What Everyone Should Know About Calling Customer Service

For two and a half years, I worked as a telephone customer service representative at a major mortgage company. I will not specifically name this mortgage company, but I will say that it is one of the largest mortgage companies in the country, especially as far as servicing loans. If you have a mortgage, there is a good chance that you make your payments each month to this company.

In my time as a CSR (customer service representative) at this company, I learned a lot about dealing with customer service. The information I learned has helped me considerably as a consumer, and I want to share this information with the world.

What Everyone Should Know About Getting Someone on the Phone:

One of the biggest complaints in calling a corporation such as a mortgage company, a cell phone carrier, or a credit card company, is that it is impossible to get a live person on the phone. It is not impossible; you just have to know how to do it. First of all, I want to recommend that you use the automated system if you are just calling for something simple, like how much your monthly payment is, or when the due date is, or the address to mail the payment to. However, if you have a more detailed question, you should be able to talk to someone.

Different companies have different systems, so getting through to customer service is different at each company. For most companies, if you simply do not press any button at all, you will be pushed through to customer service. It may ask you for your account number several times, however, if you do not push anything it will eventually send you into customer service.

If you are placed on hold to wait for a CSR, do not hang up. Unless you hear a dial tone, or see your cell phone go back to the screensaver, you have not been cutoff just because you do not hear hold music. Also, do not hang up because you think you have been holding for too long, unless you plan on calling back at a different time of day. Calling right back will just put you back in the end of the line. When you begin holding for customer service, you are in queue, meaning waiting in line. By hanging up and trying again, you just have to wait longer.