Social Engineering or ‘people skills’ is the key to opening many doors in life. It is a jedi like trick that involves conveying the message that you are someone important enough to have people help and support you. The DYKWIA mindset is a tool in this, but often deployed without grace and therefore fails. This week I caught myself in a Jekyll and Hyde moment of engineering, and I want to share my reflections on this here.
Background
I had to call in to Ritz Carlton rewards. We got the card earlier in the year and have met minimum spend, a 140K bonus should come to us at some point. I need the points to book the Ritz in Cancun for our trip this summer, but couldn’t see my point balance, nor login to book online. In a rush, I hadn’t actually joined the program when applying for the card, knowing that they would assign me a membership number at the time.
So basically I want to achieve 3 things:
- Get online access to my points
- Check my points balance to see if the 140K posted
- Book Cancun
Frankly, it didn’t really matter about online access if the phone rep could tell me my points had posted I could focus on the big goal and lock in my award. Online we’d figure out later.
Framing and Posturing
Whenever I have 3 goals from a call like this (or a meeting with a client) I like to be able to explain my goals and priorities so we can achieve resolution. I tend to do this by telling a CSR in soft terms my overall ‘mission’ for the day, then start drilling down into the nitty gritty. Doing this prevents goal conflicts. But even then, the manner in which you do so makes a big difference. We have the ‘Frame’ of the discussion, the ‘Posture’ is the manner in which you present the need.
Posture is critical, it is needed to create the buy in from the CSR to help you. Extreme examples of this would be if you were just totally obnoxious and abusive to the person you are working with, they won’t help, or on the other hand, flat out bribery. I prefer to mimic the perfect customer, and in most cases I am….
Call #1 to Ritz Carlton:
After pleasantries are over I present the representative with the following statement:
I am trying to book two nights in the Ritz Carlton Cancun, however I was unable to access my online account to do so due to an error. I’d like to resolve the online access so that I can book directly in the future, but my ultimate goal is to secure this reservation.
I guess at this point a recording of the call would help.. but if you can imagine this coming accross without any hesitation in a polite, confident tone. The representative was eager to help, because I sounded like a Ritz Carlton demographic customer, and I was pleasant (those often may be mutually exclusive). Then the call dropped because of my crappy coverage here.
Call #2 to Ritz Carlton
Because I’d already given the first message I and had failed, for some reason my brain wanted to reframe the need in order to achieve goal. I went into the second call saying:
Hi I just got the Ritz Carlton credit card and it should have 140K points with it and I can’t see if they are there yet can I book a room?
This second rep treated me quite differently. Still polite, but there was a certain lack of desire to go the extra mile. I found myself wondering why I went into that second call in a weak position, and why both my framing and posturing were off.
Staff are weirdly brand defensive
Walk into a ‘fancy’ store like Thomas Pink or Panerai shop in New York (or I guess Prada or whatnot for the ladies) and carry yourself the wrong way and you’ll be treated like dirt. It all comes down to perception of what a customer should be. How the customer looks and acts incites a response in terms of service. In my phone calls I first sounded confident, did not mention my history with the Ritz but sounded very much like a customer ‘should sound’. In my second call I sounded like a guy who was nervous, only wanted to stay because of a credit card, and perhaps… should be discouraged. When the 2nd Rep was hired they took this phone answering job with pride in the exclusiveness of the brand, and excited to provide the best possible service to the best possible clientele.
If you are riff raff to them, serving you devalues their position in life.
While you get the same treatment at a base level in terms of politeness, its that extra mile that counts. If you approach a brand correctly they treat you in the manner that they would treat their most valued customer, which for a hotel reservation can include calling over supervisors to open up room space, or upgrades. For the Panerai shop, it is the difference between them allowing you in the store and seating you with a bottle of San Pellegrino.
While I do find it funny to see an employee look down their nose at me, I also realize that to get what I want from the situation it is better to engineer it correctly. Focusing on what you say, and how you say it are key. Fit into their expectations, add value to their perceived position in life, and you’ll do really well. Be advised.. this is a mirroring/mimicry technique. Appearing like a Ritz Carlton VIP when trying to get a fresh hamburger at McDonalds doesn’t fly. You need to connect with the person you are working with.
brilliant! I love your posts related to social engineering. Thanks for sharing.
My take-away is the value of outlining the goal as part of directing the show from the get-go. I do this, but hadn’t considered the importance; to me it it was just to reduce time spent on the phone. I imagine CSRs also appreciate it to boost their time-per-call numbers.
Also, don’t be afraid to continue the pleasantries and using their name throughout the conversation. Maybe not for RC, as it doesn’t fit their clientele, but for working/middle class CSRs, you’ll sound like a friend that they want to help.
Knowing which level of support can handle your request is necessary. When you have a utility or other contractual dispute, follow the menu prompts to cancel all service. A retention specialist will offer the farm to keep you as a customer. I do this with Comcast once a year to cut my monthly bill from $160 to $105. During this call, I describe the competitors service who’s caught my eye. All the while being cordial, she finally offers a good deal, $30 off; I say “that’s close to what I want to pay, is there anything else you can do for me?”, “Well since you’ve been such a loyal customer I could offer you another $25 off. Would that be suitable?” I record these calls without notifying them for a record if there is a discrepancy with my bill and what they said, which is legal because they are also recording them. This gives absolute leverage with a supervisor retention specialist on any subsequent call because they will want to honor the offer.
When dealing with a crappier company that outsources their calls (looking at you Baltimore Sun Media Group), I use another tactic. I ask for their employee name and ID as well as notify them that the call is being recorded (xposed framework call recorder, not necessary, a threat might do just as well). You will receive the very best service that they can provide.
Yes, very good points. Regarding ‘level of support’ this can also tie into the willingness of the person you are interacting with, by which I mean that there is a soft level along with the hard level you mention. Knowing when to HUCA comes into play here.
Regarding the initial outlining, it works really well for two reasons:
1. The rep often races off to do something that could actually conflict with your primary goal. IE the act of granting online access may prevent them from booking for 24hrs… (thats a made up example) so knowing the big picture goals and which can be left behind is important.
Incidentally, having several goals like this is helpful in negotiation also, as you create bargaining points that you can later surrender in exchange for primary goal….
2. It does make you appear more professional, which does help get things done.
While I agree with laying out your needs upfront, and aligning the *you* that you present to the CSR to the likely expectations of the company, there are also issues of gender, ethnicity and race.
You, Matt, can’t help but sound like the Brit you are, and in the minds of many Americans, that makes you classy, whether you were to the manor born, or in some housing project. If, on the other hand, you had a high pitched voice with a strong southern accent, or Latin or Black American tones in your speech, no matter how genteel you were, you might have had a different outcome.
One of the reasons that I had such helpful CSRs at Alaska Air, when I was working to get my trans-Atlantic leg of the return trip upgraded, is that the CS for that airline is in Seattle. And, to a great extent, people from Seattle sound like people from MN; I was friendly, specific, and sounded familiar.
It can never hurt to put some work into how we present ourselves. But we need to acknowledge that, no matter how well we do so, some of our audience may be prejudiced against us. And, if not us, one of our friends or loved ones; we need to speak out against that, as well.
“…Brit you are, and in the minds of many Americans, that makes you classy, whether you were to the manor born”.
Interesting to note. I deal with educated clients form around the world. I find Brits to be among the most exhausting clients to deal with (=Time consuming). So many circular thought processes and getting to a decision point is remarkably convoluted. I know the conversation won’t end anytime soon. Just make up your mind! A conversation with common ppl in a pub is more reasonable. In contrast, in conversing with Dutch, you’re negotiating from day one and you’re sticking to the points. I can go on and on about different nationalities and their behavior but I find it surprising that Americans have this perception of Brits. (I’m not Anglo-Saxon).
Hmm… I agree that Alaska’s call centers are good, but they are in Seattle, Boise, and Phoenix — and while there some similarities between the Western Dialect and the Upper Midwest Dialect (commonly found in Minnesota) I find Upper Midwest to be more distinct. The long “o” of Upper Midwest (“Minnesoooooota”) is one of the most distinct aspects of the Upper Midwest dialect and it isn’t commonly found in Seattle or most of the Western US. (Maybe Mat-Su Alaska, though!)
I suspect your good treatment is likely a result of happy agents at a good airline rather than any preference based on speaking a similar dialect. 🙂
This is why I always “embellish” my profession when I am traveling in first class on an award ticket when the subject comes up 😉
Webster’s should be alerted that empathy has been replaced by social engineering, thereby erasing three syllables to make room for seven. On some grimly drizzling morning in the near future, we’ll spontaneously being speaking German as we drag ourselves unwillingly into the day. Schadenfreude, anyone?
Hey Mike,
Not sure how you can go off on some moral tirade about empathy while insulting an entire nation of people? Also I believe that Schadenfreude means taking pleasure in causing harm to other people – where is the harm in this post? It is no different from walking into a job interview dressed professionally and prepared for the task. People skills are nothing new, nor are they anything inherently bad. I simply applied an experience with them to a travel related transaction where everybody involved won.
Matt,
I really enjoyed this article. I always make a point of designing calls before I actually speak to a CSR.
I know that most readers already know this, and I’ve seen the discussion around the forums too, but it is always good to remember that checking in at the hotel front desk or the airport desk should be treated the same way. The only problem with in person social engineering is that you have to look the part as well as sound the part. The good part is that they are different but complimentary skills and often times in person you can provide a desk agent more reasons to like you than just sounding or looking like their VIP clientele. Body language can also be an effective tool. Sometimes just parking my incredibly adorable daughter on the edge of the check in desk is enough to get an upgrade to a corner suite with extra room for her to run around in instead of just the normal 1 level upgrade.
Glad to hear it! Yeah I agree about the difference in person- same concepts though.