Your Call Is (Not That) Important to Us: Customer Service and What It Reveals About Our World and Our Lives

If you’ve ever been mildly frustrated, extremely irritated or driven just plain mad by automated customer service lines, rude telephone service representatives or agents who can’t speak intelligible English, this book is for you. Yellin (Our Mother’s War ) dives into the often dysfunctional world of customer service, exploring the multimillion-dollar industry from various points of view, interviewing exasperated consumers, displeased CEOs and infuriated customer service reps themselves. She includes transcripts of agonizing telephone exchanges, such as one where an AOL rep tries to thwart a customer’s cancellation of his account, blog excerpts from reps who feel abused and as if they are “being treated as machines” and countless stories from irritated and confused managers. While Yellin’s study offers more industry anecdotes than concrete solutions, readers will likely look at the industry differently and with more empathy for those who participate in it. (Mar.)