When a customer asks for a supervisor, do these

so as you all know not all customers who
ask to be transferred to a supervisor
should be transferred to a supervisor
and that's because
there's only a very limited number of
team leads on the floor
if you can help the customer and you
have the access to the solution
then you should not transfer the call if
possible
but of course that's too general in this
video i want to be more specific and i
will discuss
the different reasons and the different
scenarios why a customer
might ask for a supervisor and what you
should do for each scenario let's begin
the first scenario is if the customer
asked to talk to a supervisor
right at the start of the call right
after your opening line
a customer would say let me talk to a
supervisor
now what are you going to do about it in
this scenario
your first goal is to find out why the
customer wants to talk to a supervisor
you can ask the customer
what seems to be the problem i can
probably help you out with that if you
could just give me the order number or
the information about your issue
the key here is to convince the customer
that you
are confident in solving her problem you
want to convince her that
most probably you can and you have
access to the solution to her problem
and when she believes that she will give
you more information about her problem
she will give you the order number and
the information needed
for you to access her account and see
what her problem is
so once she gives out the reference
number order number or any info
that will help you understand her
problem go right ahead and check her
account
while she is explaining her problem
check her contact history
did she talk to an agent previously what
did they talk about
what is the reason why the customer is
upset so once you piece these puzzles
together by checking her account
checking her contact history and asking
probing questions
then it's time to convince the customer
that you can
help her with this problem and that
there's no need to transfer it to a
supervisor
again the key here is to sound confident
when you sound confident and sure you
will convince the customer
to not want a supervisor because the
right person who can help her
with her situation is already talking to
her for example
the customer's issue is that she was
sent
the wrong item she was promised by the
previous agent
that she's going to receive a
replacement and that she's going to
receive an email with a tracking number
unfortunately she did not receive an
email about the tracking number
and when you check her account a
replacement was processed for her
the only mistake that the previous agent
did was to not send
the tracking number to the customer as
promised as a result
the customer thought that there was no
replacement process for her
in this case you would tell the customer
i truly apologize for this inconvenience
i checked your contact history with
candice and it says here that she
processed
the replacement last friday
unfortunately it looks like she forgot
to send you the tracking number
now what i'm gonna do is to send you an
email right now with a tracking number
while we're on the line so take note of
that last sentence
that is the resolution of the agent
take note of the power word now
so let me repeat what i'm gonna do is to
send you an email
right now while we're on the line that
statement
conveyed an immediate resolution
that is very important when you want to
convince your customer that there is no
need to transfer this call
i got it and i already have the
resolution
right in front of you ready for you to
take so if you phrase your solution like
this
nine times out of ten the customer is
not going to need the supervisor anymore
because you have completely solved the
customer's problem
you have the resolution and all the
customer has to do is to wait for the
email
and once she hangs up the phone her
problem is resolved
so at this point asking for a supervisor
would only
take more time therefore you can
successfully de-escalate the soup call
and remember that if the customer is
angry with the past service
or the past agent that she talked to you
need to
defuse her anger first you need to
empathize with her first apologize if
needed and applicable
and then proceed to the resolution
that's very important you need to
diffuse the anger first
because that's the only way that you can
get the customer to
listen to your resolution but what if
after the customer explained the problem
she still wants to talk to a supervisor
what if she's not convinced that you
could help her or what if she's just
fed up with the previous agents that at
this point
she believes that the only way that she
could solve her problem is to talk to a
supervisor what should you do
i don't think you have that much of a
choice you just have to transfer
the call to a supervisor although some
agents
might try the last resort which is to
tell the customer
unfortunately my supervisor is currently
in a meeting or currently engaged in a
call
but i'm sure i can help you with that so
in this case the customer would think
that she doesn't have a choice but to
talk to you because the supervisor is
unavailable
but again if she's really adamant if
she's
really super insistent that she wants a
supervisor
and no one else not an agent but a
supervisor
then to transfer the call to a
supervisor
because some calls are just meant
to be sub calls before you even answer
them
and now that you have confirmed that a
certain call is a soup call
then your next step is to approach
your tl or team lead unfortunately
for a lot of agents this could prove to
be
a hard task approaching your tl and
telling her hey
there's a soup call for you madam there
are certainly
team leads who make it clear to you that
he or she
is not happy about you transferring a
soup call to him or her
so in this case if you have a tl like
this your
your goal is to make him or her
understand
that you did everything you could to
assist the customer
if you need to enumerate the solutions
you've proposed to the customer and
how many times the customer refused your
attempt
to help her if you can convince her that
you did your best
to assist the customer then she's gonna
understand that she doesn't have a
choice but to take the damn
soup call what usually annoys a lot of
team leads
when it comes to soup calls is when they
think or when they're convinced that the
agent
hasn't done anything under his power or
her power
to help the customer your job
is to convince her that you did also
think of it from your tl's
point of view or perspective how would
you feel if an agent
just transfer a call to you when she
could have assisted a customer
of course you would be annoyed
especially if you are busy with other
tasks
needless to say you would be annoyed
with unnecessary soup calls
but of course there are just tls that
are just a little bit
i don't know you just wonder how they
became a tl
because they are not approachable and
they're just unreasonably rude
that you just wonder how and why did
they become a tl when they're not
willing to help their agents
i can't say that i have experienced that
though but i heard a lot of agents
who did if this is your kind of tl then
it's probably time to
talk to someone higher up and you know
to just talk about
the tl's behavior because that is your
right too it's also your right to get
a tl who will help you when needed
after all that is the purpose of a team
lead now
if a customer wants to talk to a
supervisor because of your mistake in
the middle of the call
then here's what you're gonna do now let
me tell you a story about
my call a few years ago where the
customer
demanded for a supervisor because of my
mistake
it was a simple mistake i was just a
beginner
then the customer wanted to change her
shipping address because
she put the wrong address when she
placed the order so i took down her new
address and
edited the old one and after that for
confirmation
i read the new address to her i think i
remember now
she gave me a canadian postal code it
was composed of
three letters and then three digits
so it's like abc and then space one two
three
so she gave me that postal code and
unfortunately in this date
i heard that she said new york and of
course as you all know
new york is in the u.s so i asked her
oh my god it's awful i told her that
there seemed to be a problem with her
address because she gave me a canadian
postal code but the state was
new york and
it turned out that she actually meant
north york
so that was in north york ontario and
then i thought that north york was new
york
it was just so obvious that i was not i
was not canadian it was just so
obvious and at that point she just got
so irate i understood her though i
really did because obviously if i put
new york there instead of instead of
north york
then the package would not be sent or
delivered to her address
it would be returned to center because
there's no such thing as
new york ontario i'm not sure if there
is but
anyway it will be shipped it will either
be returned to sender or be delivered to
a wrong address that's all
and so the customer obviously was was
irate
she was not happy about me being
ignorant about the states
and then she asked for a supervisor it
was so stressful for me because the
reason why she asked for a supervisor
was because of my mistake so yeah i
i put her on hold told her to wait and
then i
approached my tl so i told my tl
everything
i was just uh yeah i told her honestly
that
i'm so sorry tl it was really my mistake
i asked her why it was new york when she
gave me a
canadian postal code and
luckily i had a really competent tl at
the time
she stuff when needed she also has
sympathy for her agents
i think what she told me next really
helped me with that customer
um she told me that look before i take
the soup call
once you go get back to your customer
and apologize to her tell her that it's
an honest mistake
and then if she doesn't accept that then
i will take the call and i was so
stressed out
because i i really hate it when
customers yell at me
so i just went back to the customer and
i told her that i
uh amber i truly apologize for my
mistake
it was an honest mistake i assure you um
just to assure you that i have the
correct address
here i will send you a confirmation
email right now
while we're on the line and to confirm
that i have written north york instead
of new york and then i have the correct
address
i truly again i truly apologize that was
an honest mistake
and luckily the customer
actually understood and she said okay
send me the confirmation email
and then the call ended well without me
having to transfer the call to my
supervisor
and i was really happy that my tl taught
me that she
she basically taught me that customers
are also human
if you just apologize if it is your
mistake if you just truly apologize and
let her know that
the mistake is not going to happen then
they will understand and they will not
have to ask for a supervisor
so at that point i promised her a
confirmation email just to show
her that i got the right address this
time i really liked my tl because
instead of giving us fish she taught
us how to fish basically of course this
is not always going to work
but if your scenario is like this
then you might want to try apologizing
to your customer if it is your mistake
and then give her some reassurance that
the mistake is not going to happen and
most likely she's going to accept it and
she's not going to demand for a
supervisor anymore
okay and the third scenario is if the
customer is asking for a supervisor
because she doesn't like your resolution
in this scenario the customer's goal is
to talk to a supervisor in the hopes of
getting a better resolution or answer
so in this case your goal is to convince
your customer that
even a supervisor cannot make a
difference in her case
that she cannot give her a different
resolution
or answer you can say something like
this
but because i have already given you the
exception before i have no other option
but to charge you the penalty this time
this has been our company policy since
well then transfer me to someone who can
because i'm
certainly not giving up on this transfer
me to your
manager i'm afraid nobody can grant your
requests request cersei
not even my manager there are things
that my manager
can do and i can't but cancelling a late
payment penalty
is not one of them doesn't matter
i still want to talk to your manager
she's the manager after all
and you're just an agent but your
manager
being the manager should be able to do
something about my situation
it's logic
i'm telling you this because i don't
want to take up more of your time
especially if it's if it means you're
going to be hearing the same answer from
my manager
so when you tell your customer that a
supervisor cannot make a difference in
her case
then she's unlikely to insist on a
supervisor
of course this is not going to work all
the time
but at least it will slash the number of
of customers who will insist on a
supervisor
there are still customers who will ask
for a supervisor
because they want to talk to someone
higher up
higher than an agent then
your only choice would be to transfer
that call to a supervisor
oh don't you worry trust me
i of all the time in the world
okay please give me two minutes so i can
inform my manager
okay but saying this should reduce the
chances of that customer
demanding to talk to your team lead by
the way guys if you want to see the
whole
version of that call i'm going to link
it up here so you can check it after
this video
and another scenario is what if the
customer
right at the start of the call is
demanding for a supervisor
and you ask her what the problem is
and she doesn't disclose anything she
doesn't tell you what the problem is
she simply wants to talk to a supervisor
so if this is the case the customer is a
tough
nut to crack she doesn't tell you
anything about her problem
she's sim she's she's saying that she
simply wants to talk to a supervisor
then your only choice would be to
transfer the call to supervisor
again there are calls that are just
meant to be sub calls
even before you answer them just breathe
this is not
your task this is a soup call and this
is the task of your team lead and the
last scenario that i can think of is
if the customer's problem is something
that only your
team lead or only the escalation team
can resolve this is a no-brainer
obviously you want to transfer the call
to them immediately there's no point um
convincing them that you can't help them
when you can't all right so i think that
is all for today if you have any
questions
suggestions for my next video comment
down below
and i will make a video of that in the
future
alright that is all for today bye and
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