We all know the story: you call a company’s customer service line only to wait on an excruciating hold before getting passed around from rep to rep without ever having your problem actually solved.
Before you know it, you’re on hold for the latest rep and you decide to simply give up and hang up. Even worse, you finally get connected to an unsuspecting customer service representative only to unload on them in a screaming match that never works out in your favor.
So, if you are thinking about biting the bullet and dialing a company’s customer service number, we at have developed customer-service-please.com/ some aggressive tactics that you can employ to try to get what you want.
Bypass automated phone system as quickly as possible
You might be saying to yourself, “But what if all I need is to follow their automated system to get the answers I want?” Right now, you need to accept the fact that those automated responses are simply to weed out people and get them off the phone.
Whatever it takes to actually get on the phone with a real person, do that. In fact, it is sometimes a good idea to Google what necessary steps there are to actually do that in order to save yourself energy and time.
If you need to, ask to take things up a level
If you can just tell that you are going to achieve nothing with the person you have been put on the phone with, there is nothing stopping you form asking to speak to a superior or supervisor.
One way to do this with great success is to ask to speak to what is referred to as an “executive customer services representative.”
Doing this will often take you to a person who actually has quite a bit of sway within the company. If you are not able to get connected with this kind of person through the phone, Google the title and company name and see if you can find some contact information that will be more useful to you.
Mention your willingness to take your business elsewhere
This might strike you as only something that is done in movies, or something that is altogether a pretty empty claim, but it most definitely works if you can convince your customer service representative (or executive customer service representative) that you are serious about the threat.
If you have exhausted all other options, tell your rep that you are thinking about closing your account, or returning the product, and going elsewhere with your business.
This will force your customer service representative to go into “save sale” mode. From that point on, you will likely be transferred to a department called “retention” that have both the skills and power to keep you satisfied.
This will offer you potentially the best chance of actually getting what you want. The trick here is to say it and mean it. If it’s an empty threat, your rep will probably know and you will be left unsatisfied once again.
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AFP
