Me and My Money

Telephone queues...

Posted November 25, 2011
Originally Published August 31, 2010

Benjamin Franklin would have hated telephone call centres. I can just see him drumming his fingers as he waited in the queue to talk to a utility, bank, discount broker or cell phone company muttering, “Time is money.”

Ben’s comment won’t change the call centre culture but here are a couple of suggestions about how to get value from your wait.


1. Make a list of the questions you want answered. The longer you wait the more likely you’ll forget what you’re waiting for.
2. Wear earphones or use the speakerphone leaving your hands free to do something useful. This also eliminates telephone ear.
3. File! Bills, statements, invoices. All that boring essential stuff.
4. Answer e-mails. But take care as you can be distracted by music or a radio loop on the line. Re-read e-mails carefully before you hit send.
5. When you’re connected to a real person, get their name or ID number and, if possible, a call back number in case you’re disconnected.
6. Don’t waste time if you’re getting nowhere, ask for a supervisor. They have a more authority to solve problems.
7. Take notes. This is essential and has saved my bacon several times. Recently I had a disagreement with a US home security company. Based on my notes I was able to convince a supervisor to review their call tapes. I prevailed and saved a couple of hundred dollars.
8. If the issue relates to a contested bill or incorrect service plan ask that the operator read back his or her notes. I did this with my satellite internet provider and the notes bore little resemblance to our conversation.
9. Make sure your battery is charged up. There is absolutely nothing worse than having a phone die after you’ve sat in a phone queue for ages.
10. Don’t lose your temper no matter what the provocation. Many companies allow operators to end a conversation if the client becomes angry.

Sidebar

Things I’d like to see from companies that use call centres.

* After a wait more than ten minutes and you get $10 deducted from your next bill. After 15 minutes it becomes $20, etc.

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