June 14, 2007Customer Service Confrontation
I knew my bookkeeper was agitated when she asked me to talk to the QuickBooks rep she was trying to order an upgrade from. I thought she would ask me to authorize my bookkeeper to speak for me. I was surprised when the rep started lecturing me about how QuickBooks looks unfavorably on people pretending they are someone else. It hadn’t occurred to either of us that my bookkeeper couldn’t place an upgrade order for me and I heard the whole conversation and did not hear my bookkeeper claim she was me. So I responded, “I don’t believe she was trying to pretend she was me.” When the rep insisted she had, I felt myself locked in a no-win situation. I asked, “Can we speak to someone else?” The rep said that would be fine.
I’m happy enough with how I handled the situation since there was no reason for me to continue with this particular rep. (The second rep was very pleasant.) But after conversations like this, I like to reflect on other ways I could have handled the conversation to help develop my skills for days when I can’t just switch who I’m talking to.
I could have responded:
- We’ll be careful not to speak in a way that can be taken to imply we’re someone else in the future. Can we order our upgrade now?
You don’t need to fight every battle, but it’s useful to review conversations retroactively to consider alternative approaches. That can help you (and me) the next time when switching reps isn’t an option.
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I’ve worked in call centers for the man years and held several positions including a phone representative talking to customers. It is quite likely this particular individual was just having a bad day. That said there is no reason for any company’s representative to be rude or discourteous. It seems you handled the situation very well. You were polite but firm and when you reached the point of impass you asked for someone else. In most situations people ask to speak to a supervisor and then “unload” on them. I always try to remember that I would not know the person at the other end of the line if I passed them on the street and they wouldn’t know me. Under different circumstances they are probably very pleasant. I think your response was perfect.
Comment by Robert Harris — June 15, 2007 @ 9:56 am
Thanks, Robert. You gave me the word I was looking for. It felt like an impasse. While I often believe what looks like an impasse isn’t if you have the right words, I also believe there’s no point in beating your head against one.
Comment by merylrunion — June 18, 2007 @ 12:19 pm