Dealing with Customer Service People at Card Issuers

The majority of people do not like having to call their credit card issuers to discuss questions and problems with a customer service representative. Unfortunately, there are going to be times when you need to do this despite the fact that you really don’t like to do so.  The method of discussion that you choose to engage in and how you talk can greatly impact your success when dealing with customer service people at credit card issuers. Learning different approaches to talking with customer service reps can help you make these transactions go a lot more smoothly.

Here are some of the options that you have in terms of how to talk to a customer service representative:

• Firm and clear. The best way to deal with the situation is to clearly articulate what it is that you want and to be firm in reiterating that this is what you want. You should do this without getting angry and irate as the irate approach usually tends to inflame the customer service representative and hinder your ability to get what you want and there’s really no excuse for rudeness anyway. In order to be firm and clear, you need to know what it is that you are trying to get from the call in advance. For example, if you want your interest rate lowered then you need to keep this in mind throughout the call, state it clearly and continue stating it clearly until the situation is resolved in your favor.

• Conspiratorial. Some people take the approach that they understand the customer service representative’s situation and that they want to do what they can to work with the representative while still getting what they need. The basic approach here is something along the lines of, “I know that you’re just doing your job and you know that I’m just trying to get my interest rate down to something that I can actually afford to pay so let’s do this together”.

• “Ball’s in your Court” approach. In this approach, you state the problem and ask the customer service representative to solve it. “My interest rate is too high, what are you going to do about that?” Don’t accept apologies, just keep asking, “I understand, but what are you going to do about it?” Be forewarned that this will make you irritating to the customer service representative but it’s a tactic that does work a lot of the time.

• Begging. In most cases, begging and crying isn’t going to get you anywhere. But there are times when this is the approach that will touch the heart of the customer service representative and get that person to act on your behalf.

• Threatening. This is almost never recommended. However, if you’ve tried everything else and you have legitimate reason to believe that the credit card company is doing something that it shouldn’t be doing, you can advance to the stage of threatening to either leave the company or file a lawsuit. Make sure that you are in a position to follow through on threats if need be.

How you deal with talking to credit card customer service reps depends on the situation, your personality and the person that you are speaking with but these approaches tend to the be the most common.

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This entry was posted on Monday, August 25th, 2008 at 4:25 pm and is filed under Tips & Advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.