I worked for a year and a half in the billing department for a cable company-third party. What I am about to tell you hopefully will change your perspective on customer service. It is not an easy job, here is what I went through everyday.
1. Blaming me for your billing problems and wanting to get an answer while screaming me isn't going to work.First off, I am not the problem. I was paid to sit at my desk for eight hours sorting out the messes you and sometimes the company creates. Most of your bill is pretty simple, if you have last months bill, do a reference check on the charges that you received last month. There is a detailed section describing all charges. If the amount is higher or lower, check where the changes are. If you're still confused about the bill, call... but be nice. Most of the time it's a promotion that has ended, all that is needed is a removal of the package from the account. And the money will be credited back onto the account. Other times, taxes go up for some unknown reason.
2. Your cable was out for 2 hours, sometimes 30 minutes at the most and you want credit on the account.If it was out for 30 minutes or 2 hours there's nothing we can do.. sorry. If you're really a grouch we might be nice and give you 10 cents off your bill just to shut you up to make you get off the phone. However, if it's been out, such as a KNOWN outage, we will give you credit. If your box is on the fritz and won't work at all, if we have documentation and a work order to prove that your box is not properly working, we will definitely give you credit.
3. You want an appointment ASAP and there's nothing available.Sorry, there is really only so much we can do. We can go to the order that's placed, and put you in if someone cancels their appointment. We will credit people especially with those who have box issues, I hate cable television specifically for that reason, you have a digital box that isn't working and you need cable, you can overcome the the problem by hooking your cable into the TV, instead of the box. You'll get basic channels but it will work until we can get a technician out.
4. We really really don't care how much money you make, really.I had one customer who as been on the phone with us for an hour on how your losing $500 and not letting me explain the bill to this person. They thought that we were charging exorbitant fees and other stuff. All we really want you to do is listen and pay your bill. Seriously that's all we ask!
5. Pay per view is expensive. If you order porn you're gonna pay for it. Don't try to get around it by saying you didn't know it. Don't say your box ordered it (true story) because the box does only what the person controlling the remote wants it to do. I will not credit it, if I do, I am disabling your ability to order pay per view, because it was our company policy. Call me harsh, but I follow the rules.
6. Supervisors.With us, you went to a billing agent to an escalations team member (myself-when I got promoted) which is a higher up billing agent. We do the same thing they do, we can extend more credit but that's it. Don't ask for someone above me, they can do what I'm doing. No matter who you go to, things will not change. Whatever is a valid charge will stay a valid charge because we do take notes on
EVERYTHING and we know whats going on. Also, don't try to lie we know when you are.
These are just a few things I have learned while working as a billing employee. I hope next time you call customer service you remember this. And I would like any feedback if you have worked in customer service or dealt in customer service your best experience and your worst experience.
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Comments (19)
This had a lot of grammar mistakes.
And most of this seems obvious. Only a douchebag would do any of this.
Surprisingly, a lot of folks pull this shit.
People can be dicks.
They'll do anything to save a buck.
I did telephone customer service for an international company for a little over two years, and a similar domestic company for a year-ish. In my experience, most companies generally want to make their customers happy; the ones that I worked for placed a huge emphasis on giving GOOD customer service.
I've learned to always be calm and polite to the operator who answers the phone- even if the company made a mistake, chances are it wasn't the person on the other end of the line. Also, if you are nice the person is more likely to actually WANT to help you.
If the person I speak to refuses or is unable to help me, I ask to speak to their supervisor or I call back and ask for a supervisor. In my experience, the supervisor is generally more knowledgeable and better able to help... or at least is able to authorize things that a general rep is not.
Also, I ALWAYS write down the name of the person I spoke to, any specific info they gave me, and ask for a reference number for the call. If a company makes a mistake, the more information the customer provides, the easier it is to fix it.
@MakinzyKrysteen@xanga - true very true, I always tried to provide the best customer service even to the worst people, I just pointed out a few things I encountered, and even when I had people screaming at me, I always was polite sometimes was firm but did my job. I do encourage you to always write their name down, sometimes you didn't know who that person was, because of outsourcing but we did try to track them down and provide satisfaction
@Sammyhellsyea@xanga - Even though it may be obvious some people really don't have any sense
@Sammyhellsyea@xanga -
You would be surprised the kind of shit people pull when you're working in any kind of customer service. I work at chick-fil-a and I once had a lady come through with a huge, complicated order. Well done everything, no salt fries, no tomatoes in her wrap...order was about $40. got to the window, and said "yeah i came through last week and ordered this exact same thing and you have to give it to me for free" and pitched a bloody fit when my manager refused to refund her because she couldn't find a written record from where someone had taken her supposed call.
I hate customers. I can't wait to start my real career. Sigh.
@rainbowbrite2200@xanga - This is dead on. I work for the Corporate office of a service chain as a Collections Supervisor. Since we are in a transitional phase right now and without a real (read: decent) Customer Service Dept. Myself and two co-workers do our best to address the concerns/complaints of our 50,000+ members and 6 locations at any given time. We get screeched at, threatened, and we have to turn down the most ridiculous demands...it is very frustrating to want to help someone who is only interested in pitching a fit and seeing how far they can push you/what you will give them...nothing in my job description includes Customer Service, I will not lose my job if I advise someone angry to kiss my ass...I dont though out of common decency...I only wish the decency really were common to all.
WIN for #6 by the way...I cannot tell you how many calls I get where people are only interested in "climbing the ladder" so to speak, you advise them of company policy (which as Im sure YOU understand, does NOT change from Rep to Rep as some of these people believe) I think that was a major reason why we three in the office were put in Supervisory positions, the highest individuals available to members...that way when someone cockily says "I dont want to talk to you, where is your manager?!" I can advise them as kindly I am able that I am the head of the dept. and the end of the line...I love it when we reach resolution, it is usually pretty quick after that! ^_^
Every once in a while you get a douchey rep or two. I ordered Directv a while back so I could get to watch my team play every week. Simple enough. I ordered one package on the internet that said I got A, B, C, and D with the basics of sports, got only A, C, and D with an issue with the sports not working. Call them up, after 4 hours of being thrown around by reps who didn't care I finally got one that realized I didn't get what I ordered and what was advertised to me. Got some free premiums for a while and a little off my bill for like 6 months.
But I've been in customer service myself, and as is with any job dealing with customers there are going to be those that continously lie through their teeth in hopes to save a little bit of money. I really wanna start punching these people, but that might be troublesome for future income collection lol
I disagree that asking for someone higher up isnt the answer - sometimes. I was overcharged once on my cable bill (because they had given me a credit) I went round and round with the first person explaining to them everything on the bill. They just didnt get it and insisted I was right. Two levels higher up, I finally talked to someone who could do math. After explaining it all once more, they said I was absolutely correct and adjusted my bill.
When I have an issue I am always polite and try to make it more conversational than just a direct complaint/resolution. I understand customer service is a very stressful job and being a customer who is/may also be stressed out, one person really needs to take the initiative to be the better person. It's called life! =)
I hate when I call tech support or customer service and I end up talking to someone in another country. My cousin had to do it the other day to cancel a credit card that was in her name and her name alone. she was on the phone with someone who barely spoke English and they wouldn't help her unless they talked to her husband. He had nothing to do with her opening the card. Um, this is 21st Century America...women can do things on their own!
I use to work as a customer service representative at a call center. People would threaten my life over PENNIES. It was a pre-paid phone service too- :/ I enjoyed the work though and ended up quitting when the client left the call center. We didn't have "employee numbers" and it was funny when disgruntled callers would screech at me for one.
What you didn't mention is all the online gaming we are really doing when you call. We would also play bomberman with our DS(s).
@DarcKleer@xanga - I am extremely grateful for those people in other countries. I was mugged at midnight once and it would a very nice woman who helped me cancel my credit cards. Perhaps some people have a hard time understanding accents, but in all the times I have been linked overseas I have never had trouble understanding them. Sometimes they speak English better (just with an accent) because unlike us, they actually study English and it matters to them if they learn to speak it well. I would rather not have so many jobs outsourced overseas, but that's the way it is. The world is getting more and more linked together, so we might as well deal with it, and talk to them with the same amount of respect that this post is demanding. Even when cultural differences get in the way momentarily. I'm sure your cousin figured it out.
My boyfriend works at a call center in Kentucky for a company in Arizona and he said today someone yelled at him for 20 minutes because there were extra charges on his bill for things HE bought. It puts him under a lot of stress, and half the time I'm afraid he's going to have a mental breakdown and end up in the hospital from heart problems. People don't realize that if you call a company like that, the person on the other line isn't there for you to use a chew toy.
My dad calls customer service alot and pulls this crap. But in the end, my mom and I yell at him for yelling at people who are trying to do there best. But lately, only her and I are the ones who call customer service (thank god). We talk to them and get to know abit about them. :3
It's fun, you get to know the person who is helping you and you get try to solve what ever you need solving. :]
I know it's not quite the same thing, but I personally enjoy retail. There are some nasty nasty customers, I know, but there are some nice ones too. The whole, "If you're nice, people will be more willing to help you," works both ways though.
I understand people may not be sympathetic to your situation, because for whatever reason they came into your current establishment, they are there for themselves, not for you. My worst experience came from my first day out of training at the theater I worked at. I had a rather large order that took me a bit of time to put together [included in that was a couple of kids combos, which had its own kind of packaging], but the person working beside me was zipping through order, as she was not only more experienced than I was, but she also had much smaller orders coming in, consisting usually of singular items like a drink or popcorn. One lady felt it was her obligation to tell me how bad of a job I was doing by coming out of line, and telling me that I was personally wasting her time and was making her late for her movie. I understand her frustration, because she is a customer waiting on a slow employee, but she didn't understand my frustration, being a NEW employee just trying to get used to it. It's distressing. But it isn't her job to understand where I am coming from. I mean, she could have looked at my nametag to read, "Trainee," but you know, that's a lot of work.
I had a few really exceptional customer experiences though. It usually comes from my ability to small talk with any person instantaneously. The nice ones are the chatty ones, I enjoy that. When I had quit my job, they gave me a letter containing a guest compliment I had received a month earlier basically being praised for doing such an amazing job, that I should have gotten a raise etc. It was real mood lifter.
@Salivarysatisfaction@datingish - oh yeah I can so agree on that. We also played games :) and when there are no employee numbers then the people got even more mad with us
@Thin_Tapestry@xanga - thank you for handing the calls now I'm sure whoever your dealing with appreciates it alot :)
@xAnotherxCasexOfxTeenxAngst@xanga -I'll amen that, working customer service actually does cause alot of stress, its good your sticking by him even though it is stressful
@XactiLucius@xanga - people do lie, you just have to figure out who it is, and using deciphering the notes work well
@bleujinxpwns@xanga - it is hard to be the better person, but that was always my job, sometimes it shut them up other times it didn't
4. The point of telling you how much we make is to illustrate to you how tight our finances are and that we cannot afford to pay for a mistake that we feel is not our own mistake. And as you said yourself, sometimes it is the company's mistake. So, I will not refrain from telling customer service how much I make. If you don't care that's fine. In that case, I don't care about your tender sensibilities being upset by my attitude. Because, in that case, I will think that your attitude is just as bad as mine, even if you are pretending to be nice and patient with me.
6. If I think that the person I'm talking to is not understanding what I'm saying, or that I can't understand what THEY are saying to me, for any reason (such as using a lot of technical jargon I do not understand), and I cannot get them to explain it to me in a way that I can understand, I will most definitely ask to speak to a supervisor. I don't care if it bothers you. In fact, at that point, I am probably hoping that it DOES bother you.
I know that customer service comes with a lot of irritating problems with disgruntled customers, but considering the fact that the majority of people who call you are upset and very probably at their wits end at that point, it is no wonder that they are not peaches and cream to you. If you don't like the attitude of people who are so frustrated they really can't help but show their anxiety, then perhaps you are in the wrong profession.
I know that that sounds harsh. But, I don't really know a very nice way to say it. And it sometimes makes me roll my eyes heavenward when I see/hear people complain about aspects of their job they should have known existed before getting into the job. At least you have one, and at least you get paid. Apparently, in this economy quite a lot of people are not so lucky.
Of course, it's not bad to vent. It's just that this seems a little...obnoxious and rude. So, please excuse me if I returned the way I perceived your attitude upon writing this in kind. :/
Most times I've had to call customer service it's be great and they were really helpful, but there have been times when they really pissed me off. With one of my laptops I paid for an accidental damage plan and needed to use it, but the person on the phone barely spoke English and I had to explain the same thing to them over and over again, having to keep breaking it down until I felt like I was talking to a 4 year old. After that I only delt with that company through online chat, and then I still ran into another worker who had major issues with English. I can understand that jobs are hard to get, but still if you can speak the language maybe you shouldn't be helping people who speak that language. The funniest thing ever though was when I called for help from a company I used to work for. I knew all what they were supposed to do and they must have been new or something because what should have been simple for them seemed to be mission impossible, and I was only having them look up my warranty expiration date.