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Press 3 to Check Yourself

December 27, 2018 By The Reman Runner Leave a comment


I recently moved. You know the story: packing everything I own, finding a day I could coordinate everyone I needed to help at the same time (and a truck, and a trailer), cleaning crevices in my house that haven’t seen daylight for the better part of two years (who cleans the top of the molding anyways?)…but the least favorite thing on my moving to-do list, the thing I wrote down first and crossed off last, and all things considered, the easiest? All those phone calls.
I put off the basic calls to customer service until the last possible moment. Calling to stop my internet service was a call I made with my teeth gritted before I even punched in the last number on the phone. I sat through prompt after prompt that didn’t have the options I needed. The robot told me many times, “I didn’t catch that,” – asking me to repeat again and again driving me to question my ability to enunciate properly. Eventually, I pressed zero until I finally got a live human on the other end of the line—and that was just to even speak to someone, not the person I needed.
Why do we dread calling customer service? Whenever I have a problem, a concern, or even a simple question, the last thing I want to do is pick up the phone and dial the company for help. It seems like now I instinctively associate making those calls with frustration. And when they aren’t riddled with frustration, the time it takes to jump through the hoops to do it is enough to make me and probably you, too, want to slam your fist in outrage.
Though I may be in transmission business, more importantly, I’m in the people business. After the dust settled on my moving fiasco, I was in my car on my now slightly shorter and considerably less stressful drive to work, and I checked in on my customer service. Am I a call that customers dread making? Do they anticipate frustration and hoop jumping as they pick up the phone to call me? I certainly hope not.
But how do I know? What steps can I take to ensure that I’m not making life difficult for my customers every time I pick up a call?
How’s my tone? I don’t know about you, but as soon as I’m greeted by anyone in any circumstance, if they immediately sound annoyed, unhappy, or unwilling to help, my mood changes to respond in kind. Am I picking up the phone with annoyance in my voice, or a smile on my face?
Am I doing everything I can? Do you ever go into a store, or call up an 800 number for insert-service-here just to be told this isn’t the right number, they can’t help you with what you need, and that’s the end of it? If I can’t answer my customer’s question, am I finding someone who can? I strive to go above and beyond even when a customer is trying to call a different department, representative, or company even.
Would I want to call me again? What it all really comes down to is if I would want to deal with me. If I must, would I want to call me back? I think we’ve all dealt with a customer service representative that put us off so completely that we either cut ties with the company, or if we couldn’t, insisted we never speak to that person again.
Admittedly, no one is perfect. I’m not, particularly after days of moving. There are absolutely times I pick up the phone in a way that makes me cringe when I catch myself. But taking the steps to acknowledge our service level and check in with ourselves will lead us in the right direction in terms of providing better customer service in every interaction.
 


Hate calling that 800 number? Rani, too. Talking to a person can…sometimes… be nice, but the robots are enough to guarantee existential dread. But what about when we’re the one being called? Are we as emotionless as a robot or should we hit 4 for an attitude reset? Comment below or reach out to Rani directly.

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