How to Get A Representative on the Line Quickly

Jeevan Sivasubramaniam Posted by Jeevan Sivasubramaniam, Managing Director, Editorial, Berrett-Koehler Publishers Inc.



Trying to contact any company, department, or entity for service these days is a nightmare. It all begins with the automated system that answers your call and asks you a ton of stupid questions to direct your call--after twenty minutes of this idiocy--to the wrong department (where you will be asked to repeat all the information you just gave).

Companies say that the automated systems help curtail call traffic but when was the last time you actually had your question answered by the automaton? Nope, never. It's just an excuse for companies to hire less people to provide service. But getting instant service is easy in most cases. Here's what you do:

Swear and cuss like a sailor who just stubbed his toe.

Seriously, automated systems are programmed to recognize certain words (you can guess which ones) as well as tones of voice, and companies know that if a customer is already irate at the beginning of a call, they will be fuming  and sputtering by the time they actually get to a customer service representative. To avoid such ugliness, callers who yell and swear are usually connected right away with a customer service agent.