There are many things you can do even before you pick up the phone to increase your chances of success.
My Favorites:
One: Make sure you have a decent speakerphone. Nothing makes those 22 minutes pass more slowly than a strained neck from pressing the phone against your ear. If you can move around while you’re waiting — say if you can fold the laundry — the time won’t feel quite as wasted.
Seven: Know your enemy. Picture this: You’re a college student earning extra money at night dealing with a steady stream of manic customers upset about cell phone text message rates. And you must take 50 to 100 calls a shift. To give you an idea of their perspective, here’s what one cell phone customer service representative wrote to the Red Tape Chronicles recently: “I say ‘no’ because its fun,” he said (picture David Spade in the Capital One credit card commercials). “If somebody wants to be rude with me, I’ll step down to their level because my company allows it as long as I don’t use profanity.”
Now, imagine you as the one friendly call this agent receives on a given night. You are warm, you are even keeled, you are reasonable. You say “please” and “thank you.” You will have a leg up on every other caller that night.
11: Run out the clock on call centers, which are often paid per call.
“The strongest tool a customer has is call length,” he wrote. “They pay these companies a very small amount for each call taken, so the call center wants to have the shortest call length possible, and take as many calls in a given period of time as possible. They want to see 3 to 5 minutes per call. … If your call goes 10 minutes, you (or the rep you’re talking to) have the attention of a supervisor. The supervisors have computerized call monitors that alert them to long calls.”