Keep Your Cool When Dealing With Customer Service

Sometimes calling up a customer service help line, whether for your utilities, your mobile phone or your cable provider, can be a nightmare. You will be forced to wait on the line for a long time while you go through a long and exasperating automated system, then you will need to explain your problem to a potentially less than helpful customer service representative. Sometimes it can take a long time and if the customer service assistant is not able to help you, the entire process can seem like a very frustrating waste of time.
However, although it is easier said than done, the best thing to do when dealing with customer service is to stay calm and relaxed and be polite with them. If you can meet this challenge, you will enjoy much better customer service and you will be much more likely to have your problem resolved.
Here are some tips that you can keep in mind when dealing with customer service on the phone.
Save Time and Money with a Direct Contact Number
One of the most stressful parts of contacting customer service is the fact that you will be sitting on hold for a long time while spending a lot of money on the phone call and then perhaps even told that you do not have the right number so you get the new one and have to the whole process again. One way to save yourself this stress and make the phone call easier is to use direct contact telephone numbers, such as the ones athttp://www.contacttelephonenumbers.com. This website will help you to find the direct phone number for several companies in the UK, so that you can access them quickly and efficiently and save your time and money.
Respect the Customer Service Representative
It can be very frustrating when you have a problem and no one is able to help you with it, but one of the most important things is to make sure that you stay as calm as you can. If you need to take a few deep breaths and count to ten to avoid blowing your top, that’s a good idea. Remember, a customer service agent is a human being and they don’t like to be yelled at or insulted any more than you do. Getting angry with them will not help the situation and might cause them to give you worse customer service. On the contrary, if you are calm, friendly and polite they will be more likely to do everything they can to help you.
Know What You Are Talking About
Another reason why phoning customer service can be stressful is because you are in the position of not knowing what is wrong or how to solve the problem. In order to make things easier and to help keep your cool, it will help to research your problem in advance. That way, you will know exactly what is issue is and how the representative can help you resolve it. This is a great way to make the conversation go faster, so that you won’t even have a chance to get upset.
If They Aren’t Giving You a Solution, Offer One to Them
In order to make your phone call a little less stressful, do some research into your problem and figure out what the likely solution that the company can offer you for it – whether it is a free repair, a refund or an upgrade. If the customer service representative that you speak to is a little bit useless and unhelpful, you will be able to suggest the solution that you think would resolve the problem best. For example, if you stayed at a business hotel and the WiFi wasn’t working which meant that you couldn’t get important work done – you can suggest a discount off your stay in order to compensate for the inconvenience.
Listen to What They Are Saying and Ask “Why”
One of the reasons why it is difficult to keep your cool when asking for help from a customer service representative is because they often deny your requests or insist that they can’t help you – for no apparent reason. Their lack of helpfulness doesn’t seem to make sense and it’s extremely frustrating, especially if a small action that they refuse to do could solve your problem.
In this situation, instead of getting upset, take a moment and find out why they can’t do what you need them to do. Many corporations have complicated rules and regulations (that sometimes get in the way of customer service) and the customer service representative might want to simply fix your problem, but they are not authorised to because of a specific company policy. Determining that this is the case can help you, because it’s no longer “you against them”. You can then either politely ask them to make an exception, or ask to speak to a supervisor who has the authority to override the policy that is standing in the way of you getting your problem fixed.
Asking to speak to the supervisor can be a great way to get a little extra help if you are going around in circles with no positive outcome and you are started to get frustrated. Not only will the supervisor
likely have better customer service skills, they will also have more clout and authority to do what needs to be done to fix your problem.
Staying calm and keeping your cool when dealing with customer service can be a challenge, but with these tips the experience should be lot less stressful.
About the author: 
Marcus Walker is a freelance writer and blogger. He writes about business tips, customer service, life hacks and communication. He lives with his girlfriend and their two dogs.