Having to call customer support is never something we love to do. In a perfect world, everything would just work out how we want and envisioned. We’d be on cruise control, having no cares or worries because things just work out. In reality, this never happens. Things break, the website wouldn’t let us book that plane ticket how we wanted, our phone bill is $200 more than it should be, the list goes on and on. We don’t have the power to fix the issue so we have to call the company to get the issue straightened out. Depending on what happened, you might be so incredibly frustrated that you cannot control your emotions, which comes out in the phone call. One thing leads to another and you are about ready to strangle the person on the other end of the phone line. You think that the only way you can get your problem corrected is if you rip a new one into the person who has the power to fix your issue.
People have a whole range of emotions and handle them differently. When you call to get assistance, you essentially have two options on how you react to the issue: you can either be polite and friendly, or you can be a complete asshole. Many folks think that the only way to get their point across is to be the latter. They think that their problem will only get resolved if they show some sign of strength and be over assertive. Somehow the only way that the importance and severity of their issue is conveyed through yelling and screaming obscenities to the phone agent until they finally give in to your demands.
Now let’s step back and think about this a little. On the other end of that phone call is a person. A human being who has feelings, too. Sure they may have no vested interest in what’s going on in your life, but they do want to feel important. They have no idea why you are calling, they are just doing their job – working for a company, trying to solve problems that arise. If someone calls and berates them for an issue that they have no vested interest in, how do you expect them to react? Of course they are instantly going to despise you and probably not going to put forth their best effort. They are just doing their job and don’t get paid any more or less depending on the issue that they have to help you out with. Put all the pieces together and what happens? If you are a dick to them, they are not going bend over backwards to assist someone like that.
Now let’s look at the opposite scenario. You phone in to customer support and are a friendly, cheery person. You explain what you need in a calm, collected manner. Regardless of how the phone agent’s day has gone thus far, they are probably going to feel instantly better about things (especially if the person who they assisted right before you was an ass). They are going to feel like you at least somewhat care about them and are a nice person. They are probably going to work a little harder to help you out, or at least make a generous compromise if whatever you are asking for is out of their control.
An excellent example of this was my wife was recently declined for an American Express credit card application I wanted her to sign up for since I couldn’t get the bonus. On the surface, there was no reason for her to be declined; she had perfect credit, never missed a payment on her other Amex cards, basically was the prime customer for them. I was frustrated (because I wanted the bonus points… she still thinks I’m crazy for my travel hacking!) but knew that we probably could get this overturned by calling customer support. She didn’t want to call, but I told her all you need to do is be friendly and explain our reasoning. After a short few minutes on the phone the customer support agent went from saying we applied for too many cards in 3 months to approving the application with expedited shipping of the new cards. My wife was friendly and sweet – she really is too nice to people 😉 – which I have no doubt helped our case for getting approved.
In the end, I am confident that being friendly is your best shot at having issues resolved in your favor when calling customer support. Having worked on an IT help desk, I can relate to those in the service industry. I would put forth much more effort to ensure a satisfactory experience to those who were nice and appreciative of my assistance compared those who thought of me as a peon. People want to feel valued and important, not demeaned in any way. If you can convey this when asking for things, you will find that problems tend to work out in your favor. Your overall attitude speaks wonders when trying to get your way.
