We are all customers in some form or fashion. While great service is always appreciated, many of us struggle with exactly how to ensure stress-free conversations with the representatives of their cable, internet, power, or whatever company we do business with. Have you ever pondered, “What can I do to ensure I have great interactions with customer service representatives when I have an issue?” Probably not, but taking these simple proactive steps will make your customer service call flow seamlessly.

1. Be able to clearly communicate the reason for your call before you dial.

   Be prepared. In order to provide great assistance, a customer service representative needs to clearly understand the reason for your call. Providing complete information is a great way to help the representative understand your issue.

2. Have account numbers handy

   Having information like account and transaction numbers handy avoids unnecessarily lengthy call times.

3. Pressing '0' to get past the automation will add time to your call

   If you press ‘0’, you will likely end up in the wrong department. Most call centers use an interactive voice response (IVR) system to deliver calls to an appropriately skilled representative. While some IVRs can be frustrating, it’s a god idea to prepare yourself for the inevitable reality of listening to voice prompts to carry your call to a live voice. Most call centers have recognized that customers habitually press zero “0” and/or one “1” to bypass some of the voice prompts. In response to this, many call centers have moved the typical options to other numbers to prevent customers from skipping important voice prompts.

4. Let us protect you

   Verifying the account is a very important step that is required by call centers to protect customers’ information. Depending on the business, the verification can have several questions. Although it can be frustrating to some -as most just want to get “straight to business”- being prepared to provide the required verifiers can actually serve to expedite this part of the call so you can get “down to business” more quickly.

5. Use the Golden Rule

   Customer Service Representatives are people too! Although it is the representative’s job to assists you, they are not required to accept abuse. Yelling, screaming or using profanity will almost guarantee not receiving the highest level of service. If you feel that a service representative is not providing great service and you decide to request a “supervisor”, please be prepared to hold or offered a callback. The simple truth is that agents are dedicated to the servicing phones to help customers while the support staff (supervisor) is tasked with providing continual customer support training.