What working in customer service has taught me so far

I’ve been working as a customer service agent for what has felt like forever, but in reality it’s been less than one year and there are many things I’ve learned so far and that I wish customers knew.

This can apply to anyone who works in any sort of customer service. And if you are someone who is contacting customer service then please remember these things and your experience will be a lot better.

Be nice to those who do customer service

Don’t be mean or yell at someone just because they are trying to help you. It’s understandable to get frustrated but don’t take it out on the customer service person helping you.

Have patience

Submit a ticket (or do whatever you need to do in order to contact customer service) then have patience while someone understands your issue and works on a solution. Sometimes a solution or answer can come quickly, other times it may take a ton longer.

Been a couple of weeks and not heard anything, ask

I know I said to be patience earlier but customer service agent may forget about you, so a gentle reminder asking about progress is nice to have (both for you and the service service agent).

Providing step by step is helpful

Sometimes knowing step by step of what you are doing is helpful for the customer service. That way they can see how you are doing it, it can be done written, screenshots, or even video.

Make sure to still include enough written (or vocal if you are talking on the phone) that the customer service agent can still help you without having to open the screenshots or video.

Asked to fill in a form for something? Then do it

The company you are contacting may have certain procedures and rules in place to ensure things are seen by the right people, and may ask you to fill in a form to get that to them. Please fill in that form, don’t complain to the customer service person who gave you that form. You also most likely don’t need to tell them when you have filled it in.

Don’t respond after the ticket is closed, unless you still need help

Tickets can be opened and closed. The person working in customer service may think you no longer need help and close your ticket. If you don’t need any more help related to that then you don’t need to say thanks or anything like that (even thought it’s appreciated, instead talk about the positive experience with someone or on social media).

If you feel you still need help, then you are welcome to re-open it and continue to get help.

Need help on a specific thing then provide a link

The customer service person can help you a lot faster with a problem if you provide a link to the specific thing you are having a problem with. That way they can directly go to the problem and start working, rather then having to find it the specific thing then work on a solution.

Issue on your website? Provide a admin login

If the issue is having on your website then provide the customer service with a admin login to it. That way the customer service person can start right away on solving it.

And make sure the customer service person won’t be blocked in any way if they try to login. Because that’s just more time waiting for you to get back to them.

You are welcome to ask for clarification or questions

There is no shame in asking the customer service agent for clarification on something they said, or something that the company has put out. The job of customer service is to help you make the best use of their product for your needs.

In general, treat the customer service person like they are a person, and has a job, and they will help you.

This is post number 89 as part of 100 Days To Offload.

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