Customer Service Adventures?!

As the Senior Marketing Assistant at Promotional Solutions, (ok, maybe that’s an exaggeration, as I am the ONLY Marketing Assistant at Promotional Solutions) I get the pleasure of placing many of our garment orders with vendors. Most are done online, so there is no human interaction, but on occasion, I get the pleasure of speaking with Customer Service reps throughout the US. It’s always an adventure to dial those numbers…you never know who’s going to answer on the other end. For the most part, I find many of the representatives very helpful and usually extremely polite.The strangest part often occurs on verification of the shipping address. Once you tell them you’re in Fargo, North Dakota, all bets are off. I’ve had the most interesting conversations based off that statement alone. Of course during the winter months, everyone wants to know how cold it is or how much snow we have. This last year was pretty comical, because most of the other states had more snow that we did. They often couldn’t believe it when I said we hardly had any snow on the ground. (Makes you kind of afraid for what this year could bring, huh?)One of the strangest things I find in calling vendors is the overuse of the pre-recorded statement :“Please listen carefully, as our menu options have changed.”It’s the obligatory message on pretty much every vendor I call, and the weirdest part is they’ve been saying it for months, and in some cases over a year. When I hear it, I actually quit listening because it’s SO OVERUSED. I’m fairly certain most people have to listen to the options anyway, so it’s just annoying to have them waste your time saying it over and over and over again. I don’t spend a lot of time memorizing their “press 1 for…” list so the fact that it has changed isn’t a big deal. I think the “this call may be recorded for quality assurance and training purposes” is also up there on the annoyance chart, but I can understand why companies have to do it.  Not sure who the poor person is who has to sit and listen to the boring calls all day, but they may need a pay raise- or at least an adult beverage at 5pm every day.In general, calling Customer Service reps from many of our vendors is not so bad…..but this blog may be recorded for quality assurance………………right.- Michelle Breen