How many times has a simple thing blown up into something ridiculous because people refuse to apply actual thought to the situation? I have found myself growing less tolerant of poor customer service from the places I do business with. I’m never belligerent or rude but I’m certainly not going away because “it is our policy.” A lot of this has to do with me reading sites like the Consumerist but also just the general degradation of competent help. I will say that probably 75% of the time any issue that I have is resolved in a timely and satisfactory manner. Unfortunately, that percentage used to be a lot higher just a few years ago. Why is that?

Probably the best example of this was a serious issue I had when dealing with my long distance company. Coming home one day I had a message on my answering machine from my Dad asking me to call him. It sounded important, so I picked up the phone and dialed. I get a message saying my long distance has been suspended. Luckily I had a calling card on me so I made the call to my Dad and then contacted MCI. Apparently a bill they had sent me had been returned for no apparent reason. The address was correct and I had received and paid previous bills. So I tell them to just send me the bill again and I’d pay it. They couldn’t do that since they had deactivated my account. Apparently calling me and asking why I hadn’t paid the bill never occurred to them. So they basically have to set me up as a new customer. Fine. So I go through the hoops of being set up again and was told in a couple of days I’d have long distance again.

The couple of days go by and still no long distance. I call up customer service and go through the whole thing again. They tell me it will be taken care of tomorrow. Tomorrow rolls around and no long distance. Another call and now I’m told there is some other problem. At this point I lose my cool. I demand that they cancel my account and that I was done with them. I rant on how they could not perform a simple task that is their main source of business. After that I hang up the phone.

A week later, I receive a bill for service. Service which I did not have and apparently was never cancelled in the first place. So I call them back, this time making sure to be polite. The lady on the phone understood my frustration and cancelled my account and the bill. I finally washed my hands of them. The real kicker is that I discovered that I could by a long distance calling card at Sam’s Club for about $30 for 600 minutes and that would be at least two years of long distance for me, a much better deal than I was getting.

I’m sure everyone has had similar experiences but over the years, I’ve learned the proper way to deal with these issues. By following these tenets, I’ve had a very high success rate with customer service issues:

1.       Stay calm. Be polite and reasonable but firm and the customer service person will typically be more inclined to help.

2.       The “principle of the thing” is rarely worth the time. If you are arguing over a principle, chances are the amount of money you are talking about is neglible. Remember, you can always make more money but you can never create more time.

3.       Know what it is you want from the company to satisfy you. By doing this you specify exactly the steps needed and gives the company a basis to work from. They may try to negotiate down but at least you are now working on a resolution.

4.       Blame is not important. You want to foster a relationship of two people working together to solve a problem. Do not focus on who is at fault

5.       Escalate as necessary. If the line worker can’t help, move up to a supervisor. If the supervisor can’t help, move up to a manager. At times you may need to embark on a different tactic so realize when you are being stalled.

6.       Do not threaten to never do business with them again because at that point, the company has no motivation to help you. You are no longer a source of revenue so they will typically end the situation as quickly as possible, usually with an “I’m sorry.”

These are basic tips. For more, be sure to check out Consumerist.com and learn about things like Executive Email Carpet Bombs and other techniques.