How to persuade customer service reps to help you

Here's a clever tip for getting customer service reps to help you with a sticky problem that will require extra effort on their part. It's from Noah Goldestein, a behavioral scientist at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and the author of Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive (co-authored by by Robert B. Cialdini, who wrote the terrific book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion).

If you've ever contested a mysterious charge on your credit card, tried to resolve a problem with your computer, or wanted to return an item to a vendor, you've probably encountered stubborn customer service agents -- people who seem nice at the outset but change their tune when they realize complying with your request will cause additional work on their part. To change their orientation toward you, try the following: If you find toward the beginning of your interaction that the customer service agent is being particularly friendly, polite, or responsive -- perhaps before you get to your toughest request -- tell the agent that you're so impressed with his or her service and knowledge so far that you're going to write a positive letter or e-mail about your interaction to his or her supervisor as soon as you get off the phone. After getting the agent's name and the supervisor's contact information, you can then get to the more complex issues at hand.

...

Although there are a number of psychological reasons for why this might be an effective strategy, the norm of reciprocity -- one of the best-studied norms in psychology -- is a powerful factor here: You've offered to do a favor for that person, so now that person is going to be motivated to return the favor.

Trouble with customer service agents? Try this

• [unquier231]

  bcsizemo, you have a poor attitude towards your customers. No customers, no money! So, customers do pay your mortgage! Not the company you work for! Who the company make their money from? CUSTOMERS!

  Be careful, a unknown millionaire may come in one day, and you mistreat them. Trust me, the company policy is not going to save you! It’s not the company policy that makes a difference. It’s your Stinky attitude!

  Grow up! If you don’t like your job, then do all the customers a favor! Quit!!!!!!!

• [Perla]

  As a person who has worked as a Customer Rep, it’s true that honey catches the flies cause if you call angry and screaming, I will give you the stock answer and hang up on you and file your case in the dustbin. I get paid minimum wage and on top of that, have to suffer the stress of people screaming in your ear. No thank you. You think I enjoy working at a shit job? Yes, it was my childhood dream to have abuse yelled at me for very little money.

  if you are SINCERE, you’ll get help. Many customer reps think a lot of the policies are bullshit so if they can help you, they will try. We are human too and we know how annoying it is if something doesn’t work and people run rings around you, but remember we are just the drones, POWERLESS!

• [Anonymous]

  One thing you dont want to do is pushy or rude. I have worked in customer service for years and people who treat agents like subhumans will get the least from me that my job requires me to do. In other words, if you are nice and professional, I will go the extra mile for you. It just is the way things are.

• [Anonymous]

  Here’s a few other ways:

  1. When they answer with their name refer back to them with their name; same thing in person…if you see their name on a name badge refer to them in name.

  2. Be cheerful. The customer service person did not cause your problem and they have a real life

• [Anonymous]

  Well I have 10 years of work experience and have worked with customers in different continents and one thing I have noticed is that when a person calls up as a customer he/she forgets that the person also works and every work place has a restriction to how far a customer service person can go to help the customer..there are rules restrictions policies ….and yes customers always seem to ask for your ID and name whenever there is a trouble issue as if anything goes wrong and you will be killed…but never a name or ID is jotted down when you go out of the way to find a solution to a problem …and the way they hurl those abusive language at you is amazing…

• [Anonymous]

  I worked in customer service for 8 years and treating a representative as an equal as well as exercising human courtesy which you should be taught as a youth will get you further and help make your experience much more pleasant. Making demands and shouting at people soon as you talk to them will set a bad tone. Don’t expect someone to be intimidated because you are the customer and that old saying the customer is always right. Customers can be wrong sometimes.

• [strikerx98]

  I tell people that all the time. I’m notcustomer service, but when I deal with them you’ll nearly always get your way it you start off nice, compliment, explain your problem and how you’re sure they’ll be able to help… If it’s a stuborn CS rep go to the supervisor. If that doesn’t work or they won’t transfer you, call back. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve called back, got a different person and my problem was solved right away.

  ALWAYS play the nice guy whether you want to or not. Chewing out the CS person just because they’re they unlucky person who answered the phone will get you NO WHERE. I nearly always get my way. :-)

• [csr]

  I’m a customer services rep on the phone for a mobile phone network.

  What behavioural scientists might not have taken into account is that the rep’s have heard every trick and played every game a hundred times before.

  Oh – I’ve said hello nicely and you want to send me a medal – but wait – you’d like me to bend the rules a bit in your favour, well how about I go get my supervisor now before we move on so you can tell them how good I am, then we’ll deal with the impractical demand you’ve got for me now you’re in my goodbooks.

  If you cut the games and just be nice, reasonable and patient, you will get whatever it is you need doing sorted out a lot quicker.

• [kris7207]

  If it’s not the customer of your company paying your mortgage, who is?

  We must stop living in such an anonymous society. We are ALL responsible.

• [The Lizardman]

  @23 Results are noticeably (I would bet measurably) poorer if it offers are made as a gimmick. To get the most out of it (and most of the books / papers go into this) you really only get the greatest results by becoming a better person who genuinely acts nicely and does well by others.

  Here is a simple low level version that is safe to experiment with – begin interactions by offering the other party a piece of gum or candy. Even if they don’t take it, the psychological effect comes into play as quid pro quo seems almost hard-wired or strongly conditioned into us at a base level. While trying this on others also carefully monitor your own behaviour and when you go beyond basic pleasantness for someone check to see if they at any point made one of these types of moves (offerings). This was how it was first exposed to me many years ago and I found it very enlightening per how others acted and my own actions.

• [simplewonder]

  I too work in a call centre a Senior CSR. I’ve been on the phones at my current job for 3.5 – 4 years.

  And you have no idea how frustrating the myth of the Stubborn CSR is.

  I “push back” because I am told to, and I do whatever I am told because I need a paycheck to pay my mortgage. My job is to follow orders, and not ask questions. You know how they say “This call may be recorded for quality and traning purposes”? They do, and they are. Calls are audited and if your scores are low, it results in disciplinary action and often termination.

  You know what is effective? Understanding. Believe me, I know your frustrated and grumpy because you’re having problems, which is why you’re calling me. If I ask for info, it’s to help assess the issue, not for my own health. Perhaps write down an error message or jot down your account number. There is nothing worse than some caller saying “I didn’t do anything, it’s just not working. Fix it NOW!” Ok, that helps me, thanks. At the same time, if you don’t know an answer, just tell me, I can smell bullshit a mile away. Also, even if you think I am an automaton, treating me like one will get you nowhere. You will get my bare minimum. Just because you’ve told your story 4 times doesn’t change the fact that I am just now hearing it for the first time, sorry.

  However, treating me like a sentient being, will however make me want to buy a plane ticket and run over to your house and help you. It takes very little for me to want to help, I’m on the phones because I enjoy helping people, otherwise I could just as easily work some job that isn’t so thankless and doesn’t face the public.

  Working the phones is like waiting tables, you have no idea what it’s like until you’re on the other side. What i find funny is that service involves you putting yourself in the shoes of the customer, but the customer never feels like they should treat the person serving them like a human. Cows in India get more respect, swear to God.

  In closing, my best call ever is when I was helping this guy who was so pissed off that he voice was shaking. He was Livid. I took him through some pretty standard trouble shooting of his run of the mill issue. The call ended with him laughing and amazed, saying that he’d “been dealing with his issue for over 2 years”, and he said he thought I “was lying to him for most of my call”, and I said “It’s OK I’m used to it.” without thinking.

  Whenever I need to cheer up, I go to techcomedy

• [wurkinboy]

  There’s a lot of comments on here from people who don’t realize that they’re exactly what’s wrong with Customer Service these days. All the people who don’t care about their customers – who think they’re so friggin’ important that they need to control their callers.

  As one poster said, there tends to be some gray area, and if you want to help, you probably can. Combine what you know you *can* do with what you’d want if you were the caller.

  The person calling doesn’t know you – if they’re mad, it’s at their situation or with the product you represent. Quit expecting everyone in the world to talk to you the way you want – let them be themselves – let them vent for a moment, then tell them you’d like to help them get things resolved. You’ll find that people turn around very quickly and will usually even apologize for venting at you.

  I agree that everyone should do some customer service – but do it well. If you suck as a customer service rep, you deserve horrible service every time you call support. Regardless of what you’re getting paid, your just is support. Take it seriously and do it well.

  Then again, I last did tech support 10 yrs ago. Now I’m a CTO. Now in hiring, customer service matters much more to me than skill – skill can be taught usually a lot easier than good customer service.

• [wantedtopost]

  This is BS. Why? Because in face-to-face retail nice letters and comments mean nothing. You don’t get anything, even acknowledgement of it from management, that you did a nice job because they really don’t care unless it’s a complaint about you. They don’t have “incentive” programs or benefits or bonuses they give you if you have someone say nice things about you. Oh, one time someone sent a letter about me to the district manager. What did I get? A cheap thank you card sent to my house. And that was after 5+ years of good service. Whoop de doo.

  And what do we really get? Customers who yell and scream because they don’t get their way because they can’t follow policy or think we’re trying to rip THEM off because we won’t give them full price back on something when the receipt shows they bought it on sale. Complaints about products that were faulty that we’re obviously at fault for because everyone knows WE were the ones who made it right there at the desk and not in some manufacturer’s outside company.

  Customers are vicious when it comes to talking to people in customer service. Most of us just want a person that is CIVIL.

• [Tigris]

  The idea is good, but the strategy is manipulative. I work in customer service and I would see through that.

  I never react well to the attitude that I need to be schmoozed into doing my job, and unless I actually am doing something more clever or difficult than usual, I will get suspicious of unwarranted compliments.

  I try to be professional and help people regardless, and I don’t like the implication that most service people are lazy or unwilling to help. Mostly, I find that people who are upset are upset about things that have nothing to do with the actual service. For example:

  Lines. It’s not a service person’s fault if their company is too stingy to hire/schedule enough people to help customers in a timely manner. If you’ve been on hold/ in line for a long time, it probably means they’re having a busy, exhausting day. Be quick and clear (even more important than nice) about what you need. Then write a letter to the COMPANY to pressure them to create more jobs.

  Policy. It should be self-explanatory, but it’s not. Although there’s some gray area, there’s not much. The first person you talk to almost never has much authority. If you’re really determined, ask for a supervisor.

  Prices. Do you really think the person you’re talking to has ANY say in this? Seriously.

  Laws of Government. You would not believe how many people want me to break state law just to save them a minor inconvenience.

  Laws of Nature. I don’t have a magic wand. If, for example you order something and it hasn’t arrived yet, I can check to make sure nothing’s wrong, but stuff just takes time.

  Various other facts of existence. I once knew a hairdresser who had a regular client who insisted on being served by her, even though he apparently hated her and constantly reduced her to tears by cruelty. Turns out, she looked like his ex-wife (no, he didn’t mistake her for his ex, he just delighted in making her miserable because of their similar appearance). Even though 90 percent of the customers in the world are nothing like this, most service people have to deal with nuts like this periodically. So try to cut them some slack and remember —- most service people buy things and spend time on your side of the counter too.

• [Anonymous]

  How do we, the consumer, deal with manipulation?
  The “seller” controls the conversation so the “buyer” is forced into YES answers repeatedly.
  Next comes berating statements like–”Is that the way you want us to deliver it you….?” “Do you understand what I said?” “Did you hear what I said about ……?”
  Customer No-Service seems to be trained on being experts at this type of control and manipulation to overcome incompetence.
  How to recognize the signs of such behavior? How to stop it?

• [simplewonder]

  If we all just saw each other as fellow BoingBoingers rather than Customer vs. CSR, I think the calls would be better for us all. Yes?

• [WA]

  @Simplewonder: “customer never feels like they should treat the person serving them like a human.” – Surely in decrying stereotypes, one should be careful not to make one’s own?

  @Esther Mofet and Bcsizemo: We’ve had people fired and companies put out of business when we’ve been confronted with that sort of attitude. Whatever one’s company policy is, it is not an excuse to be impolite.

  That said, there are few occasions when we’ve found that being pleasant, friendly, and understanding doesn’t result in the best outcomes that can be expected given the circumstances. When representatives can’t solve our problems, it’s hardly ever their fault, and is generally a sign that we need to find some other method of solving the problem, rather than pointlessly arguing.

• [donnamatrix]

  As a customer service nerd… if you promise this, FOLLOW THROUGH! My day goes better when someone tells me how awesome I am, and I’m much, much more inclined to help — not just you, but everybody.

  Everybody likes to be appreciated. We’re people, too. :)

• [gitaiba]

  I work in a call center, and can basically guarantee that the tip listed will work every single time. Those e-mails lead to recognition by supervisors and coworkers, and in my call center, buy you 15 minutes of paid time off, however you want to use, regardless of call volume, staffing, or hold time.

  Whenever a customer sends one, a supervisor rings a gong, everyone claps, and I seethe with envy, not to mention a little bit of rage at all the callers who compliment me on my skills, but don’t follow up with an e-mail.

• [joellevand]

  This is probably going to work very well for service-related issues (broken item in need of repair, chargeback on credit card, general complaint about service in XYZ business, etc.) but when it comes to financial issues (refund a late fee, item, or anything else that hits the bottom line) this isn’t going to do much, other than — as someone else stated — help if there’s a gray area involved.

  I used to work for a major UK bank’s credit card division, who were housed in Manchester before moving overseas, as a Customer Account Manager. Without giving away all the trade secrets, let me tell you this much: there are goals and targets you have to meet, including call time (2 min 15 sec in this case) and refund refusal & retention. 3R was essentially the policy of 45% of all refund requests for late fees, over the limit fees, and interest charges may be refunded in a given week (which is not Sun-Sat or Mon-Sun, btw.) Any more than that, and you begin the magic ladder of discipline which starts with verbal warning, then goes through to termination of employment. You had to retain at least 40% of refused refund customers.

  I saw someone not make it through 4 weeks of live phone training because they always refunded fees to nice people.

  I, on the other hand, was the Manchester branch’s golden child. I had a refund rate of 30% and a refused and retained rate of 60%. I got raises, better hours, and bonuses you wouldn’t believe simply because I told the nicest, sweetest people in all of Britain “No”.

  That is what you’re up against.

  So be nice, be sweet, pour on the honey, but at the end of the week, if your CSR has given out their 45% already and it’s the end of their shift, you’re not getting a refund because it’s 30GBP for you or their job, and you’re not worth their job.

  BTW, FWIW, being a dick is just going to make things worse. There are, naturally, notes on your account, and if you swear during a call, it’s recorded. For this particular bank, your TOS includes a clause that says using abusive language on more than two calls to customer service will result in the termination of your account. If you’re carrying a balance, such termination goes directly to their credit collection bureau. And yes, when you put in your card number, we see the account, but the notes the CSRs put in pop up as well. Whether or not we would act on it depends on what kind of day we were having. Call the last CSR an asshole and call the next a cnt, and you could be on your way to collections.

• [jjasper]

  Most CS disputes will not necessarily be solved by this. Trust me. If it’s something simplre like “how do I fix my PC”, you’ll get service. If it’s something like “I overdrew my account because you failed to tell me that my deposit hadn’t gone through on the ATM screen” you’ll have to work your way up.

  Be prepared to have something resembling a reasonable argument to the CS rep, present it rationally and politely, expect to get turned down the first few times, work your way up through management, and be a bit of a pest if you need to. I know its paradoxical, but being a polite pest is the right way to do it.

  If you don’t get what you want, and think you have a valid argument, write a few letters to consumer service agencies, send a registered copy to the customer service department of the company you’re dealing with, and keep up the heat in a polite way. Chances are, if you’ve got anything resembling a real complaint, you’ll get what you want just to shut you up. If that fails, write senior execs in the company. They may well tell CS to give you what you want just to shut you up.

• [edgore]

  Equally likely, the customer service rep, having already given you his supervisor’s contact info during the early, friendly, interactions, now realizes that you can use this same information to provide negative feedback if he/she does not submit to your increasingly outrageous demands for assistance!

• [themindfantastic]

  The practical uses of Cialdini, yes its highly manipulative, but not in a bad way as long as you follow through with your promises.

• [mdhatter]

  Alternately, when they epic fail you, game their phone-tree so you can leave their boss a snarky voice-mail, then use the $25 dollar credit (from the president of poster company in question*) to send that lazy lying customer service rep a ‘motivational’ customer service poster from their very own company warehouse.

  What happens? FedEx overnight of the original order is what happens.

  * = art.com

• [bcsizemo]

  Perhaps this would work with a call center, but this will certainly not work in a face to face situation. I used to be manager of a small computer store and we had something called policies.

  You know who made those policies? The owner of the company and person who ultimately pays me. I frankly didn’t care what you wanted, who you were, ect.. If what you asked didn’t work with the policy, tough (it’s not like we hid them from people, they were posted in the store, on your recipt and we told people them when they bought things). Because, frankly you don’t pay my mortgage…

  I know that sounds cold and callus, but when you deal with other people’s problems all day every day you pretty much numb it out. It should be MANDATORY for everyone to work a retail type of job like this. That way you will know how NOT to act, like a douche….

• [Rick.]

  I love that one has to play mind games with a service rep in order to get them to do their job.

• [Bruce Arthurs]

  So… sucking up works?

• [JG]

  So let’s review, apparently if you want to catch a fly use honey NOT vinegar.
  Wow, what a break through.
  Someone should call Aesop immediately.
  Now can someone advise me on this tough problem,
  I spilled some milk and all I wanna do is cry….

  Any advice?

• [Esther Mofet]

  I’ll back BCSIZEMO — policy absolutely trumps whatever you want.

  My whole perception of customer service — well, anyone who has to deal with the public in general — changed dramatically after I spent about two weeks working in a help desk.

  I’m sorry you’re frustrated and that I’m the only person who answers the phone. You have to understand that I either

  - don’t have access to what you want (or permission to touch it)

  - might have the ability to do what you want but ability does not equal permission nor authority

  - or am so put off by your screaming and complaining and generally acting like a five year old that I’m simply not going to go out of my way to help you

  Want my name? Okay, but you’re not getting my last name. Company policy says it’s my choice whether I give that out or not.

  Want my supervisor’s name? That’s fine, too, but you’re not getting his or her last name. Why? Company policy. Policy also says I’m not required to transfer you to a supervisor just because you don’t want to talk to me after I’ve told you you can’t have what you want.

  Threaten legal action or my job? Let me introduce you to Mr. Click and Mr. Dialtone. Company policy.

• [Jack]

  So being nice, clean, succinct to a customer server rep will get you treated well?

  Next you’re going to tell me leaving a decent sized tip makes bartenders nicer to you.

  Or petting a puppy makes it wag it’s tail.

• [Anonymous]

  I try to be friendly, and when things come to a standstill, I ask: what would you do in my position? This usually gets the person on the other end to think of a creative solution.

• [Gambrinous]

  As someone who used to work in a call center environment (Tech support); 9/10 people you speak to are livid. Foaming out at the mouth as they bark insults into the telephone, demanding satisfaction for all the time they spent trying to get their issue fixed. Why, after all, it IS directly YOUR fault as an employee when they had a problem. Why not deliver this reparation they believe they deserve now? Now, I would usually continue texting on my cell phone, or play flash games while pretending to pay attention to them as if they were my spouse.

  However, that 10% that were actually nice to me I did treat with a certain amount of respect and honestly put effort into trying to resolve their issue. This had very little to do with the incentive of receiving an accommodation. I was already a lead, I could not be promoted or recieve a raise. It had everything to do with the fact that they treated me like I was helping them, not that I was there to oppose them. So I did, in turn, help them.

• [randwolf]

  I think this will get you a little slack when the CSR has slack to offer, and it makes for an easier call–part of the game played by the businesses is to make customers uncomfortable and angry, which puts the customer at a disadvantage–keeping your temper and being nice usually helps in a front-line support interaction. But this tactic assumes that the relation between you as customer and the business as provider is at least moderately even, and that’s just not so. In the immortal words of Ernestine the telephone operator from heck, “We’re a monopoly–we don’t have to care.” A very talented support representative of a computer company, call it CC, once told me that when we called the customers, we were CC. This is a point I wish more CSRs and call center managers would remember.

• [Anonymous]

  did that one guy say his supervisor bangs a gong? are you rowing on a slave ship?

• [The Lizardman]

  I will agree from experience that policy trumps your desires but experience also tells me that policy usually includes some grey areas in form and/or application. I have gone to higher ups to see about adjusting / avoiding policy and had it done for me on the basis of good positive interactions.

  Face to face or on the phone there are very simple behaviors that will at least increase your odds (remember its all a game). These are very old and tried and true but get restated in modern vernacular as time and the need for authors to move another book or paper require. My personal favorite is ‘The Golden Rule of Schmoozing’ which is required reading for anyone I bring into my operations. If you carefully examine your own and others behavior you can see this at work on a pretty deep level.

• [eti]

  On TV last night, they said the trick was to get on sites like facebook, myspace, etc. and complain. Don’t even bother with calling.

• [Michael A. Banks]

  It’s the same in dealing with government employees; they get paid whether they do a “good job” with you or not. Telling the employeee that you NEED their help (or that they’re the only one who can help you) also works.
  –Mike

• [bardfinn]

  Speaking as a former customer service goon – technical support – there are many call centers where it is policy to get people off the phone as fast as possible, as often as possible. The last one I worked at was for a DSL services provider, and I was walked out on the same day that I spent four hours on the phone with an emotionally abusive, swearing-like-a-sailor New Jersey resident who had been lied to by seven different phone or onsite technicians to the effect that his DSL connection worked – when it patently could not have and never did, because the first thing I did (and what every onsite and phone rep ought to have done) was check the line distance from the central office to his home: fifty meters over the max distance for the lowest possible provision rate. He’d paid for this non-functioning connection for nine months. No-one would credit his account. No-one would refund his money.

  The four other phone technicians who had spoken to this fellow all had call times lower than the callcenter median. I, who caught other people’s fsckups, had well over a standard deviation from the mean over the median.

  The best way to get good customer service: Interview them before you buy. If they seem like robots or that they have destroyed their brains, move on to another service or product. Ask them if they have quotas. Ask them if they have call time limits. Ask them what their performance metrics are based off of.

  • [Antinous]

    The biggest reason that people are crabby when they talk to someone from customer service is not that their product/service didn’t work. It’s that they just spent 45 minutes navigating a circular phone menu. That they were disconnected. That they were transferred back and forth between the same two departments three times.

    If something breaks and I need to call, I start out perfectly calm and friendly. After 3 hours (I’m not making this up) on the phone with an HP rep who doesn’t understand the difference between hardware and software, I’m pretty cranky.

• [jimbuck]

  I have found that if you are polite it’s enough.

• [WA]

  @joellevand: I’m not sure what you imply by those percentages. Do you mean that the policy is to refuse 55% of refunds that should have been given per policy? Or that the policy is to give refunds to 45% of people who don’t have justifiable reason for wanting them? The former would seem to create a number of legal problems, whereas the latter would seem overly harmful to the company. Also, sending charges that are not late directly to a collection agency seems terribly immature, and I’m not even sure it would be legal in the US.

  As for banks, I’ve found that the best way to get good service at banks, and a number of other companies, is to have connections inside of them, and use those instead of regular CS. I’ve even had CS representatives directly tell me “I can’t do that, but I’m sure that if you call someone in the bank who knows you, they can.” Almost all of my accounts are such that basic representatives wouldn’t be able to create them due to policy. Having someone in a company who knows your situation and knows the repercussions of alienating you can be very useful. I almost never call regular customer support, except for trivial matters like address changes and whatnot.

• [Stacyj]

  You know, while part of me can see why so many people are hauling out their sarcastic “duhs” here, personally I am a little surprised/pleased to hear that this really does work. My first impression when I read the blurb was that most customer service reps would see through this maneuver and assume it to be cheaply manipulative, but the more I think about it I suppose I can see why it would work if the person doing it WAS at all “genuine” about it.

  Either way I really don’t think it’s a bad thing to get a little reminder that, hey, most everyone will respond well to a little kindness and human decency …

• [Kyle Armbruster]

  I used to be a lead at a call center (tech support) as well. I used to handle the escalations of super-pissed-off customers.

  I loved those people.

  Usually they were so easy to calm down. It was like this, “Wow, I really have to apologize. The rep you spoke with was absolutely incorrect. I’ll be talking with them as soon as we get off the phone” (because the most-pissed-off people always had a damned good reason for it). Once you say that, people calm almost immediately. You then fix their problem, thank them for their patience, and send them a coffee mug with a note that says “thank you for your patience and continued business” or something. That person will buy your products until the day they die then.

  As for whether this particular tip works, I don’t know. It will definitely get the person to stay on the line, but it’s really manipulative. Especially if you don’t send the letter. Those letters go into your eval file. But the bigger problem I see with it is that a lot of times the reps just plain don’t know how to solve your issue. This may be because they are stupid and lazy people who work there for a week and stop showing up (we had a lot of those–went through the paid training and then quit a week after hitting the floor). It may be that the call center just gives them enough training to get you off the phone and get the numbers up so the client company thinks the call center is fulfilling the spirit and the letter of the contract, at least until Consumer Reports rates them as having bad service and they find a different call center company (happened at my company with Apple). Or it may be that what you are asking for is just plain not something the lowly floor rep can help you with.

  So over all, yeah, it’d keep the person on the phone, but it might not lead to your satisfaction, it might totally gorf that person’s stats for the day and they could be disciplined for it, and it strikes me as scheming at best and mean (if you don’t actually send the letter) at worst.

• [spocko]

  I think part of why you can see that this works is that you put yourself in the other person’s situation. Would you like to be treated nicely? Would you like to be acknowledged for doing a good job? One nice thing I like about working with non-profits is that while they don’t pay as much but they really know how to thank you.

  The rich companies have the, “That’s what I’m paying you for” attitude, but sometimes I like to get acknowledged anyway.

  Understanding who you are talking to and what THEY want is helpful in getting what YOU want.

  It’s a lesson that I have to keep teaching to people over and over again and something that I need to keep learning myself.

  For example, the importance of not making assumptions and asking a few questions up front. It can radically change the interaction.

  Oh, and I have followed through with comments to supervisors when I get good service. I’ve sent emails and I’ve talked to supervisors. The nice thing about that, is that when I DO have to push the negative stuff I feel like I have balanced my karma by my long term practice of rewarding good behavior.

  For example, I remember when DirectPC started. They had the finest customer support I ever experienced. I went out of my way to thank them. Maybe it was because the whole thing was new and they were used to dealing with high-end clients, but they were great. Years later it went to hell and I could compare and contrast. I sent letters to the bosses pointing this out. Then I canceled and told them why.

  I want to help companies with great support grow. I feel this way about a tiny software company called Thornsoft that makes Clipmate. I can’t imagine having a PC with out one now. I want people to know both that the product is great and if you have any problems (WHICH IS RARE) the support attitude is wonderful. (PS, I don’t work for them, just a fan.)

• [Anonymous]

  I work in a call center, and while compliments and promises of prias to your super definatly do put you in a better mood and you more likley to figure out how you can go the extra mile, you still have a butt load of policies to follow and if you dont follow those just because your going to get praise… well the praise wont mean anything when your super says your fired for not following the policies.

  Though what really helps when your calling a customer service call center is having all of your info ready. Most of those cs reps have quotas to meet and call resolution times to stick to. if they wait for you to find your id number for 1-2 minutes theie stats are screwed and they are not going to be happy and will want to get you off the phone as quick as possible. Regardless of how much praise you want to give.

• [cabenoja]

  It doesn’t work. Ask me for a supervisor and you will only trigger my temper. All you have to do is to tell me want you want to do. Answer my questions and be patient. Asking for a supervisor will just add up to my AHT (average handling time) w/c will ruin my stats.!! I’m sure that professor never had the pleasure of taking in calls 8 hours a day for 2 years.

• [eriadorain]

  This whole thing irritates me.

  Here’s the deal: customer service people aren’t out to get you! The majority of the time, if a customer service rep is acting like they don’t want to help you, it’s because you’ve been rude to them.

  I’ve been in customer service and tech support for the last 11 years, and what it comes down to is this: if you want someone to help you, be nice to them. If you’re rude, that person is not going to want to help you. That’s it. This isn’t a hard concept to understand but it seems to be above most people’s heads.

  The situation gets compounded over and over again. 1) the customer is getting far angrier than they need to, then 2) they call and yell at a customer service rep, then 3) lo and behold, that rep isn’t so friendly because they’re being yelled at. Then 4) the next time this customer gets angry and calls another company, they already expect the rep to be unhelpful based on their last experience, so they make the situation even worse.

  Sure, there are exceptions to this. But overall, if you want someone to help you, be nice to them. If you want someone to act like they don’t want to talk to you, be rude to them.

• [banjology]

  @ bcsizemo – Sure, policies work…until someone doesn’t get their coffee exactly how they want, makes a stink about it, and blogs about it. Then… heaven help us all…

• [Anonymous]

  It’s a shame it has to be that way, but sucking up does work wonders. I worked customer service for 8 years – never again! – and because it was an arts organization, a so-called “non-profit”, which meant they expected $15.00 an hour service from us but only wanted to pay us minimum wage, cut our hours down from 40 to 30 when they found out they would have to pay us benefits, took away overtime and commissions and basically treated us like shit, when it came to listening to rich arts patron bitch about their seat assignments, I honestly didn’t care. I simply was paid enough to show up, but not enough to care about their problems when I could barely pay my rent. Depending on their attitude, I gave them the worst seats in the house and told them they were the best. Do I fee bad about that? Not when someone is looking down on me and screaming at me to change a policy that I have no control over. But there were also a few customers who were extremely sweet – two who sent me roses and one older couple who actually took me out for dinner and treated me to a concert. Those times were few and far between but they meant a lot.

  So now, unless a customer service rep is being blatantly nasty to me (listening, Lakeside Collection customer service?) I try to be as nice as possible because I remember what it was like to be one of them and all the worries that goes along with the job.

• [anywherebuthere]

  I work for a catalog in a call center. I answer the phone politely saying “Hi! thanks for calling, my name is Joy, how can I help you?” and 9 times out of 10 the customer’s first words are “First of all, you can…!” I never get a “Hello” back. I try to be polite and happy with the customers, and never use tired scripted language, but all I get is rude customers. I am called a b*tch about 3 or 4 times a shift, usually because we are sold out of a product and the customers wants me to go in the back room and make one for them! When the customers are finished purchasing their items I always thank them and tell them to have a great day/weekend/or whatever. None of them even say goodbye, they just slam the phone down! I will never understand it, I could never do something like that to another human being. I talk to about 50 people/day and I wonder how they must treat their family/friends!
  I met someone the other day who used to work for the same company. She had to quit because she became so miserable that she started cutting herself on her work breaks! Why are the customers so rude? I have lost faith in humanity since I started this job, and I am not sure I will ever get it back.

• [onetruebippy]

  As someone who works at a call center in the mobile phone industry, I get unhappy customers and customers wanting credits all day long. And if anyone in the call center was to get that line halfway through a call, the response would be simple “not a problem I can get my supervisor on the line for you right now!”

• [unquier231]

  Why do I have to use some silly trick to get people to do their jobs? I work with customers on a daily bases and would never mistreat the customers because they have an issue! Being upset about a product is what comes along with the customer and the job. I can always get the customer to relax due to my professional attitude and really showing the customer what is in my control. If I can’t help the customer, I will refer them to higher up for assistant. Yes! Customer do pay your mortgage and any other bills you have if that’s your only job! If the company you work for doesn’t sell or have customers, then your supervisor or boss can not pay you! Poor attitude to have if you think like this!

  Being professional and understanding your customers helps to make the environment a little more rewarding for both the customer service rep and the customer. Not wanting to do your job to the fullest makes you a poor worker and states alot about your personality! Being negative as soon as a customer compliants just shows you have a unhappy personality anyways!

  So, to all the customer service reps! Be smart, and do your job the way the person who hire you entrust in you to do! If not, then you may run acrosss that one customer that can and will cost you your job! Good Luck until it runs out!

• [CharlesSpongeworth]

  The method relies on whoever you are talking to being able to speak English. The Indian call centres used by my mobile phone, landline and broadband companies employ people who I really struggle to understand, and who can’t understand me. I thought I had a nice clear English accent.

  I wouldn’t even try introducing anything complicated into the conversation as I know I would have to repeat it and rephrase it endlessly and pointlessly.

• [Anonymous]

  I’ve noticed that among all of the “well, duh” responses, there seem to be a good number of people saying that most people don’t actually do anything like what is recommended. Maybe the advice isn’t as obvious as it seems once you’ve already read it.

  Additionally, saying that the recommended action is just to treat the customer service representative nicely seems to oversimplify the article quite a bit. The recommendation is to promise something concrete so they will be indebted to you. As anyone who has read Dr. Cialdini’s book can tell you, it’s far better to promise a complimentary email without stipulations (as this article recommends) than to offer one as a reward for if they help you out.

• [juliababyjen]

  I have worked at 3 different call centers. What a difference between the 3! The first one was telemarketing, which doesn’t apply here, but the 2nd one was CS for our local cable company. The absolute worst job I have ever had! I stayed at it, completely miserable, for almost 3 years, because the pay and perks were so great! In this job, this method wouldn’t have worked at all. We had so little power to do anything for our customers. We could waive one late fee a year, and give credit for any outages. That was about it. We couldn’t get the cable guy there any faster, we couldn’t give them discounts when they saw a new special going on, and getting a supervisor to get on the phone was like pulling teeth.

  My current job is CS for several magazine companies. Much easier job. Most people don’t completely freak out about magazine subscriptions, but if they do, I can take it. In my current call center, they give us a lot of lee-way, so this method would probably work. I can get a supervisor on the line in less than 10 sec. if I need to. There isn’t much we can’t do, with the exception of TV Guide. That publisher has some strict guidelines, but otherwise, if you are nice to me, you will probably get what you want, as long as I can do it!

• [toxiccavies]

  I used to do tech support, and I hated my job so in the rare occasion someone said I was helpful, etc. it really did make my day. I’m always really nice to any customer service people though because I know what it’s like to have someone scream and swear at you when you didn’t do anything wrong.

• [juliababyjen]

  Oh, one other comment. If you are mean and rude, I will still do my job. I just won’t go the extra mile for you. What goes around, comes around.