Your Call Is (Not That) Important to Us

“According to the author, [customer service is] a barometer of how we communicate and how we treat each other not only nationally but globally and across all sorts of barriers.” – Memphis Flyer “After death, taxes and inclement weather, it’s one of life’s most inescapable downers: the customer-service call. Getting help can be an automated hell, an eternity of Muzak, code punching and security questions. Which is why the title of Emily Yellin’s customer-friendly romp through this unfriendly world rings so true: ‘Your Call Is (Not That) Important to Us.’” – Newsweek“For small business owners, Yellin’s prodigiously researched book is a useful cautionary tale.” – Fortune Small Business Magazine“If you’ve ever been frustrated by automated customer service lines, rude telephone service representatives or agents who can’t speak intelligible English, this book is for you. Yellin dives into the often dysfunctional world of customer service, interviewing exasperated consumers, displeased CEOs and infuriated customer service reps. Readers will likely look at the industry differently and with more empathy.” – Publishers Weekly“Ms. Yellin, a Memphis-based journalist, mixes polls and studies with excerpts from published reports and her own insightful reporting from call centers and related businesses in the U.S. and overseas… [she] is an illuminating guide whose conclusions are sound” – Wall Street Journal“Yellin divulges the woes of mistreated consumers, striking a chord not only with adults who have fantasized about destroying stubborn fax machines and voice recognition systems, but also those who take their revenge on companies by posting injustices on the Web. Yellin doesn’t just dwell on complaints, however. She also looks at our nature to complain, what we complain about and how we do so. She adeptly covers the history of technology and its role in consumerism and customer service.” – St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri)

Emily Yellin is the author of Our Mothers’ War, and was a longtime contributor to the New York Times. She has also written for Time, the Washington Post, the *International Herald Tribune, Newsweek, Smithsonian Magazine, and other publications. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Madison with a degree in English literature and received a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University. She currently lives in Memphis, Tennessee.