Use this whenever you call customer service

Posted at 6:25 on Thursday February 16, 2006 | Filed Under Stories about customer service

A while back, I wrote about how I kept records of every call with customer-service reps from Sprint. This is because they repeatedly "forgot" and lied about agreements we made.

One of my friends (who wants to remain anonymous) sent over this spreadsheet he uses to do the same thing:

I just started doing the same - keeping a spreadsheet of conversations with customer service reps in general with all that key info. Airlines, financial, and other counterparties we do business with on a recurring basis. Date, time, name of person(s), reason for call, other comments. Like my own little reverse CRM system.

It's simple and it works. Courtesy of my friend: Track your customer service calls (Excel file)

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Comments (18)

1.: Ooh, this is a great idea! I especially love that you can sort the columns however you'd like. Thanks for the idea, Ramit!

Posted by Bryan at February 15, 2006 06:52 AM

2.: Even simpler, just create a private blog and record it there. If you record it as you go, it even gets timestamped.

Posted by Nick at February 15, 2006 07:04 AM

3.: You should start using Microsoft OneNote instead of Word/Excel files to keep all your information.

Posted by Andy Y. Lin at February 15, 2006 08:30 AM

4.: And, how would this help? Are these folks (Customer Service Reps) going to be believe what we have catalogued? Will they accept it as proof?

Posted by Wandering Indian Monk at February 15, 2006 09:01 AM

5.: Yes, it can. Read the previous link about my fiasco with Sprint.

Posted by Ramit Sethi at February 15, 2006 09:04 AM

6.: I highly recommened using Backpack. It's free. I use it for organizing, making lists for anything and everything under the sun I need to keep myself organized.

(No, I am not a spam bot or a salesperson - it really does make life easier)

Posted by Derek Ashauer at February 15, 2006 10:44 AM

7.: Forget OneNote - keep using Excel. Excel is, at least, available on non-Microsoft platforms.

Posted by Nick at February 15, 2006 11:47 AM

8.: I've been doing something similar for quite a while. I create a separate sheet (Mine are in Word) for each vendor I want to track then Link them to the Vendor's record in my PIM. I this system for Entourage on a Mac at home and Outlook at work & it has DEFINATELY given me an upper hand with all service vendors. Nothing kicks the service to the next level like having an accurate history of the problem.

Posted by Kevin at February 15, 2006 02:13 PM

9.: Couldn't resist -- here's a web based version of the customer service tracker spreadsheet. disclosure: I wrote the web spreadsheet SW

Posted by Steve Yen at February 15, 2006 06:19 PM

10.: If you like the idea of keeping track of stuff in Excel, you really really might want to take a look at my Excel spreadsheet solution for reference systems. Really. its different. its free, it works.

I have described it here:
http://groups.google.com/group/43Folders/browse_frm/thread/7037c968d8ab1405?hl=en&

You can download a copy of the file here:
http://www.justinlilly.com/excel/

and download both of these files:
Personal Information..> 05-Feb-2006 20:04 612k "The File"
Tom's screenshots.xls 05-Feb-2006 20:05 404k "Examples"

Posted by Tom at February 15, 2006 07:20 PM

11.: If you're using Windows, OneNote will serve your needs much better. Of course, if it's not available to you you should go with whatever you have.

Posted by Andy Y. Lin at February 15, 2006 07:51 PM

12.: This is a good simple way of keeping tabs on the calls that you make.

I use my email (i am a gmail fan) to keep record of my conversations/discussions with a particular party or person.

Use the efficient label and filter function gmail provides and just send yourself the email. This way it stays on Gmail and use it in conjunction with your desktop email client (I use Thunderbird) and you can even send yourself a reminder email to call or followup a previous call. This way you are or should be on top of things.

Good idea anyhow.

R J

Posted by RJ at February 15, 2006 08:40 PM

13.: This is a great idea - I'll definitely try to implement it and suggest it to my readers.

I've been using my daykeeper to keep track of calls, but sometimes I have to go back a few months and then I forget what month I need to go to!

~Maria Palma
CustomersAreAlways.com

Posted by Maria Palma at February 15, 2006 09:42 PM

14.: One thing to remember when you are dealing with customer service reps (CSR). Often companies will have policies not to use their actual names. I can remember one bank having half their CSR's using Sally if they were west of the Mississippi and Betty if they were east. Always ask for an employee number or forward to a supervisor and ask for his. You don't have to be nasty about it but it does show you're serious and you are seeking resolution

Posted by Dale at February 16, 2006 07:19 AM

15.: You know, it truly doesn't matter what tool you use. A plain text file will do just fine as well. The important part is to capture the data - date, time, name of person spoken with, time on hold, number of refusals to connect to supervisor, name and phone# of supervisor, etc. And yes, I keep track too. :)

Posted by Mieke at February 17, 2006 07:04 AM

16.: All the comments above shows how much CSRs are trusted!!!!

Posted by RJ at February 25, 2006 03:21 PM

17.: I am late coming to the party but of the options I did not see mentioned was Outlook. There is a journal function that perfectly designed for this - to log your activity (calls, emails, tasks) etc with a contact. Even has a built in phone call timer.

This is what it is there for .

Posted by Patrick Allmond at March 2, 2006 04:15 AM

18.: Sprint is the devil. Their customer service is horrible. On a better note, thanks for the spreadsheet! :)

Posted by Bink at August 27, 2006 06:05 PM

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