Want to cancel telephone services and you keep running into a brick wall with the customer service department?

What about your Wall Street Journal subscription you keep trying to cancel, but they keep delivering it and keep billing you too?

How about a zealous relative who just will not take no for an answer from the numerous requests of money, money, money?

Finally, there is a solution. Mind control! Yes, really. Now, don’t laugh, it’s all the rage. I found a list of things you can do to get customer service representatives to not only cooperate with you, but to actually help you in your quest for, uhm, customer service. Imagine that !!

I have actually used a few of these tactics, but I want to add a couple more to spice things up and round it all out:

Always flatter the person. Tell them you’re know they’re very busy helping sooooo many other people, and you want to thank them for taking the time to help you. Poor, distressed female. Always works.

Speak clearly and articualte well in addition to speaking firmly. There’s nothing like having all the right things to say but not being able to communicate them well. You will lose your audience quickly.

Take notes and lots of them. Always be prepared to “remind” the customer service representative of what they said, or just said.

Mind control isn’t necessarily a new thing when dealing with community issues. We use it everyday to talk our way out of parking tickets, dealing with clients and sales associates, even online when we are emailing and chatting we use the “power of persuasion,” When you follow these tips to the letter, you can (possibly) get your way. Or at least try.

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