More and more calling customer service seems like calling customer disservice. Many of us dread calling them when we have questions or problems with our bills or orders. It’s a maze of automated questions and irrelevant choices all with annoying background music.

This week the Shopping Queen has some tips to help you get more service from customer service.

Making the Call

1. Try to avoid calling: Before you pick up the phone to call, check the company’s website. Look under their Help or FAQ’s section to see if you can solve you own problem. Companies are putting more and more account management features online, so with a couple of clicks you could be done. Or, you can chat or email with customer service. Many times you can get your problem resolved quicker online than by calling.

2. Avoid push button limbo: How many times have you gotten stuck pushing buttons to try and find a human voice instead of the slow automated system? Visit www.GetHuman.com before you call to find the secret word or button that will link you directly to a human. Some common choices are the number 0 pressed once or more or saying representative. GetHuman.com has an extensive listing of customer service numbers categorized by industry.

3. Call during the day: Generally calling during work hours is your best chance to get your problem resolved. Although you will probably have a longer wait time. Calling after hours is good for getting questions answered or simple problems. Many companies don’t staff their call centers after hours and many are outsourcing their after hours service to countries such as India. Outsourced call centers have little authority to make decisions and typically have access to less customer history than in house call centers.

Making Contact

1. It’s not therapy: Once you have a customer service representative on the line don’t waste time by venting to them. Save the venting for your friends or therapist. Carefully and calmly describe your issue and only include relevant details. The cable company doesn’t care if you missed the season finale of Desperate Housewives.

2. Be specific: When calling customer service with a problem you experienced make sure you are specific about what you want them to do. After you state the issue, wait for customer service to offer a resolution. If that resolution is not satisfactory have your own suggestion ready. For example if the sofa you ordered arrives damaged after you spent an entire day waiting for the delivery service, customer service will most likely just offer to quickly redeliver another sofa. You should be prepared to ask for a discount for the inconvenience or at least the refund of the delivery fee.

3. Take good notes: Whenever you call customer service, they document and take notes about the phone call. You should do the same. You should note the date of the phone call as well as the name of the representative. Include any follow up details and what the resolution was. Sometimes you will need to make multiple calls before a problem is solved.

4. Move up the chain: If you are not able to get your problem resolved after two phone calls, ask to speak to a supervisor. Depending on the company, the supervisor may have the authority to take care of your issue. Unfortunately, many companies do not empower their supervisors any more than the general representative. The supervisors just have more experience, but no added authority. If this is the case and the issue is important enough for you to continue to pursue then you can do some online searches on the company and its management team. Contact the corporate office and ask to speak to the head of operations. Most likely you will not speak to them directly but will be directed to their office staff who should be able to resolve your problem.

A great resource for company information as well as consumer tips actually comes free from Uncle Sam! The Federal Citizen Information Center publishes a free annual Consumer Action Handbook. You can view the book online or order it for free at www.ConsumerAction.gov. It includes sample complaint letters as well as state resources.

For more great time and money saving tips, ideas and coupons, visit www.TheShoppingQueen.com.