Surviving Customer Service A Frontline Employee Field Guide potx

Surviving Customer Service
A Frontline Employee Field Guide
Shawn Cowling
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2012 Shawn Cowling
Greeley, Colorado
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
Thank you for downloading this free ebook. Although this is a free book, it remains the
copyrighted property of the author, and may not be reproduced, copied and distributed for
commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you enjoyed this book, please encourage your
friends to download their own copy at Smashwords.com, where they can also discover other
works by this author and many other authors willing to share their knowledge. Thank you for
your support. I promise this is the only stuff I straight up stole for the purposes of this book.
Legal speak was never my strong suit
Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter One: The Job
Chapter Two: Customers
Chapter Three: Coworkers
Chapter Four: Avoiding Burn Out
Chapter Five: Survival Tips
Chapter Six: Closing
Introduction
You are fantastic. Let us settle that point right away. Customer Service
agents/teammates/personnel/gurus/ whatever fun adjective follows service, the job is
not for the faint of heart. The job can be stressful beyond belief one day and mind
numbingly boring the next. One customer could do nothing but yell at you for an hour
and the next customer you just may invite to a holiday dinner at your parent’s house.
You have to be ready for either extreme with every interaction. How is that not the most
exciting thing in the world? The trials and tribulations of the customer service position
provide some the best education and character building experiences a person can find.

I hope to convince you of this over the course of this little book, but first I want to explain
my own experience. Hopefully the brief introduction will show that I have some insight
into the nature of our work as customer service agents. If you just said, “gaw, why?” Go
ahead and skip to chapter one to get the party going. I’ll tell you though; there is a line
in about seven paragraphs that is pretty funny.
I am a long time customer service agent and am addicted to the challenge and
rush of the job. Through college I never thought about entering the world of business. I
was going to curate museums or work alongside award winning academics discovering
the secrets of our shared world history. That was the plan anyway. I found myself on
graduation day standing in a sea of my fellow history majors at the University of
Northern Colorado in May of 2007 and realized quickly that maybe field work had
enough people to choose from. With degree in hand and a girlfriend (now my lovely
wife) with a semester remaining in her own studies, I set out to find a job around town.
“It’ll be a good experience for a few months” I told myself as I submitted an application
for a position entitled, “Customer Service Representative I” at a company just a ten
minute drive- twenty minutes by bike I would later find out- across town.
This was just slightly before the financial collapse, so it was still a fairly quick
process from application to interview, interview to offer. That afternoon I received a
phone call asking me to stop by for an interview. I threw on what passed as respectable
clothing (complete with a tie) and drove over for the interview. This was just the first
interview it turned out. I had never applied for a job that had multiple interviews before.
I worked with an afterschool program during college teaching kids to read and being
responsible for their safety and that was just one interview. A second interview made
me feel so grown up, like the degree was already paying off. Looking back, my naivety
must have been adorable to my parents.
The second interview came and went, and then there was a skills test. To this
day I do not remember who I interviewed with but the skills test still bugs me. It was a
basic words-per-minute check and an Excel test. On the Excel test there was a
question that asked the user to convert the graph on the screen to a bar graph. I stared
at the screen for a solid two minutes trying to figure out if I was being pranked; the

graph was already in bar format. At the time I did not speak up and ask the person
monitoring the test if the question was a joke. I wish I had taken the time to speak up,
and we will certainly be discussing the importance of frontline people speaking their
minds as we continue our chat.
Testing aside, the interview process was alarmingly quick. In one afternoon I
went from unemployed liberal arts graduate to an employed liberal arts graduate. I had
a desk to call my own, coworkers to get to know, a daily commute and free access to
unlimited coffee. I was living the dream! It would take only weeks for me to learn that
people only say sarcastically in an office setting.
That desk, those coworkers and that free coffee taught me how to be a grown up.
It was a tough job. I was working in a department that dealt with angry customers all
day long, for a company that would have a pretty major role in causing the 2008
financial woes of the world (they’ll remain nameless because I do not want to deal with
paperwork). Customers did not like the company; they wanted nothing more than be
done with the phone call as quickly as possible and then write hate mail or posting
scathing reviews online.
The team I worked with was the first place I saw how hard working people could
really be when put in a group. Prior to this job my only experience with “group work”
had been in school. Inevitably, the school project would be completed by just two
people while someone else chatted away on their phone and the fourth person never
showed up (but took the grade anyway). This was a team that moved fast, did their jobs
well and remained dedicated. Three months into my job they were all fired or quit and I
was the most experienced person on the team. It was terrifying. New people were
brought in and I was told to train them. At the time my training style was, “watch what I
do. Got it? Get to work.” It was less than efficient.
Three months into my career and I had to learn how to train, how to lead, how to
talk to customers and how to not panic at any given moment. It was a rush and I was
hooked. I wanted to learn all I could about modern business (I focused my history
studies on Antebellum American economic and cultural developments, so historical
business I somewhat understood –I am very boring at parties). So I went back to

school and earned a Master of Human Resource Management degree. This time
around I had a job, a heading-in-the-right-direction relationship and a new found respect
for experienced voices that could contribute to my education.
I took a route that I never thought I would consider; I enrolled in Keller Graduate
School. It was a non-traditional school labeled “for profit” (but let’s face it, every higher
education institution is for profit, some are just honest about it) and populated with non-
traditional students. It was one of the greatest experiences of my life. My first class was
taught by the director of marketing for the school (it was a marketing class too, not one
of my core HR classes), my first group project I worked with a recently retired air force
major, I got to sit in classes with a doctor from Ukraine and a sales executive from
Georgia (the state). It was an eye opening, horizon broadening experience that I am
very thankful for as it led to me to be a better employee and coworker.
Eventually, I too was moved out of my first department and into other teams. It
was a good experience moving around and learning the company, dealing with different
customer types with each process I worked on. I learned the ropes of internal controls
and quality assurance, then received some firsthand leadership training for an accounts
payable team that was being put together to pay repossession vendors, a rough and
tumble bunch if there ever was one. My training style improved, interactions with
coworkers were more enjoyable and productive, and my customer service was, not to
brag, above average.
I mentioned that the company I started with was a player in the financial market
collapse. As a result of the downtrodden economic times of 2010 my office was
shuttered, severance packages issued and goodbyes said. That provided an
opportunity to take a trip into a new industry. I would still be working customer service,
but now my clients were school personnel looking to purchase textbooks for their
students. It was a totally different clientele than what I had been working with
beforehand. They had a cause behind them: educating children. I learned the ropes
quickly and hit the ground running right in the middle of busy season. I started the new
job with four other new people; one of whom left with the first month. That first
August/September I could have easily had a beer or five every lunch hour to try and

recover from the morning. Customers were in a hurry to get books into their
classrooms, they were doing this for the children, budgets were tight; and three of the
ten people on the team did not even know the name of the company president yet.
Once October ended and our mad rush was over, the wind left the sails and we sat in
the off-season until April. The boredom was intense. On any given day in September
the team would take over three hundred calls and six hundred emails. We would be
lucky to hit number in the entire month of December.
That is the nature of customer service. A sales team gets to work year around,
making connections and pushing deals. Accounting always has a bill to pay.
Executives are always trying to innovate (hopefully). Customer service is there when
the customer needs us though; we do not go to them. With that, I am tired of talking up
my experience. There are those out there with more and better experience than I can
offer, but this is a field guide from a frontline employee for frontline employees. We do
not have an easy job and I hope the coming pages can help make things a bit easier for
your daily routine.
Chapter One
Defining Our Role
Customer Service is usually the bottom rung of the ladder at a company. It is
difficult to see how such a low position has any impact on the company as you are just
starting your career. In school you never hear about the lab assistants to Edison or the
receptionist at the White House. Without support roles nothing gets done. If you are
doing data entry at a bank, that data is turned into information used to target customers
and boost profit. Without a designated data entry person the customers would not be
found and money would be lost. If you are the clean up intern at the local zoo, you keep
animals from catching any number of truly gross diseases (thank you). The cashier at
the local recreation center has to sell memberships, take money and monitor patrons in
order to keep the place afloat. There are more supporting roles than there are CEOs,
and CEOs would not get anywhere without a travel planner and assistant. Customer
service builds loyalty, solves problems, interacts with clients, makes sales, organizes
internal clients, connects the right people together and keeps the business flowing.

Never, not for a moment, believe that your position is unimportant or unremarkable.
The company needs you or the position would not exist, likewise you need to be at your
best or the company will not exist for long. You are in a mutually beneficial relationship
based upon the needs of both parties. If one party is displeased it has every right to
discontinue the relationship. Think of it as dating where you get paid at the end of the
month…but without the inappropriate subtext.
Making the Job Work for You
At the start of your working life you have a world of options in front of you. You
are working customer service, so you get to see how the accounting group works, how
the delivery team gets things done, how executives are rarely if ever visible to the front
line, how supply lines work, how a bad mood can affect an entire team; you see
everything the world of business has to offer. The first years of your career pursuits are
like a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure. To follow the supply chain path, turn to page 5.
To continue on the accounting track, turn to page 42.
This is an opportunity to start charting your course. In my view, work is good, it
builds character. You really find out about yourself when conversing with an angry
customer or trying to quickly assemble a report for a meeting starting in twenty minutes
that you found out about five minutes ago. As you learn more about yourself in the
working world, you will find out what you like to do within the business. With my first
job, I found I really enjoyed training people and building cohesive teams. A friend that
started with me found out she adored working through detailed data (she is much more
employable than I am). Yet another person that started around the same time I did was
dedicated to providing top notch customer service day after day, which was fantastic.
Everyone takes different things away from their work and as you start your job, now is
the time to find a path that works for you.
As a newbie, you are allowed and encouraged to be naïve as long as you are
inquisitive. Everyone I have ever worked with hates the people that do not work to find
answers. If you are not asking questions when a problem comes up, you are doing it
wrong. As you are learning the ropes and wading through the corporate machine, there
are going to be scores of new and interesting things heading your way. These are not

“polar bear with a t-shirt launcher” interesting, but still pretty fun. At my first job I got to
learn how to use a fax machine. I thought certainly the fax machine was a dead
technology, how could a company worth billions of dollars still be using fax machines?
Turns out they are actually pretty useful for getting information to people quickly and
without having to boot up a computer. There are even special stamps notaries use to
make faxed copies of things legal! There is an established culture around fax machines
that I never knew existed. Of course, the technology is becoming less and less useful
as this whole “internet” things takes hold, but it was an important aspect of that first job.
My first experience with a fax machine gave a pretty good laugh to my
coworkers. It was my first week on the job after training finished. I was still enthusiastic
and smiled when I said, “my desk”. One of the other new people had to fax a document
to a vendor we needed paper work from and she simply said, “I’m off to the fax”. I was
probably a little overzealous when I turned my chair to face her and asked, “Oh! Can I
come along?” She stared at me for a brief moment, dumbfounded and responded,
“Seriously?” “I’ve never used a fax before” a responded sheepishly. My coworkers
sounded like a well rehearsed choir in how quickly they broke into laughter in unison.
When the laughter subsided the coworker heading to the fax just said, “Come along,
kid.” When she showed me how to work I felt rather silly. The box seemed so mystical
before I knew it was just a lazy man’s telephone.
The silver lining quickly came through. My coworkers realized that I truly knew
nothing about an office. They started showing me tricks on Excel I had never seen. I
was escorted around the building to meet new people. They shared their organization
tips. I learned how to fix a squeaky desk chair, paper jams, how to turn paperclips into
pushpins, how to brew a strong cup of coffee; I learned how to be a good office worker.
My coworkers answered questions I did not even know to ask. This was stuff not could
not be found in a book and had immediate practical implications for my world. Those
little lessons from my coworkers taught me how to be a total coffee snob. Before that, I
would just drink the bean juice and call it good. Afterward I started saying, “Dark roast”
and knew that Kona was a place apparently.
These were mundane skills and shortcuts, but they opened a way of seeing the

objects around me that I would not have seen before. Paperclips turned from the shiny
things that hold documents together into instant cabinet locks, swizzle sticks, cord
wrappers, and once even a hook to hold an empty coffee cup (I do not recommend
doing that). Without my coworkers to show me this, I would have just sat in my desk
chair and waited for calls. I would have gone crazy in a month.
Instead of simply sitting around though, I learned how to use my time effectively
and learn more and more new things. I took on greater responsibility and branched out
beyond my regular duties. I grew real, marketable skills just by asking questions and
watching and listening to the people around me. I learned stuff that never came up in
school and had a very fun time with the experience as well. I highly recommend that
use your time now, as a new customer service agent to learn more skills and watch
other departments when possible. You never know what will strike you as so
fascinating that you just have to take part.
Feel free to take some risks too. Customer Service has the advantage of being,
generally, very low on the corporate importance level. When downsizing occurs,
customer service is the first to go (sorry) because the people that make those decisions
do not know how truly tough the job can be. Use that to your advantage. If you have an
opportunity to add something of value to your team, department or the entire company,
go ahead and try to build it, pitch it, work it into your routine whatever your “value adding
proposition” work on it. There is nothing to lose if you are a bottom rung employee, if
you are that close to the bottom it is very easy to get back up. Early in your career will
be the time you are allowed to make mistakes and every failure allows you to learn
something new. Not every endeavor will be a success, but that should not stop you
from continuously trying new things. Someone had to ask a company long ago to start
paying for health insurance coverage, and that worked out pretty well for everybody.
You do not have to introduce radical new workplace benefit plans, but if you think the
company may benefit from an air hockey table or a fancy coffee maker, go ahead and
ask for it.
While you are taking risks, start to work on yourself as an employee. The rest of
this little book will go over talking to people, working with people, and not going insane

among other topics. Right now though, I want it known that in the world outside of
school, the business world full of people that worry about their mortgage or driving to
pick up the kids after work, people do not care about your weaknesses unless it affects
your performance. You landed this customer service job because you have a strength
in a desired area. If you are not good at technical writing or failed calculus, not one of
your coworkers will care. They care that you are able to the job and make their work a
little less stressful. There is a need for you in the company that brought you on and
they think you can do the job just fine. Use this time to build your strengths, become
even better than you were before taking on the job. If you cannot remember the
quadratic formula or when Magellan set sail, it does not matter and you no longer have
to care. You are being paid for your strengths and if you build on that you will continue
to bring home that pay check. For your own personal growth, sure go ahead and read a
David McCullough book to learn about the American mythos. For professional growth,
try to be better and better at what you do and you will be just fine in this business world
of ours.
Chapter Two
Communications
Customer Service is first and foremost a communications role. An agent is the
voice of the company for better or worse. Customers do not talk with marketers or
CEOs; they talk to customer service. How we talk, how we word our conversation can
make all the difference to a customer. We are all told at orientation that a person
receiving good service will tell two people about the experience, but a person receiving
bad service will tell ten people. I always thought that was a bit exaggerated, until I had
a horrendous experience with a local optometry office. I took straight to the internet to
post negative reviews anywhere I could, my friends were told never to go there, my
parents, my in laws, my coworkers, any one that would listen (or pretend to listen) had
an earful of my venom regarding this optometrist. When it came time to visit a different
place and they provided superb service in a timely manner and kept me informed of
what was going on every step of the way I said thanks and told my parents the new
office did a really fine job and we would be returning. I did little to ensure the good

place would see increased sales, or at least have better name recognition and they did
everything to deserve glowing reviews and an increased customer based. Rage is a
fine motivator, happiness rarely invokes action.
The role of customer service is to be the point of contact for the customer.
Customers do not call in to say hello, see how the cat is doing. They call because a
problem exists that requires resolution. Sometimes the problem is simple like removing
someone from a mailing list. Sometimes the problem is quite difficult like compiling a
payment history in an hour because auditors are coming this afternoon and they are not
happy. Whatever the problem may be, more often than not there is a solution available.
The customer service agent has to be the solution finder. We can point people in the
right direction, start a dialogue between two parties and let the momentum take over
from there. As a solution finder, your purpose is to provide a confident voice to the
client. If a customer senses confidence they relax, they begin to trust you and your
words.
Think of your own experiences where confidence played a great role in your
perception of services provided. I envision a grocery store cashier fresh out of training
and facing down a long line of customers awaiting check-out. There is a farmer’s
market chain my family frequents that has some turnover issues. I still live in a mid-
sized college town so entry level employees come and go with the wind, but that is a
management issue. The managers have a difficult task in finding new cashiers quite
often. Working with food is incredibly difficult. My first job back in high school was for a
fast food place in a mall food court. You learn quickly in the food industry that people
are incredibly finicky and picky with their food.
New cashiers at this grocer are not always warned about the customer base of
the store it appears. The new people can always be identified by shaky hands as they
lower fruit into bags or incredibly awkward conversation starters that are quite often
accompanied by a cracking voice. As one customer service professional to another, I
always try to make conversation with them as well, try to put them at ease let them slow
down a bit, if I had anywhere else to be I would not be standing in line buying a cart full
of fruits and vegetables (and Doritos of course). The long time serving cashiers can be

seen the next aisle over working customers through their line with speed and good
humor, acknowledging the customer and commenting on the freshness of the food or
how good the strawberries look this season. They do not really care about the berries,
but it puts the customer at ease as they spend their money.
In this situation, the cashier is the end of experience manager. If all goes well at
checkout the customer will forget all about how difficult it was to track down the
sausages they needed for dinner, or how some other numb-skull ran into them with a
cart. The cashier has to wipe away the rest of the experience, as this is the moment
that will be remembered. That is quite some pressure to put on a person. If a cashier is
terrible, customers will be reluctant to come back. Or they could mention their less than
praise worthy experience to a friend that has not yet visited the store. The friend’s only
impression of the grocery would be poor service from cashiers. They are less likely to
visit now. No amount of advertising or marketing can compete with word-of-mouth
(unless of course there are free burritos involved –that does the trick every time).
The confident cashier at the counter is reassuring to the customer. The
customer thinks to themselves, “well, they sure know their stuff!” as the cashier
effortlessly punches in the item number for a rutabaga. I do not think I could identify a
rutabaga if it were in front of me, if a cashier could look at the object say, “Huh,
rutabaga” and instantly know the item code I would start a slow applause right there at
check-out. I would hope balloons and someone presenting a trophy would pop up out
of nowhere, but that would be too awesome. The new cashier is not going to illicit such
a response if they are obviously shaking with nervousness or struggling to get through
the transaction.
We are all new at some point. Experience certainly boosts confidence and an
individual’s ability to radiate the appearance of confidence. In my career I have worked
with two types of customer service representatives: long time professionals and new
workforce entrants. Never is there an in between, someone that became bored with
their old career and moved into customer service. People either love the job for the
thousands of reasons there are to love it, or they decide quickly it is a most horrifying or
putrid job. Of which I can only name three reasons and those all involve my disdain for

smooth jazz.
Without experience, where does confidence come from for new workers? Most
of the time, we have to fake it. Unless your ego is at Kanye levels, new employees to a
company should not believe they know everything there is to know. While navigating
the learning curve, here are some tips on how to appear confident to customers.
Talk Fast
Speaking quickly gives the impression you know what you are talking about. But
be careful, you can speak too quickly to the point people do not know what you are
saying or you start to stumble over your words. Aim for somewhere between quick
talking friend with a cool story and an auctioneer that finished three espressos half an
hour ago and is currently incapable of blinking. What you are aiming for is the ability to
provide information quickly, efficiently and accurately. Speak too slowly, and customers
will think you are making things up as you go along. Speak quickly enough and they
see you as competent.
It is tough to find that solid middle ground between talking like a tranquilized
tortoise and an excitable kindergartner at a Wiggles concert, but here the best guidance
I can offer, try these tips out:
Drink plenty of water: dry throats make you skip words. It is no fun.
Focus on the point: reiterate the solution you are selling to the customer
Keep talking: Say what needs to be said, but avoid pointless material like the
weather
Ask questions: As you are speaking, make sure the customer is following along
Focus, interaction and plenty of chatting go a long way in helping you speak fast.
Try not to stray from the topic (as I so readily do throughout this text), customers will
only listen to what matters to them. I wish I had good news that people cared about
other products your company has available, or that making small talk really impacted
the interaction. I would be lying. Customers have a one track mind and unless they ask
about different options or if you know another product that will genuinely improve their
lives, the up-sell is worthless. Small talk is important and will greatly impact an
interaction, but the customer has to set the topic. I routinely had the opportunity to chat

with IT directors and admins throughout the country while working for the publishing
company. IT folk are great at talking and fantastically informed about their chosen field.
I learned quickly though, they talk about what they want to talk about. Go with the flow
the customer creates for you. If they want to joke around and share stories about how
annoying their coworkers are during a computer reformat process, mimic their attitude.
They are looking for someone to listen, nothing more. Chatty customers want the
information quickly so they can get back to their story. Talking fast with chatty
customers allows you to get the information they need to them in a fast manner and get
them back to building a relationship with you.
Having plenty of water or other drink accessible is just good practice. Dieticians
will tell you to drink more water for health reasons, I will tell you to drink more water to
keep your voice. Have you ever watched a stand-up comedy routine and the jokester
keeps walking back to a cheap looking blonde oak stool hosting five bottles of natural
spring water? That is not part of the act; it is part of the survival strategy. Customer
service relies as much on their voice as a leading pop star, so do your best to protect it
and stay hydrated. For those that are desk bound most of the day, coffee will seem like
a welcome partner at your cube. I will not knock on the virtue of the zero fat, zero
calorie energy builder that is the divine bean juice, however, coffee will not hydrate the
same as water even though it sooths a tormented throat. Here is my disclaimer: I do
not practice what I preach in this instance. Coffee is not a drink to me, it is the sweet
nectar of life and when I am at my desk a mostly full cup is almost always present. If I
have had too much coffee in a day and not nearly enough water, I speak faster than my
mouth can keep up with. I sound like a raving lunatic on the phone if I am trying to relay
information quickly to a customer all the while stumbling over my dry mouth as it
attempts to make sounds that are meant to be English words. It is embarrassing for me
and reflects poorly on the company (and the company really needs to look good if it
wants to ask people to give it money for this sort of service).
Ditch the “Um”
You do not have to speak at warp speed to give the appearance of confident
conversation but you do have to ditch the “ums” and “uhs”. These are very natural

sounds that we use as filler as we speak, but they are not necessary and can be
removed if you work at it. Eliminating these little vocal quirks lets people here just the
words. If you are explaining product perks in a list form and where every comma would
be there is an “um” in the pause, the customer thinks you are just reciting a list your
boss has you read back. Of course, you likely are just reciting a list, but for the sake of
the sale you have to become the expert. Experts do not um and uh through a
presentation.
Working the habit of saying um and uh out of your routine is very tough and takes
time. There are dozens of internet sites and videos available to coach you on how to
remove filler words from your speech patterns, and they can much better explain the
how and why of the phrases. I do not want to keep you too long, so let’s skip to the
practical stuff. First on the list on ending the ums and uhs, listen to yourself. Record a
conversation between you and a friend or coworker then listen to it and count the ums
you say. If you are at all like me, you become quite frustrated at the number of times
you say um and uh. Step two, have a conversation with that same person, recorder
going once more, and be mindful of your ums and uhs. Listen to the recording of the
second conversation and count the filler words once again. A quick way to do this is to
listen to your coworkers interact with customers as well. Listen for their um breaks.
Then have them listen to one of your interactions with a customer and have them count
the occurrences of um. Then compare notes. You now know what it is like to hear all
those ums and uhs and then you get immediate information on how often you use those
words in a conversation.
Hopefully the second time the recording, or after the conversation review, the
ums and uhs will be significantly lower. Be mindful of your words, they are all we have
as customer service agents. Think about your words as you are speaking, people do
not mind a quick pause to collect yourself and then speak. If you control your words,
you control the conversation. Ditch the ums and you sound confident and intelligent to
your customer.
Actively Listen
More important than speaking, listening to the customer is crucial. You are able

to really hear what they are saying. Acknowledge the customer while they speak by
giving “mm hmm” and “yes” when they pause. This is great at calming customers as
well. Most of the time people just want to be heard when they are upset. We’ll chat
about angry customers later on.
Listening has two different forms in the realm of service. There is the on-the-
phone form, which requires a bit more of verbal cueing to the customer and the face-to-
face form which relies more on the body language you display. In my opinion, being a
good listener is the most vital skill you can develop as a customer service agent. We
must listen to people to identify the problem. If we are not listening, points get missed
and the real issue may go unnoticed.
On the Phone Active Listening
My resume is littered with phone based customer service positions. When I call
a friend, we spend maybe a minute actually talking and that is usually just to arrange an
activity. Most of the words are, “sweet”, “ok”, and “c’ya there”. That is how my fun
phone calls work. Both participants take a minute to say whatever is necessary and we
call it good. If we really want to talk, we text each other. Yes, that is what the world is
coming to, managers and supervisors reading this. During my dorm days my
roommates and I would text each other while sitting in the same room. We called it a
nerd whisper. My parents called it odd.
A phone call at work is totally different. Remember, you are being called to solve
a problem for the customer. That problem may be “I need to pay for this, take my
money” and it could be “The loan shark is coming for my thumbs, please help”. If you
are working for a loan shark with a call center, please find different work, your W4s are
going to look funny. Regardless, you are the problem solver. The first step is to find out
what the problem is. You really have to listen closely. My job with the publishing
company had a lot of callers with special needs. They used an assistive technology the
company offered that helped with reading and comprehension. It was an incredible tool.
The customers did not always know how to tell the customer service team what exactly
was happening when a problem came up. It was up to the customer service team to
find out if the customer needed more in depth technical assistance or if the problem

could be resolved by a few clicks while talking to us. For some reason, the customer
service team did not have the program installed on our local computers so we were not
able to see what the customer saw, not even the standard program when it was working
properly. It created quite an information gap.
Use Humor
In my experience, it is more difficult to make people laugh than it is to make
them cry. Have you noticed that dramatic films are allowed to follow the same pattern
over and over (Guy meets girl, they fall in love, girl or guy dies horrifically, survivor is
sad)? Sad is sad, not much room for movement. Humor though is tough to pin point,
campy sit-coms are funny to some people where slapstick is funny others. Even then a
BBC show may be the only thing you laugh at, while your neighbor is a solid fan of
anything involving a football hitting a human in the face. Humor shows more about you
than any other outlet, joking with a customer helps them let their guard down a bit.
When someone is comfortable you appear confident and trustworthy; two factors that
make any interaction easier to work through. Earlier, I said small talk initiated by you
the customer service agent is meaningless and will go ignored. Adding splashes of
humor or laughing along with a customer is service gold. I could not tell you the name
of the cable company representative that I worked with for twenty minutes trying to set
up automatic bill pay, but by golly can I sing the praises of Aaron at my insurance
company’s service department. We took a five minute issue getting some cards
replaced and stretched it into a fifteen minute conversation joking about company phone
calls and crazy customers. Aaron, if you are reading this you are a great agent. There
are better rates available for my car insurance, no doubt about that, but I now know that
if the policy needs action Aaron and his coworkers have the know-how and training to
resolve things quickly and stress free. The thing Aaron did so well is respond to my
cues, he recognized quickly that I was not in a rush and was willing to engage. He did
not rush the call, even if that was the much easier option to pursue. He laughed at my
stupid story and shared some of his own. I do not recall which stories either of us
shared, but I do remember laughing with a stranger. Humor helped make a connection
that will ensure I continue to use the insurance company for years to come.

Ask Questions
Of course, these are just ways to sound more confident to a customer. Artificially
creating the sound of confidence to a customer becomes less important as you gain
experience. Every phone call will teach you something new, every interaction with a
coworker will shine light on a new subject, and every meeting with a boss will help you
understand what you are doing with the company. As you get to know your customers
and how they generally behave you will find your own style, figure out what works for
you. The tactics above will help you along the way of becoming truly confident in your
work. We all fake it our first few tries. Ask your coworkers about their newbie horror
stories; ask your supervisor how they survived the first years on the job. The people
around you are your only real assets on the job. Computers crash and phones die, but
coworkers only have so many sick days to take advantage of during a year. They have
the knowledge base readily available if you run into a question that you cannot answer.
Customers prefer to hear, “I don’t know, but let me find out” over “Beats me, you’re
SOL!”
Asking questions will help you learn your job quickly and everyone will appreciate
you taking the initiative. The more questions you ask the more answers you will have
and eventually that means fewer questions and quicker service. The more answers you
have filed away in your memory, the better your true confidence will become. It is ok
not to know everything; it is not ok to stop learning.
Becoming a good customer service agent will take time and patience as you
learn your company’s ins and outs and get accustomed to your customer base. Use
your initial time with the company to gain as much knowledge as possible and you will
be a rock star in no time.
Words and Phrases
Appearing confident will do half the work for you. Your confidence will reassure
the customer that a solution will be right around the corner. As a customer service
agent, it is your job to provide the assurance to customers. New customers need to
know your company is good at what they do and returning customers need to know their
expectations will continue to be met (hopefully exceeded). All of that confidence will be

rendered meaningless if you say the wrong thing though. Your words are the only tool
that matters to a customer. You may have to search check stock or search a database
or rummage through desk files to find an answer for the customer. Those tools; the
stock room, database and available desk space (the rarest resource in the world), are
invaluable to you and the company. To the customer, they are meaningless.
What does hold meaning to the customer is a result. An answer to their question
or a solution to their problem is what they want. As the voice of the company, you are in
charge of providing information to the customer. Sometimes you get to relay good news
and other times you must share bad news. It is completely up to your use of words and
phrases how the customer reacts to either situation. When you take a customer service
position you will quickly learn what words trigger positive or negative reactions. There
are words that people flat out do not want to hear. Unfortunately, these are very useful
words from time to time. It is up to you to sell the situation though. If you have to tell a
customer that something is truly impossible, you have to provide a secondary option
and give good details. If a customer’s solution is available, but there are instructions
necessary to get to the next step you have to provide every imaginable detail to them to
avoid complication.
When I started out as a customer service agent I spoke to customers as I saw fit.
The goal was to get people what they needed and off the phone as quickly as possible.
To be honest, I was terrified of my customers. The department I worked in was so far
from customer friendly the only defense I could really come up with that we were simply
there because federal law mandated our existence. Customers were inconvenienced
and annoyed by my job. It took a while to reconcile that they were not mad at me
personally, but because customer service agents are the voice of the company we get
to be the punching bags sometimes too.
Eventually it became clear that my words set the tone of the conversation. When
I picked up the phone the first phrase out of my mouth was always, “Thank you for
calling. This is Shawn. How may I help you?” This let the customer know that I was not
completely annoyed by their call, they had a name to reference and I was ready to help
figure out the problem and find a solution. These words carried weight with the

customer and added to their belief that a solution was close at hand. The greeting is
the first time the customer hears from the company for this part of their interaction and
you get to control that time. Speak clearly and at a normal pace –not too fast or slow- it
is important they know a calm and confident person is on the line with them.
There are going to be times when you answer a phone rushed or annoyed or
busy or tired or myriad other conditions that will make you less than enthusiastic about
picking up the phone. The way you answer the phone is the first impression you make
on a customer. There are no do-over chances here so whatever mindset you are in as
the phone starts ringing has to put aside for the next few minutes. The customer
deserves a fair shot just as much as you deserve a break. I have had plenty of phone
calls with a customer that truly gets under my skin and I spend too much time just
fuming over the call. I say my swear words and wish violent things upon the customer
(a very mature reaction, certainly) and want nothing more than to leave my desk for just
a minute or two. Unfortunately, that is not how things work out. Five seconds after
ending a call with the evil idiot customer, another customer needs my attention. These
are two different people with two different situations. Just because the second
customer called after Mr. or Ms. Butthead, does not make their concerns any less
meaningful. If your words are tainted by anger or frustration, the second caller is bound
to put off and less willing to help you help them. Best advice after a rough call is to take
vent (cuss, mutter impolite things, tell your coworkers how annoying the caller was, say
“gah! People!”), take a breath or two, stand up (moving will help) and think of good calls
from contacts past. Angry callers are few and far between, your next call is bound be
better unless you start the call by saying, “This is Shawn, can I help you?” too fast and
obviously frustrated. If a call starts like that there is no chance of a positive experience.
Odds are, during your training period with your new company you will be
instructed on how to greet a customer. Most company approved greetings will follow
the format of; thanks, state your name, offer to help. I have never heard a greeting start
with “yeehaw” or “whacha want, man?” The formal aspect of the greeting is necessary
even it sounds a little forced at first. Using formal greetings signals the customer that
this is a professional interaction and both parties are entering the conversation

interested in working together. This is a not a chat between friends or colleagues, this
is a service call with its own set of rules and constructs.
Those special rules create a special situation for your word choice. Talking to
friends is completely different than talking to your boss (no matter how cool your boss
is). Once the conversation starts and you have said your greeting it is time to get the
real business of the call. Every interaction is different, and every company will
approach contacts differently of course, but here are my guidelines for smart word and
phrase choice that are nearly universal for our business world. The business world of
Neptune may be a bit different.
Word Choice Dos
Say Yes. As often as possible, say yes or ok or certainly or of course or right.
Positive, confirming words let the customer know you are listening to their concerns and
acknowledging their statements. The answer to their problem does not have to be yes.
They just need to hear confirming statements through the conversation. When the
customer explains the situation they need help with, nod along with them with or say
‘right’ to let them you understand what they are saying. If you do not understand what
they are saying, ask them to clarify.
Use their name. Most customers will offer their name at the start of a
conversation. After you say your greeting, most will take a moment to return the
response. If you have paper in front of you, take a moment to jot down their name. If
you are face to face, I hope you have a better memory than I. Names have power to
them and if you use a caller’s name it boosts the relationship. Friends call each other
by name, family addresses family by name; these are the closest relationships people
have and their name is their identity within that group. If you say to a customer, “Liza,
can you tell me your account number, please?” it comes across as a lot more congenial
than, “Give me your account number.” If the customer has provided to you information
use it to the best of your ability. Their name is most often the first bit of information you
gain. Keep hold of it and use it to let them know you are listening.
I’m Sorry goes a very long way in moving a conversation forward. “I am sorry for
the trouble. Let’s see what we can do to fix it”. “I do apologize for the issue. How about

we take a look at the account and start fixing this.” Once the customer hears someone
take responsibility they are more willing to move on and work with you.
‘We’ is a greater term than I every time. Making the customer part of the solution
creates buy in and their participation is vital to bring about full resolution to their issue.
Whether you are helping them make a purchase or finding out why their car is being
repossessed, if they feel they are taking part in the process your job becomes easier.
Above, in the “I’m Sorry” portion, the assumption of responsibility was always followed
by a “let us work together for a solution” statement. This is an easy way to move
beyond a past issue and create a relationship of mutual benefit with the customer. They
called customer service for help and you are going to work with them to find that help.
Once the customer is provided some sense of ownership they are much more
collaborative and tend to provide more information to you. You will be doing all of the
work of course, but if they feel in anyway like they are able to help you or if they are
taking part in the process your work moves more smoothly.
“I don’t know, but let’s find out who does” If you do not know an answer do not
fake your way through it. Provide the best information you have at your disposal and if
that information does not resolve the customer’s question go find an answer. Do not
make things up; it will only cause trouble down the road. The customer does not want
to hear “I do not know”. You are the voice of the company; the customer will think you
should know everything there is to know about the company. You do not know
everything though. No one knows everything. You need to know where to find answers
and using this phrase will let the customer know you are working on a solution.
Nothing is sometimes the best thing to say. This goes back to actively listening
to the customer during the conversation. You are not going to actually remain silent, on
the phone dead air is torment and in person you just look funny. Tell the customer you
understand and let them know what steps you are taking to find a solution. Keep them
informed the whole way through. You do not need to offer input or seek further
clarification. If you are pushing an order through, tell them “I just need to authorize this
real quick” or “the account needs to be set up, should just be a moment”.
Word Choice Don’ts

Jargon and Shop Speak is the verbal equivalent of vomiting into a trashcan
after riding a rollercoaster. You feel sick the entire process, but you know you have to
get it out. Afterward you feel better, but the people around you are staring at you
disgusted. The main clientele of the publishing company I spent time with was schools
(to me the transition from vomit to my publishing company job feels natural). Teachers
and principals consistently called in looking for RTI II Intervention Material for ELP/ESL
students with a reading level 3. I just place orders and track down missing shipments.
The customers used phrases that are important in their field and industry, but my
department was not aware of. Jargon created a barrier. Once we established that they
were looking for material for readers just a little behind the curve that are English
language learners, I could get them to the right person to go over available programs.
My department had a fair amount of terminology that only we knew the meaning of as
well. Orders were Sales Orders or SOs, we had RMAs instead of Return Numbers, and
C1 was a name for our returns process. We had Bill To and Ship To accounts to work
with. If we were talking to a customer in just publishing jargon, the customer would
have had no clue what was happening.
The phrase jargon is itself jargon, a term used by a select group to communicate
an idea. Jargon helps build communities by forging their own language. If you have a
term that no one else knows, that term brings those in the know together. Jargon is
important to you and your coworkers. It destroys communication with the customer
however. When a barrier is set up in the way that jargon creates barriers, it is tough to
get over that wall. Your words are you best tool and if the customer does not know
what your words mean the interaction cannot progress. If you have a special term for
“order”, just say order to the customer. Using that special term without explanation
makes the customer feel excluded. If I were ordering food at a fast food place and
when it was ready the bagger shouted, “Sasquatch Tether Lightening 4” I would stand
there staring at my burgers waiting for permission to approach. You might as well be
shouting meaningless phrases at your customers if you use company jargon to convey
an idea. If you know what the jargon means, it had to be explained to you at some
point. Use the phrasing of the explanation to communicate with your customer. Jargon

is more often than not just spoken shorthand for an idea within your company. It can
and must be avoided when talking to a customer.
Slang is like the jargon of the real world. It makes sense to use it in a social
setting with friends. Saying, “Dude, that was awesome!” is easier and more personal
than saying, “My good friend, your action just moments ago provided much excitement
and joy. Well done, good sir! Well done.” The same concept is relayed with both
statements, but unless your friends are 19th Century aristocracy you are likely going to
opt for the first phrase. Customers are not your friends though. Saying how dope you
think their account payment history is may be complimentary, but not necessary. Some
customers will respond to the use of slang, but only use slang if they initiate the use of
slang terms. When someone calls in, automatically assume you are speaking to your
mother. If TV has taught us anything, when you use slang to speak with your mother
she will instantly believe you are either “on the pot” or demon possessed. She will
struggle to decipher your communication and may attempt to reply using hand gestures
and light shows. Slang is a way to communicate with people in the know. It is another
group identifier that creates community and builds closer relationships between
members of that community. It is not a way to conduct business with customers. Use
slang in the office and when on a personal call or even with customers you speak to
regularly. Most contact with the customer base should be formal and free of slang
though.
Curse words are inappropriate in all forms when talking to a customer. Again,
curse words bring a more personal and relatable vibe to a workplace and teammates
should be able to say their favorite four letter words around each other. However, there
is no telling who can be offended by a curse. Do not say any word stronger than dang.
An F bomb should get you fired. I make plenty use of that particular word outside of the
office, do not think I am on some puritanical tirade. Customers deserve better from you
though and you are capable of using better and more precise words to convey your
point.
Wishy-Washy language is no longer an option for you. “Well, I don’t know…
maybe we can…probably not though….ah, golly let’s check with Simon, he may be able

to find out who we should talk to” is like making the customer stand next to you as you
vomit after the rollercoaster ride. If a customer is looking for an answer they want an
answer. They want at the very least want a path to the answer. If you sound like you
are always asking a question, “I can do that?” there is a confidence problem.
Remember that your confidence is customer’s best friend. You know who to call with a
question; you know if a return can take place, you know the capital of Luxembourg is
Luxembourg, you are completely aware of existing protocols and policies to find a
solution for your customer. The real danger of infirm language comes when you know a
solution will not be favorable to the customer. Do not provide hope when there is none.
Your customer will appreciate definite responses and honest attempts to find answers
or help. They will not appreciate being led to believe one solution is a potential option
only to discover it is not.
Long story short, avoid words only you understand and be resolute in your
wording. You are communicating with a customer in a business setting. Formal and
concrete are what people expect and this is not an expectation to mess around with.
This is a good and fair expectation to meet with people calling upon your company.
Adapting to the Customer
Now that you sound confident and have a fair knowledge of what to say and what
to avoid, get ready to wish you were still in training. Customer Service is all about
talking. Then talking some more. You think you are done talking? Nope, get ready to
talk to someone else. Customers should roll in and out of your phone queue or service
line like limes falling off a fruit cart (that’s a real analogy right?).
Remember that quick story about Aaron from my insurance company and how he
instantly recognized our conversation as laid back and open to humor? Aaron mastered
quick adaptation; he read the caller in just a matter of seconds and wound up locking in
a customer for life. Every customer is different and it is important to recognize those
differences and what they mean to your job. There are plenty of consumer profiles out
there that will give you the demographic information for every type of customer you will
ever talk with and still more profiles on how people behave in sales situations. Those
are valid and useful for managers and people that are supposed to be guiding company

strategy, but for customer service “Buy-it Billy” and “Haggling Helen” do not really mean
much. Marketers need to know how to sell things to people, sales teams need to know
their target audience, executives need to know potential new targets; customer service
needs to know how to chat with people in need. Certainly, data from any profile is
necessary and can be utilized and please seek out that information, but here is a little
list of the most common people you will speak with during your customer service career.
The Informed
These customers know what they want and need it done already. These are
surprisingly easy people to deal with as they have already done most of the leg work for
you. If they are calling to make an order, they will have the item numbers ready for you.
If they are calling about a loan application, they will have their reference numbers on
hand. If they have a problem with Port 3019 on their network admin client, they have
the error message memorized. Usually, they have already called in or visited once
before to gather information and now they just need to formalize things. Let them take
the lead and you will be set. If the opportunity arises, go ahead and joke around they
are finished with the tough part so most of the rush is over for them.
The Hurried
These folks are in a rush and most likely know what they need. However, they
are not in any mood to chat and system slowdowns will be very annoying to put it mildly.
Be quick, speak minimally and provide only pertinent information. Filler conversation
with hurried people will send them to a competitor next time.
The Thoroughly Confused
This is a group of customers that is calling on behalf of someone else. Who
among us has not made a call on behalf of a spouse or a boss with little to no
information available? Secretaries are asked to make dozens of call everyday based on
a boss’ sticky note that reads “Call 555-1292, RE: My Account”. These customers are
going in blind and taking you with them. Questions are your best friend in this situation.
You are not a lawyer, so feel free to ask leading questions. Drop the name of some
products to see if that jogs a memory. This will not be the last time the customer calls
in, so be ready to give them a list of questions to find answers to before calling in again.

The confused is going to apologize profusely throughout the call or visit. Feel free to
give them your direct contact information. You want to make them feel comfortable and
not like a nuisance.
The Angry
The angry customer is no fun to deal with. Use your most calming voice possible
and listen to them as they express their views on the problem. Listening is key with an
angry person. They have likely called in before and have not been provided the
answers they were looking for or have been transferred and bounced around for half an
hour. Patience is gone and they are in no mood to deal with the problem anymore.
They may be looking for quick resolution, but for you it is more important to provide
correct resolution. If they have to call again they will be just as angry. Once you listen
to the customer and they give you the chance to speak, apologize for the issue and let
them know you are going to start the process of getting it resolved. Apologizing to an
angry person may seem stupid and if they have been rude to you it will not feel good at
all. However, your job is not you. Shawn does not apologize to angry customers; Acme
Corp Employee Shawn apologizes to employees. Take nothing personally in this job;
you play a role for the company and nothing more. Apologizing sends a signal to the
customer that action is finally taking place and someone has taken ownership of the
problem. Let the customer know each action that is taking place and keep them
informed. If they share in the information they start to become your buddy.
Special Points: Never get angry at a customer when they can hear you.
Use a calm level voice and speak slower than normal.
Use positive language (‘Oh yeah’ and ‘certainly’ work wonders)
Once they get off the phone or leave, feel free to express yourself
The Chatty Squirrel
Chatty Squirrels provide a nice break in your day. They are happy, ask how your
day is going, comment on the weather, ask about new products, tell you about their day,
tell you about their work, share family vacation photos with you, exchange email
addresses, talk about brunch from last Sunday and how amazing it was and basically
poor out their entire Facebook timeline in their encounter with you. They talk too much.

They are especially chipper and you certainly want that energy boost they provide, but it
is difficult to drop a conversation with them.
A teacher called late one afternoon asking about a writing product the publishing
company offered. She told me how she loved working with the program, but her
teacher copy had gone missing over the summer and she needed to find out about
ordering a new one. She was also at a new school that fall and wanted to sing the
praises of the program to her new coworkers, possibly get the program introduced at
the new school even. She told me she needed a quote for three classrooms to use the
program. She told me how she had to move to the new school because her old school
was not moving in the right direction. She told me that before her old school she
worked out East teaching English to elementary school kids. She told me those school
kids were bright and lovely to work with, but too headstrong most of the time. She told
me that her ex-husband never liked her teaching as it took up so much time. She told
me the ex-husband was a slime ball. She told me that the new school had a science
fair every year that was sometimes featured on the local news. She told me she really
liked our writing programs. She told me she had two sons that learned to write well
because of the program. She told me she was about three shots into her bottle
Whiskey. She told me she does not normally drink before 5:00. She told me I was
great for listening. She told me her ex-husband was never a good listener. She told me
goodbye and thanks for listening.
She told me that for forty five minutes on a Friday afternoon as we were closing.
The customer was incredibly polite, incredibly fun and a better story teller drunk than I
could ever hope to be sober. Most Friday afternoons I was the only one answering
phones and with nearly an hour of the afternoon dedicated to this one customer, I
missed five other calls. This customer brought plenty of money into the company as
eventually we saw an order from the school; however the sale was complete in the first
ten minutes. The rest of the conversation was just her talking about things. I should
have been able to wrap up the chat well before the 45 minute mark flew by.
Sometimes, customers will talk your ear off and it is hard to avoid. Why call them
squirrels, you ask? Squirrels are cute, rarely cause problems and are generally

harmless. That doesn’t mean you want to keep them in the house though.
Here are my tips on how to handle the Chatty Squirrel customer.
1) Guide the conversation back to the business at hand. If you talk business they
will get bored and move on.
2) These are fun conversations, laugh as much as possible. Let the customer
know you are listening.
3) Find ways to end the call as honestly as possible. When or if a pause
happens, say “Well, I have had a great chat and thank you for that. Is there anything I
can help you with?” or at the end of one of their stories say something like, “On that
note! It has been wonderful talking with you, is there anything else I can help you with?”
Society has created verbal cues people observe at the end of a conversation.
Provided your customer is not drinking hard liquor at 4:00 in the afternoon, they may
respond to these cues. House guests are trained to watch for long sighs or prolonged
eye contact between the homeowners when a party has run late into the night.
Customers are trained to watch for customer service agents dropping hints that the
meat of the conversation is finished and you have no interest in eating the garnish.
That’s a real saying too, right?
The I’m Right
This is a subset of the angry customer that makes my blood boil. They do not
get mad, they do not raise their voice, and they just get on your nerves. The customer
is right and the company is wrong. There is no convincing them otherwise. They are
annoyed about something, perhaps contract terms or poor service in the past. They
expect reparations now and think repeating their position in increasingly angrier tones
and using more personal language will get them their way. The conversation starts out
fairly normal, they will tell you what is going on and then comes a little jab at the
company. As you progress the caller gets seemingly more agitated as you explain the
company’s viewpoint. They will again state the issue as if you are not listening.
I wish there was better news on how to work with the I’m Right customer. They
are usually just stubborn and selfish people who suck in the real world too. The call will
likely end up with a supervisor and the supervisor will apologize for the hassle so far

and try to get things corrected. Supervisors are going to bend policy and get the
problem resolved just to get the caller off the phone and out of their hair. You can deal
with angry customers, they want to vent and say their piece. The I’m Right customer
will not listen to anything you have to say and will only accept the resolution they have
created in their head. They are annoying and impossible to work with. When the
supervisor gives them their way despite stated policy, you will be livid with your boss.
Know that they are simply trying to keep a customer from posting nasty things online.
When the I’m Right customer calls in, try your best but get a supervisor ready to
take over. If you are on the phone with this person, take as many notes as possible. If
you are face to face, call over the supervisor and provide as much detail as possible
with the customer in ear shot. This will allow the customer to clarify a point, and they will
clarify anything they can. This is not passing the buck; this is calling in back-up. Do as
much as possible for the customer and then get the boss involved.
The Fleeting
This customer will not make an impression and the interaction will be over in
minutes. There is nothing too descript about a Fleeting customer. They come in, ask
their questions, buy their stuff and get out. This is the customer that always opts for the
express lane at a grocery store and will ensure they keep their load at 14 items to
ensure they do not cause a ruckus. They leave such a little impression I nearly forgot to
include them in the list. It should be noted that the majority of your customers will be
Fleeting, but it is still important to give good service. A smile, thank you and ‘have a
great day’ are always nice. They will not recall the interaction either, but if you end the
contact with “Drive your car off a cliff!” they will not look favorably upon the company.
Seven archetypes to deal with fairly regularly and five of those are actually pretty
fun to work with. The I’m Right and Angry customer classes are few and far between,
but be ready for them to turn their ugly heads. In all my time in customer service I have
only seen one customer so incredibly rude and impatient, unwilling to listen to anything
we had to say that the company finally said enough and severed the relationship. The
customer’s account was blocked, the phone number barred and email sent to a special
account. This was a customer with the publishing company too. The guy was looking

for something that did not exist, but he was so sure he was correct and the solution was
out there he stopped listening and started yelling. Emails were sent to company
employees with instructions on how to interact with this customer if he ever called back,
but of course he never called again.
Customers are generally realistic and patient people just like you and me.
People seem to take on a different persona when they have to call on customer service
though. Completely reasonable, educated people become blathering idiots and need
your guidance through a transaction. Friendly neighbors that are trusted to watch cats
when the family is out of town suddenly transform into raving madmen that sound more
apt for a wrestling match than social interaction. Having to work with a customer
service department to solve a problem changes people and you will see the best and
worst of people in this job.
People and Money
The one thing that makes customer service positions difficult is the involvement
of money. Not just any money either, the customer’s money. Personal funds being
spent on personal things like a car or a learning tool for their child cause people to act
out of their normal behavior. When money becomes involved, people lose their heads.
I worked for a financial services company dealing with car loans and a publishing
company that sold books to schools, two very distinct clienteles going on. The financial
services company dealt with individuals and an item that they used each and every day
to go about their lives. Their product was essential to the survival of families in many
cases. If I had to cut a check to a repossession vendor, that meant a family was not
able to drive to the grocery store to grab their meals for the week. It was stressful to
think about the impact my department had on people and since this was during the peak
of the financial crisis we saw far too many repos. Thankfully I did not have to work on
the collections side, the people that had to tell the loan recipient that they were so far in
default the car would be taken away in the middle of the night. That is a special breed
of customer service agent with an exceptionally unenviable job put in front of them.
With the schools, the money did not belong to people making orders, but they
people placing the order had a cause behind them. Educating children was their calling

and my company was standing in the way of acting on that calling. People with a cause
are a special breed of customer with an unimaginable amount of smug on their side. I
work wedding entertainment with my dad, providing music and master of ceremony
duties for any one that will have us. By writing this I am pretty much saying good bye to
that career, but the Father of the Bride and the Mother of the Groom are people with a
cause. Whatever they say must happen or they will be heck! Pure heck rained down
from above! They are protecting their children and ensuring everything goes according
to plan, I understand that just fine. I have also been working with my dad since the age
of 12 and he started in the early 1980s, at some point he learned a thing or two about
weddings and I spent my formative years spending Summer Saturdays surrounded by
cash bars, people with sore feet and drunks hitting on bridesmaids to no avail. The
point is that, people with a cause behind them are not reasonable. If a price seems too
high they will attempt to bargain hunt by saying how noble their cause is in the world.
Working in the education industry, the company was well aware of how important price
point was to the customer, but they also had to pay people to make and provide those
books so prices were as low as possible. With that cause on their side though,
customers always thought they were special and could find a better deal.
When people are in a relationship based strictly around the exchange of items for
money, as a customer service agent is with their customer, the dynamic is bizarre and
people behave irrationally. Be prepared for strange requests and out-of-this-world story
telling from your customers as they attempt to secure the best price, best deal or best
arrangement possible. Customer Service is only able to provide the best service
possible. For everything else about the company, they can only provide value- the best
mix between service and price- for the customer. In my financial services company job,
my first department worked with repair shops. There was some legal reason for our
customers to have repairs done at certified shops, but I never paid attention to that side.
Basically, the department was loathed by the customer base. One customer was
especially angry about the process and sought a supervisor to approve a one-time “let it
pass” style exception. She was special you see, she needed her vehicle in order to get
to school. I was attending night classes an hour away from home three times a week at

this point, as was my coworker and a few friends from college working on their master
degrees in various subjects. I wanted to tell her just how special she was, but my
supervisor kindly took over the call. When arguing did not work, the customer turned
her tone to one that wanted sympathy. The customer told a story about a squirrel in her
neighborhood that was grossly overweight and had a history of running on car roofs in
the middle of the night. The fat squirrel apparently hated her car in particular and
jumped on her roof causing thousands of dollars of repair work to be needed. She did
not have time to repair the car and just wanted to put her insurance check in the bank
until her schedule cleared up and the squirrel was dead. Cashing the check would have
been fraud, and the supervisor advised against it to keep her out of jail. She eventually
gave up and had the repairs done, but never told us the fate of the squirrel.
When people get money involved they lose their minds. This is the life of a
customer service agent. People may be calling about a simple computer issue, but the
phrase, “I spent a lot of money on this” will works in way into the conversation.
Customers, by definition, have provided the company with money in exchange for
goods. That is the contract, pay us and we will give you stuff, that is just how the
market works. Customers feel that buying a product makes them special and whatever
their need may be it can be met with the wave of a magic wand. Customer Service
agents get to explain why magic does not exist and then work the customer back to
reality and find practical solutions.
Emotional Intelligence
Part of being a good communicator is being able to cue into people’s signals.
When people talk they say most of what they want to convey using words, the rest the
present to you through tone and body language. Customer Service agents must be
able to key in on how people are talking and where they are emotionally during the
conversation. Agents do not have to write code or calculate the best dimensions for a
new office space; they have to help people who have a problem. Agents cannot be
jerks. There are plenty of other occupations out there where rude or terribly awkward
people are able to flourish. Customer Service is not an occupation for mean, rude,
inconsiderate or impolite people. Your job is to work with individual people, not systems

or organizations, just people. Sometimes those people are easy to help, other times
they are incredibly difficult to work with. It is your job to figure them out quickly enough
to bring them to a point where both parties can engage in a worthwhile conversation.
At the publishing company I had a call come in late on a Friday afternoon. Any
call that came in late on a Friday was going to be a user of our assistive technology that
was a guarantee. School secretaries or purchasing agents did not call after noon on a
Friday because they were at work and who really wants to work on a Friday afternoon?
So if they phone rang on a Friday afternoon we knew to expect a very rushed caller
without any large institution to back them up for support. This caller was especially
panicked. She was frantically trying to get her software working because she had a
paper due the following Monday for her history class. The software had ended its trial
period and now needed to be fully registered to access the program again. This was an
incredibly easy process to do, but she was so worried and so upset it was very tough to
get her to calm down and follow my instructions. She was not a history student by
trade. She was very chatty for being on the brink of tears and told me about her entire
situation. She was a nursing student that needed a history class for her general studies
requirements. She cursed the general education requirements a bit, asking why it
would be important for her to know anything about Andrew Jackson if she taking
someone’s vitals. She was frustrated not only about the program issues, but getting this
paper done.
Thankfully, I had some experience with a science student required to write a
history paper. I married a biology teacher more focused on data points and hypotheses
than revisiting the ways of past. With this customer an opportunity arose to show her
that someone was listening and able to help. She needed at that moment an ear to
bounce ideas off of. As a nursing student she was not likely to know anyone an entry
level history course, so classmates were off the market. I just so happened to be a
student of Antebellum US history who liked to talk about Jackson’s influence. I told her I
studied that period of history extensively in school and had the book What Hath God
Wrought by Daniel Walker Howe (genius) on my desk at that very moment (a tome of
antebellum awesomness) at which point she perked up and started rattling off thoughts

for her paper. We talked about the 1820s for about half an hour before finally getting
around to registering her software. By the end of the call, she felt confident in her ability
to write the paper and had working software for the weekend. Her tears had subsided
and she started speaking at a normal pace once again. Serendipity certainly played a
helping hand on this one, but she came out of the conversation with the experience she
needed at that time.
I could have simply guided the registration process and called it good. That was
all required of me by the company. This was a freaked out person though and wanted
help from any source available. The important piece here is not that I was able to talk
about Andrew Jackson’s leadership or register the program, those were fringe items in
the long run. This was a person stressed out beyond words that needed help. For this
conversation, it was more important to help a human than a customer. The better
service for her was to help her calm down and get ready to work with the software, not
just get the software working.
I have certainly had plenty of instances with customers in which I dropped the
ball and did not even attempt to help with their real problem. Helping that customer with
her Jackson paper was a really proud moment for me (I could finally show my parents
my college experience was not a total waste), it was a moment that I was able to help
out beyond what was expected. Emotional Intelligence is your ability to empathize with
another person while understanding their view and anticipating their reactions. This
works for yourself too, personal Emotional Intelligence is being able to manage your
own emotions and feelings and knowing yourself well enough to anticipate what a
situation may do to you. I was able to put myself into the shoes of this frightened