Remember that old saying that your mom probably taught you–the one that goes “You’ll catch more flies with sugar than vinegar” (or something like that)? Well, when it comes to customer service, mother knows best. I remembered this saying last week when I went out to walk my dog, and found that the trash service had picked up everyone else’s recycling on the street but mine. This after the company hadn’t come at all the previous week.
As I dialed the trash company, all of these angry sentences were going through my head. Things like “How dare you not come one week and then forget my house the next week” and “What kind of people do you employ who miss an entire house’s recycling?” But then I thought about a story I’d done a few months ago for Executive Travel on getting good customer service when bad things happen during a business trip.
I got some great advice from customer-service experts for that story, including these following points:
* Be polite and act professionally.
* Understand that you’re not the first problem this person has had to deal with that day.
* Empathize with that person
* Get that person on your side.
So when the operator finally got on the phone (after I’d been on hold for 10 minutes), instead of launching into a tirade of insults, I started my conversation this way:
“Hi, I’ve got a problem with my recycling service and I’m hoping you can help me.” I then explained everything that had transpired–with the missed picked up last week, the missed pick up at my house only that day–and here’s what happened. The operator put me on hold so she could call the driver and send him back to my house. Then, when she got back on the phone, she told me she was crediting me for the missed service. By the time I got back from walking the dog, the recycling was all gone.
Perhaps the operator would have fixed the situation, even if I hadn’t been so pleasant. But there was another benefit to taking the “honey” approach: I didn’t end that phone call to the trash service in a bad mood. Just because there had been a problem, by keeping my point of view positive, I didn’t end up ruining my own day. And I got the outcome I wanted.
READ LEAH ON HOME GOES STRONG
I follow those techniques too and they very rarely fail me. Politeness wins nearly every time.
What a coincidence! I had a similar situation yesterday when I opened my cell phone bill and discovered it was almost triple what it has been every month for years! I was borderline hysterical…this is a lean month and extra expenses are not a bit helpful…but I was able to calm down by the time I was put through to a rep. I asked him to help me find a way to find a plan that makes more sense for the way I am now using the plan; and I asked him to remove the overage minutes retroactively. And he did it! In addition, he saved my husband’s 4000 roll over minutes (that he will never use) to our new family plan account – a one time courtesy, he said. I had been prepared to be nasty – and did originally say that I was a very long-term customer, now without a contract, who was willing to move on if we couldn’t find a creative solution to my situation. I won’t say I used honey, but I wasn’t rude or mean.
Agree, yelling will get you no where, might as well be nice and polite and hopefully they can share your situation and work with you to help out. It has been successful sometimes for me as well.