Back to Basics: Hang Up
How many times have you called up an airline (or hotel, tour operator, car rental company, or any other company that you want to do business with), and found yourself talking with someone who is rude, unintelligible to you, unwilling to assist you, or is downright hostile?
If you’ve spent any time on the phone at all, this has probably happened to you many over. I know that I have spent countless hours trying to understand an accent or explaining myself to someone who wasn’t listening to me and merely reading a prepared “script.” It frustrates me when I have to repeatedly ask someone to slow down so that I can understand what they are saying. And turn down the background noise so that I can hear you!
How to resolve these telephone aggravations? Hang up and start again! Chances are you will get a different person answering the phone on your next attempt.
If you’re dealing with a small company, this may not work, but most of the major travel companies route their incoming calls through a large call center. It’s unlikely that you’ll get the same person answering the phone on a second (or third, or fourth) call.
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POSTED IN: Air Travel, Money Saving Tips, Travel Tips
5 opinions for Back to Basics: Hang Up
Astroprof
Jan 30, 2008 at 5:46 am
Many times, when I call a company about something that is a problem, it takes forever to get through the voice mail system to get to a human in the first place! Then, they just read from a prepared script for common problems. I never seem to call about common problems, so it doesn’t work. :(
Angela Segal
Jan 30, 2008 at 7:02 am
Personal service is always the key. As small businesses we suffer economically for following this principle. You are correct in that nothing will change until customers demand it by not doing business with peopple who do not believe in personal service. I’m an independent patient consultant for plastic surgery who INSIST on personal service for my clients or we go elsewhere. Including out of the US!
lucy
Jan 30, 2008 at 9:30 am
What rubbish you talk and very offensive at that.
Mary Jo Manzanares
Feb 6, 2008 at 8:07 pm
Astroprof - I hate operator-read scripts that don’t acknowledge anything that I’ve said or asked. It makes me absolutely nuts!
Mary Jo Manzanares
Feb 6, 2008 at 8:12 pm
Lucy - I’m not sure why you think calling back is offensive. If you aren’t able to communicate with the first person you talk to, it is certainly reasonable to try again later.
I’m not suggesting that you slam down the phone on someone. Just try again later.
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