time.
- Don't get annoyed if the person on the other end repeats things several times, or asks seemingly irrelevant questions. We have certain screens that we have to go through in order and so we may well repeat the problem back to you more than once to make sure we get it right on every screen. Cut and paste hasn't reached the world of customer services yet.
- If you want to ask something specific about a product, ask if the company has a technical helpline you can call, or be put through to. You will need to give your name and the details of the question to the agent you speak to first so they can introduce you properly. If it is the weekend be prepared to call back in an hour, or during the week. The Screwfix tech line is supposedly manned all the time the phones are going, but at weekends and in the evenings there is usually only one person there and they tend to be very busy. If you need an immediate answer be prepared to wait.
- If you really must speak to a supervisor, you will need to explain why to the person who answers the call. This isn't because we don't want to pass you over, it's because the supervisors will not take the call unless it cannot be resolved by the agent. Fifty percent of the time if you ask for a supervisor the agent will put you on hold, go and talk to the supervisor (again, this may take a while. supervisors are busier than tech lines) and get given an answer to relay to you. Please consider the option given before getting angry. It is usually the best solution we can give at that moment.
- Finally, if you think you will need to call back, or you are passed on to a supervisor, take the name and extention number of the agent you were speaking to. We don't remember every customer by name, but you'd be surprised how quickly our memory returns. If you do speak to someone twice, don't be offended if they don't remember you at once. Most CSRs will speak to between fifty and one hundred cutomers in the course of and average eight hour shift. For someone like me that's more than eight hundred people every month, and I only work at weekends.
Follow these simple guidelines for a happier, faster solution to your problem. Most of all, just remember that we want to solve your problem. Angry customers who shout make us feel down, and eight hours of hearing complaints is enough to make a saint cry.
My name is Elle and I work for a company called Screwfix Direct. The purpose of this article is to make your life, and hopefully mine, a little easier by providing a few guidelines on how to deal with people like me. Before I start a few things you should remember when calling.
1- Customer Service Reps (CSRs) are people too. Most of us have other lives. In fact, most of us are students who only work at weekends.
2- CSRs do not have complete knowledge of every product sold by their company. In most cases we have very little knowledge of what we sell. The company I work for sells tools, screws, fixings and various related products to tradesmen. I am a history student. As you can see the one fact entirely fails to enhance the other.
3- CSRs have very little power. We cannot authorise any action ourselves. I know the music when you are on hold is annoying and trashy, but we really do have to speak to a supervisor. If you seem to have been on hold for a long time, be happy. Actual action takes a while to organise, polite refusals of action are very fast.
4- CSRs have feelings. If you prick us, do we not bleed? So please don't shout and swear when things don't go your way. Nine times out of ten you will get a better answer by being understanding about difficulties at our end. A nice customer makes us want to help. A brash voice making demands makes us want to run away so we take the fastest course of action.
Right, now you know who you are dealing with, here are the essential tools to help speed things up.
+ Your invoice, if you have already placed an order and it has arrived. I know it is hard to remember but I would advise keeping this for up to twelve months, or as long as the product guarantee lasts. If you have the invoice number to hand we can bring up your details in seconds, as well as the specific order you placed.
If you don't have an invoice you will need
+ Your full address and postcode.
+ Your telephone number, in case we have the wrong postcode on file.
+ The address the parcel was delivered to.
+ A rough idea of when the order was placed.
+ Finally, if at all possible know the product code of the item that is faulty / you want to ask about / has been sent to you by mistake.
Now, you are ready to place the call. A few pointers.
- Speak clearly, but don't shout. If you know you have an accent use a word to clarify any letters you need to say, for example; D for delta. You don't need to know the phonetic alphabet, but you'd be surprised how alike B C D P T and G sound depending on whether the speaker is Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Devonish etc. It is annoying for you and embarrasing for us if we can't find your details because we can't understand you.
- If you have an unusual name or it is spelt in a strange way (like Smyth), spell it out. It makes things much quicker if we know what your name is.
- Explain the problem as fully as you can. It's no good just saying "I've bought this drill and it's broken." You're only going to get asked what kind of drill and what the exact problem is anyway, so you might as well save yourself the breath and say the first time.
- Don't get annoyed if the person on the other end repeats things several times, or asks seemingly irrelevant questions. We have certain screens that we have to go through in order and so we may well repeat the problem back to you more than once to make sure we get it right on every screen. Cut and paste hasn't reached the world of customer services yet.
- If you want to ask something specific about a product, ask if the company has a technical helpline you can call, or be put through to. You will need to give your name and the details of the question to the agent you speak to first so they can introduce you properly. If it is the weekend be prepared to call back in an hour, or during the week. The Screwfix tech line is supposedly manned all the time the phones are going, but at weekends and in the evenings there is usually only one person there and they tend to be very busy. If you need an immediate answer be prepared to wait.
- If you really must speak to a supervisor, you will need to explain why to the person who answers the call. This isn't because we don't want to pass you over, it's because the supervisors will not take the call unless it cannot be resolved by the agent. Fifty percent of the time if you ask for a supervisor the agent will put you on hold, go and talk to the supervisor (again, this may take a while. supervisors are busier than tech lines) and get given an answer to relay to you. Please consider the option given before getting angry. It is usually the best solution we can give at that moment.
- Finally, if you think you will need to call back, or you are passed on to a supervisor, take the name and extention number of the agent you were speaking to. We don't remember every customer by name, but you'd be surprised how quickly our memory returns. If you do speak to someone twice, don't be offended if they don't remember you at once. Most CSRs will speak to between fifty and one hundred cutomers in the course of and average eight hour shift. For someone like me that's more than eight hundred people every month, and I only work at weekends.
Follow these simple guidelines for a happier, faster solution to your problem. Most of all, just remember that we want to solve your problem. Angry customers who shout make us feel down, and eight hours of hearing complaints is enough to make a saint cry.
