Calling Customer Service: How to Get a Person on the Phone

February 4th, 2010

 

blog by Tracey E. Bennett

You’re calling customer service. But you land in a maze — or daze. How do you get a person on the phone? You could get your problem handled in a jiffy if only someone would talk to you.

Here are 8 tips adapted from Reader’s Digest:

1. Don’t push any buttons. The computer will assume that you have a rotary phone and send you to a real person.

2. Push zero. Sometimes that sends you to a helpful soul.

3. Press a mess of buttons.

4. Mumble. It confuses the system and might send you to human land.

5. Speak Spanish. Many operators speak English, too.

6. Select the cancel-service option. It’s easier to hang on to a customer than to get a new one, so the company might bend over sideways to satisfy you. To do that, they have to talk to you, so you’re in.

7. Swear. [I swear Reader's Digest recommends this] because swear bunnies go to the head of the line. [Do try this at home, not on the bus.]

8. *** Go to www.GetHuman.com *** for a list of 900 companies and their get-a-human-on-the-phone numbers.

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Blog by  Tracey E. Bennett, Queen of Conversation

How’s your track record with customer service? What tips and tricks do you use to get a person on the phone? Please go the comment section and share your secrets.

 

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Good Valentine’s Day Books and Relationship Books

January 30th, 2010

by Tracey E. Bennett

Here’s a list of good Valentine’s Day and relationship books. Two of my very favorite relationship books are:

The Five Love Languages: How to Express Heartfelt Commitment to Your Mate – by Gary Chapman. You you only buy one relationship book ever, this is the one to get. It changed me and the way I fill my partner’s "love tank."

Falling Into Manholes: The Memoir of a Bad/Good Girl – Wendy Merrill. A witty memoir of trying to put the "fun" in dysfunctional relationships. Wendy’s book pitch was funny enough to air on the Jay Leno Show.

I also enjoyed Elizabeth Gilbert’s new bestseller, Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage.  This meditation on marriage moves from "We don’t want to" to "Oh, we’ve got to" to "Yes, we want to marry." It’s warm, insightful, informative, and of course, beautifully written.

And here’s a sexy how-to, hot off the press this month:

Love Her Right: The Married Man’s Guide to Lesbian Secrets for Great Sex! by Dr. Joni Frater and Esther Lastique. 

 

(Click on the blue titles to get book details from Amazon.) 

OK, here’s a longer list from Sam Horn. Take it away, Sam…

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Well, Valentine’s Day is around the corner.

Are you looking for a book for your significant other? Want a fun “how to” book to either find the love of your life or bring more love into your life?

The biggest-selling book on romance and relationships in the past couple years is:

Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man: What Men Really Think About Love, Relationships, Intimacy, and Commitment  by Steve Harvey. It has almost 800 (!) reviews on Amazon.com and is still ranked in the top 100 a year after its publication.

Here are a few of the other intriguing options out there:

Better off Wed?: Fling or Ring – Which FInger to Give Him? – Alison James

The Man Plan: Drive Men Wild – Not Away – Whitney Casey

What Was I Thinking?: 58 Bad Boyfriend Stories - Barbara Davilman and Liz Dubelman

I Used to Miss Him…But My Aim Is Improving: Not Your Ordinary Breakup Survival Guide - Alison James (A creative, witty author)

1001 Ways to Be Romantic: Now Completely Revised and More Romantic Than Ever - Greg Godek [a classic!]

What Your Mama Never Told You: True Stories About Sex and Love - Tara Roberts

Finding the Love of Your Life - Neil Clark Warren

Dating and Mating: Reading the Body Language Signals – Darren G. Burton

Stumbling Naked in the Dark: Overcoming Mistakes Men Make with Women – Bradley Fenton

What Men Won’t Tell You but Women Need to Know – Bob Berkowitz

How to Duck a Suckah: A Guide to Living a Drama-Free Life – Big Boom (yes, that’s his name)

 

And of course, two of the grandaddys:

Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus: The Classic Guide to Understanding the Opposite Sex – John Gray

He’s Just Not That Into You: The No-Excuses Truth to Understanding Guys Greg Behrendt and Liz Tucillo

That best-selling book by Greg Behrendt not only spawned a movie and a new career as a talk-show host, it inspired several copy-cat books such as:

He Just Thinks He’s Not That Into You: The Insanely Determined Girl’s Guide to Getting the Man that She Wants – Danielle Whitman

Be Honest–You’re Not That Into Him Either: Raise Your Standards and Reach for the Love You Deserve – Ian Kerner

And, if you want a daily supply of smart posts about dating, mating, relating and romance, be sure to check out the witty, insightful blog by The Dating Goddess:  http://www.datinggoddess.com/

The Dating Goddess has a loyal following and has been quoted in the Wall St. Journal. After reading a few of her fun and fascinating books (Date or Wait: Are You Ready for Mr. Great? and You’ve Got to Kiss a Lot of Princes [an ebook available for free on her Web site]), you’ll quickly understand why she’s a popular go-to resource on the topic of dating and mating, romance and relationships.

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Visit Sam’s blog: http://samhornpop.wordpress.com/ and friend her on FaceBook.

 

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How to Split the Check Without Looking Cheap

January 18th, 2010

"SAVE!"

Have you ever gone to dinner with friends and ordered only a drink or appetizer? But when the bill came around, you got stuck with a chunk of it? How do you pay your fair share — that is, for your smaller portion — without looking or feeling cheap?

Here’s a tip from Ramit from Scrooge Strategy. He’s all about saving money, and he’s got a good tip about saving face, too. Read on:

#2: Eat before you go, then just order appetizers.

Most of us willingly deceive ourselves about the price of eating out. If you’re going to a sit-down restaurant with a server — and you’re eating out with friends — you need to add at least 30% for tax, tip, and the inevitable shortfall that happens whenever 5+ people order food and drinks. Yet we see a menu and say, "Hey, $15 for dinner! That’s not too bad." Add in everything (and I’m not even counting gas/parking because nobody ever does that) and you’re still talking about more like $20 to $30 for the entire meal.

Eating out is about more than food, it’s about the company. Try this just once: Eat a little before you go, then just order appetizers.

Tactical tip: The key is that you must ask if it’s ok to just pay for the appetizers, not split the bill equally. Your line is: "Hey guys, I ate before I came, so is it cool if I just order an appetizer for myself?" Everyone will say "sure, whatever," of course. And when the bill comes, you need to remind the person who’s figuring out the bill that you ordered a small amount. "Hey Mike, can you just subtract my appetizer out? I’ll pay for that and add tax/tip if it’s cool." Since they already agreed earlier in the meal, you won’t get pushback.

I want to highlight how difficult this will be on the first couple of times. One of my friends recently decided to live in a couple hundred dollars on food for the entire month. When I asked him to join a bunch of us for dinner, he came and ordered nothing. "How come you’re not ordering anything?" I asked. He explained what he was doing (which I thought was really cool), but admitted it was incredibly difficult to go out to a restaurant with a bunch of people and only order an ice water. Fortunately, you know to start slow and just order an appetizer. Although it may seem awkward, try it once or twice and see if you can do it. You’ll get the benefit of hanging with your friends, but save $10 to $50 per meal.
 
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Tracey here. I just signed up for Ramit’s free 7-day quickstart course, and that was one of the tips. You can sign up here: Scrooge Strategy. (No, I’m not an affiliate. Just giving credit where credit’s due.)
 
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Blog by  Tracey E. Bennett, Queen of Conversation
I welcome your comments, questions, and stories.

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Can You Top This Inspirational YouTube Video?

January 15th, 2010

Singer Susan Boyle was the most-watched YouTube video in 2009. This video about a dog that failed at her first "job" gets my vote for super inspiration. After months of training, Ricochet wasn’t suited for being a service dog ("Birds!? WOOF! WOOF!"), but she excelled at something else. 

I wonder if there’s a moral in here for us humans, such as chasing birds could cost you your job.

See what you think.

 

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 Blog by  Tracey E. Bennett, Queen of Conversation

I welcome your comments. Tell me, what’s your favorite YouTube video? And feel free to have fun with the moral.

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Screw New Year’s Resolutions. Do This Instead.

January 4th, 2010

Every year I make the same New Year’s resolution, which is not to make any resolutions. I blow them by February anyway. Here’s an idea for the new year that doesn’t leave me feeling bad about myself.

    I pick a word for the year.

It’s a guiding star, kind of a Star of Bethlehem for the wise person I aspire to be. 

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Conversation Questions, Inspiration | 2 Comments »

New Year’s Party Conversation Questions

December 30th, 2009
Happy New Year

Here are some New Year’s conversation questions to start conversations and keep them going.

 

If you’re staying home and keeping the dog company, it’s the perfect time to assess where you’ve been and to chart your course for the new year.

 

  • What 3 words sum up last year for you?
  • What were some highlights of the year? 
  • What were your favorite movies and concerts?
  • Do any special books come to mind? 
     
  • Did you have any turning points this year? For example, did you start or end a relationship or a job? Did you discover an aptitude for accounting or cooking? Did you get over a fear? Did you join a club and make a new set of friends? 
     
  • Who inspired you this year? How about Captain Sullenberger who landed the plane in the Hudson River? Or English singer Susan Boyle?
  • Name 3 things you accomplished this year. They could be as simple as cleaning out your closet or as complicated as organizing a conference for 500 guests. 
  • What’s your secret dream?
  • If you knew you couldn’t fail, what would you do?
     
  • What are you looking forward to next year, personally and professionally? What would you like to see happen? What specific steps will you take to make your vision come true?
It’s also the end of the first 10 years of 2000, so you could ask the same questions about the last decade.
 
Make it a very happy new year!
 
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Blog by  Tracey E. Bennett, Queen of Conversation
I welcome your comments. Feel free to answer the questions I posed or to ask questions of your own.

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Delta Flight Attendant + Crayons = Connection & Conversation

December 27th, 2009

What does it take to calm an irritated customer, connect people, start conversations, and build relationships? What could do all that? As this story shows, it just takes one person thinking outside the Crayon box.

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. –  AP – A museum is showing artwork collected by a Delta flight attendant who started handing out crayons to passengers after the Sept. 11th attacks.

The Palm Springs Air Museum is showing "Plane Art — Connecting People" through Jan. 25. Several dozen pictures are hanging at the museum, and many others are available for visitors to leaf through in folders.
 
The pictures were collected by Delta flight attendant Jewel Van Valin. She got the idea a few months after 9/11, when the airline began substituting paper for linens as tray table covers.
 

She said one passenger who noticed the change "threw his head back and rolled his eyes, and I could tell he was thinking, ‘What’s next?’ That look clinched it for me." Van Valin had a box of crayons in her flight bag and started putting a crayon on each tray.

"The passengers started laughing and drawing," she recalled. "It was a way to reconnect after 9/11."

She later contacted Crayola, and the company now supplies her with Rainbow Twistables, which are crayons that have four colors in one tube.
Van Valin says that passengers are wary initially when she asks them if they’re "ready to have some fun, but then the crayons come out and they start laughing."
 
Some passengers tell her that they don’t know how to draw, "but I tell them that it’s not about drawing, it’s about having fun."
 
Van Valin hangs the pictures up on airplane paneling during flights so passengers can see each other’s work. She saves all the pictures and estimates she has about 3,500 drawings.
 
"Jewel started this following 9/11 to calm passengers nerves as they flew Delta," said Palm Springs Air Museum director Sharon Maguire. Maguire added that Van Valin’s idea proved that "one resourceful, caring person can connect people, start conversations and build relationships."
 
For more information about visiting the museum, go to http://www.palmspringsairmuseum.org.
 
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Blog by  Tracey E. Bennett, Queen of Conversation
I welcome your comments. 

Posted in Conversation Tips, Start Conversations | No Comments »

Kids Say the Darndest Things About the Bible

December 12th, 2009

Kids crack me up!  See if you agree. 

  • In the first book of the Bible, Guinessis, God got tired of creating the world, so He took the Sabbath off.  
  • Adam and Eve were created from an apple tree.
  • Noah’s wife was called Joan of Ark. 
  • Noah built an ark, which the animals came on to in pears. 
  • Lot’s wife was a pillar of salt by day, but a ball of fire by night. 
  • The Jews were a proud people and throughout history they had trouble with the unsympathetic Genitals. 
  • Samson was a strongman who let himself be led astray by a Jezebel like Delilah. Samson slayed the Philistines with the axe of the apostles. 
  • Moses led the Hebrews to the Red Sea, where they made unleavened bread, which is bread made without any ingredients. 
  • The Egyptians were all drowned in the dessert. Afterwards, Moses went up on Mount Cyanide to get the Ten Amendments. 
  • The First Commandment was when Eve told Adam to eat the apple. The Fifth Commandment is to humor thy father and mother. The seventh Commandment is thou shalt not admit adultery.  
  • Moses died before he ever reached Canada. 
  • Then Joshua led the Hebrews in the battle of Geritol. The greatest miracle in the Bible is when Joshua told his son to stand still and he obeyed him. 
  • David was a Hebrew king skilled at playing the liar. He fought with the Finklesteins, a race of  people who lived in Biblical times. 
  • Solomon, one of David’s sons, had 300 wives and 700 porcupines.
  • When Mary heard that she was the mother of Jesus, she sang the Magna Carta. 
  • When the three wise guys from the east side arrived, they found Jesus in the manager. 
  • Jesus was born because Mary had an immaculate contraption. 
  • St. John, the Blacksmith, dumped water on his head. 
  • Jesus enunciated the Golden Rule, which says to do one to others before they do one to you. He also explained, "Man doth not live by sweat alone."
  • It was a miracle when Jesus rose from the dead and managed to get the tombstone off the entrance. 
  • The people who followed the Lord were called the 12 decibels. 
  • The epistles were the wives of the apostles. 
  • One of the opossums was St. Matthew who was by profession a taximan. 
  • St. Paul cavorted to Christianity. He preached holy acrimony, which is another name for marriage. 
  • A Christian should have only one spouse. This is called monotony.

Compiled by Richard Lederer, published in the National Review.

 

Posted in Humor, Listening | 1 Comment »

Simple Advice for Parents Trying to Raise Happy, Healthy Daughters

December 6th, 2009

mum and a daughter

A criminologist who has spent decades studying the lives of girls and women who end up in prison has some simple advice for parents trying to raise happy, healthy daughters: Listen.

"We need to listen to our daughters, not just talk to our daughters. That what girls tell us," said University of Hawaii professor Meda Chesney-Lind. "They want to be heard. Parents think they are talking with their daughters, when they’re really talking at their daughters." [from the opening 2 paragraphs in Friday's Star-Bulletin story by writer Christine Donnelly.]

My stepfather listened to me. Maybe that’s why I loved him so much. We traded stories:  he and his brothers dumped a nest of mice on the counter of their father’s store and made the clerk scream; I chased a camped counselor with a daddy longlegs spider. She was too busy running to scream.

We talked about current events, what was going on at school, and whether God existed (I didn’t think so). We talked about sex, too. If he thought my ideas were off the wall, he never said so. He just asked questions in a tell-me-more way. 

In high school I loved hanging out with my mom because she was so witty. When her best friend came over and they sat at the bar’s only 2 stools, I’d tuck myself beside the sink and join in. But–you knew there was a but, didn’t you?–eventually Mom’s conversation would turn to me: how much better I’d look in contacts, how unruly my hair was, how I ought to smile more. 

When I smoked pot in college, who do you think I told, Charlie or Mom?

And who was very upset when she found out that I’d told him? I think Mom was more upset by getting the information second-hand than she was by the pot itself.

Perhaps Mom was trying to pass on the skills that made her popular. Or maybe she was trying to transform me into a suitable chip off the old block. Whatever her reasons, they didn’t bring us closer. 

Here are some conversation questions for you:

  • Over the years, who has listened, really listened, to you?
  • How did these good listeners impact your life?
  • Do children learn more from what parents do than what they say? Is that true for you? For your children?

Please leave your comments below. 

Posted in Conversation Questions, Conversation Tips, Listening | 2 Comments »

Merry Thanksgivoween

November 27th, 2009

 HappyEverything

Posted in Events of the Day, Humor | No Comments »

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