Your Call Is (Not That) Important To Us

Customer Service and What It Reveals About Our World and Our Lives

Your Call Is (Not That) Important to Us cuts through corporate jargon and consumer distress to provide an eye-opening and animated account of the way companies treat their customers, how customers treat the people who serve them, and how technology, globalization, class, race, gender, and culture influence these interactions.

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What they're saying about

Your Call Is (Not That) Important To Us

"Emily Yellin’s customer-friendly romp through this unfriendly world rings so true"

Newsweek — Page Turner

"Ms. Yellin is an illuminating guide whose conclusions are sound"

The Wall Street Journal

"Fascinating history of humanity and technology meeting head-on"

Library Journal

Starred Review and on list of Best Business Books of 2009

"Yellin is smart and funny throughout"

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"Our picks for the best new business books"

Fortune Small Business/CNN Money

"Yellin dives into the often dysfunctional world of customer service"

Publishers Weekly

"Read this book by Emily Yellin, and all of your questions will be answered in the order in which they were received"

Half.com

Bring up the subject of calling customer service and the blood pressure of everyone within earshot rises exponentially. Otherwise calm, rational, and intelligent people go into extended rants about an industry that seems to grow more and more inhuman and unhelpful with every encounter we have. And each American contacts customer service an average of 143 times per year, or 2 to 3 times per week.

In her engaging, funny, and far-reaching new book Your Call Is (Not That) Important To Us, journalist Emily Yellin explores the inner-workings the multi-billion-dollar customer service industry. She traverses the country and the world watching, listening, and talking to customers, customer service workers, managers, consultants and corporate CEOs at such companies as Comcast, FedEx, JetBlue, Sprint, Zappos, Amtrak, Credit Suisse, and many others. Yellin goes straight to the center of the global intersection of consumers and companies that is customer service, and finds the real human beings and often surreal corporate policies lurking behind its aggravating facade.

Yellin’s vast reporting in Your Call Is (Not That) Important To Us sheds light on the complex forces that create these sometimes infuriating experiences, chronicles how the internet and competition worldwide are forcing businesses to take their customers needs more seriously, and offers hope from people inside and outside the globalized corporate world fighting to make customer service better for us all.

Your Call Is (Not That) Important To Us is an eye-opening and touching account of the way companies treat their customers, how customers treat the people who serve them, and how technology, globalization, class, race, gender, and culture influence these interactions. Frustrated customers, smart CEOs, and caring customer service reps alike will find this lively examination of the crossroads of world commerce ”the point where businesses and their customers meet” enlightening, compelling, and useful.

Tips for Surviving Customer Service

Document all calls

Make note of the time you call, are put on hold, and finally get through. Write down everyone’s names, and ask how to spell them, to show you are paying attention. Make notes on all that is agreed. If you have to backtrack with supervisors, saying, I called at 10:24 on Wednesday the 10th and spoke to Angela, stronger than, I called sometime last week.

Remember, your call is a business transaction, not a personal relationship

Even though they are complete strangers, some customer service agents can make us more as angry than our closest friends and family. Remind yourself, and the agent, that you don’t know each other. Their insults and disrespect are not really about you. And your criticism or anger is about the company not that agent.

Encourage the agent to work with you (not against you) to solve your problem

This one is pretty Zen. And in some cases it may be impossible. But calls often start out with customers and agents on the defensive, because of unpleasant past experiences on both sides. Recognize that potential and don’t get blindsided by a particularly unhelpful agent. There are probably circumstances way beyond your control, or the agent’s, for that agent’s attitude. So work to get the agent on the same team as you, and maybe the company will follow. In the long run it is in the company’s best interest to resolve your issues to your satisfaction as quickly as possible.

Recognize your value as a customer, and use it, but don’t abuse it

Figure out how much you spend with the company each year — $100 a month is $1,200 a year. Don’t let the agent or supervisor disregard that worth. State your case unemotionally, and grounded in the facts. You spend money with this company. You are not getting paid to call them with this problem. In fact, you paid to be their customer. But the agent is getting paid to listen to and resolve your problem. Just remember, the agent might have to deal with one-hundred or more customers in a day. So try not to throw your weight around in a way that alienates the people charged with helping you.

Not all companies care as much about customer service as we might want

Some really backward companies still view customer service as merely an inescapable nuisance. Realize that most of the world is moving on from that retro view. You might not get better service, but you probably will be more likely to support companies with a cutting-edge customer service approach. Eventually, laggards will be forced to catch up or fade away.

If all else fails, appeal to a higher power

Not a divine power necessarily, but when talking with agents and supervisors turns futile, take your story to the top executives — many in large corporations have people in their offices who deal with customer issues. Also, the internet has become an outlet for customer complaints. You can Twitter about the company or visit other consumer complaint sites that some companies monitor, such as Get Satisfaction or Consumerist. The internet can be the way out of a customer service dead end.