Complaint # 1
While attempting to access my bank account over the internet I kept getting an invalid password error. I tried several times and then decided to contact the banks customer service department for some assistance. After fighting with the automated answering machine that wanted to help me and made it difficult to reach a person I finally got to speak with a CSR.
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He offered to help and started by asking the standard questions to verify my identity and as the actual account holder. Once that was done he asked me what the problem was. I explained in detail what had been happening when I tried to log in and what the error message had read. He promptly apologized for my problems and asked me to hold on while he looked up my access information. I was on hold for about 4 minutes and he came back on the line twice during that period to ask if I could still hold a bit longer.
When he finally returned he told me there had been a server problem on their end and that it had been corrected. He said for security purposes he had reset my password and sent an email to the address on file with the new password. He then offered to wait on the phone while I went to my email to get the new password and see if I could log into my account. After I got the password and logged in successfully he asked if there was anything else he could do at this time. I told him no and he thanked me for being a customer and reminded me to change my password before signing off.
Complaint #2
While reviewing my credit card statement I noticed that there was a charge on it that I had not made. I called the CC customer service line and was connected to a CSR. Obviously this person was having a bad day because in a short abrupt tone she asked me for standard information to verify that this was my account. Once this was done she then asked me what the problem was and I began to tell her about the charge. Before I could complete my statement she interrupted with a question of, “Are you sure you don’t remember this purchase?” When I again confirmed that I didn’t make the purchase she came back with, “Are you sure you didn’t lend your card to a friend or family member who made this purchase?” Again I told her no. She then said she will need to cancel my account and that it will take 14 days to get a new card and that this will go on my credit record.
When she finally shut up I told her I just needed her to look up the merchant and see if this could have been manually misapplied to my account by mistake. She said she couldn’t do that and that I needed to confirm the card was still in my possession. By this time I was getting mad so I asked to speak with her supervisor or manager. When the supervisor came on the line I told her how frustrated I was with the previous CSR and then explained what the issue was. She listened and then asked me to hold on a moment. A few minutes later she came back on the line and said that she looked at the transaction and it was a manual transaction that could have possibly been miscoded. She told me it would take a few days for them to track down the actual charge documents and get this cleared up.
She said there was no need to cancel my card and I could just not pay this amount until they cleared the matter and at that time it would be removed from my bill. I thanked the supervisor and she apologized for the trouble and inconvenience I had experienced with the CSR and assured me it would be taken care of. She asked if there was anything else she could do and thanked me for being a loyal customer for 9 years.
Conclusion
A customer service rep can learn from these examples how important it is to let the customer know that you, as a representative of the company, are truly sorry for their problem and that you are willing to do everything possible to help.
A CSR can learn why it is important to listen to the customer complaint fully so that you get a complete understanding of the problem and can then know how to work on solving the problem. The CSR can also learn why it is important to ASK the customer if they can hold and then check back with them each minute or so to reaffirm that you are working on the problem and see if anything has changed while they were waiting.
The CSR can learn why once the problem is identified it is important to explain to the customer what happened and what has been done to fix the problem so that it will not happen again.
Finally the CSR can learn why it is important to stay with the customer to confirm that the problem has been solved and that the customer is able to do the things they need to do. Once this is done and the customers initial problem has been resolved then ask if there is anything else that can be done or that they need. In some cases this could result in an up-sell of another service or feature the customer had been thinking about in the past but had not taken the time to call in about.
The bottom line is that whatever opportunities you have as a CSR to interact with the customer remember that they pay your salary and it is important to be empathetic to their concerns and listen to their needs and then find the best solution possible in the amount of time you have available.
