The Expert Podcast

So what are the best ways to get professional advice about a subject that you have to deal with Whether it's, things like fixing your car repairing your home, legal advice, insurance maybe some specific industry that you need help with. like, you know a plumber or that kind of thing. And you may find this day and age it's very difficult to get anybody on the phone to answer your questions. Yeah they're not. customer service options like there used to be, and you might be frustrated that you wait on hold forever even to get customer service from a company you've done business with. So you have a few options Number one is obviously you can go online and do things like watch YouTube videos like this one. or watch. tutorials or maybe even read websites with instructions. Some people don't want to do that because it's not a two way conversation Right You can't ask YouTube a question. You can't get specific information You might have to watch 10 videos to get your question answered or read through 20 pages of texts on a website to get your question answered But at least that information is there. It's free. It's accessible 24 hours a day seven days a week You don't have to wait on hold. You might have to do a little searching and it might be inconvenient but at least you can get through to somebody. You can also call. A company that's in the business of the subject that you're interested in For example if you need. Questions about let's say plumbing. You might want to call a plumbing company and see if you can pick their brain. The only problem is sometimes the person answering the phone Isn't an actual plumber The plumbers are out doing work for customers They're actually out doing whatever job there is Even if it's an in-person. on premise type work where let's say it's a programming company for computers, the people who actually know the information are actually doing work on computers. Normally when you call up a company you're talking to a receptionist. Right Or a phone answer that may not know the answers to the questions. Sometimes you can reach a sales department. Of a company and talk to a sales person. The sales person may have more information. About your question or your subject? although…they may not have as much knowledge as the actual professional but at least you can get some basic questions answered The only problem is that sales person is probably going to try to sell you something right They have an agenda They want to try to make another sale for their commission, but sometimes you can maybe navigate that sales process to get the basic information that you need. Number three is if you, this is actually number four. If you contact a company to see if they have any. Informational materials that they can send you Maybe they can send you an email with some documents. Maybe they can send you some brochures by mail. Right…Remember most companies don't have excess customer service agents that can just give out free instructions over the phone one-on-one conversations. The reason why is because. In order to make sure their prices are good for customers. They can't have excess staff that is not helping existing paying customers. There's another way you can maybe get information. Many times there are webinars…that have information about a subject So again let's say plumbing. Maybe you can find a plumbing trade association. That has a monthly or weekly webinar that you can attend online. To have somebody describe a certain. subject for you. And sometimes you can ask questions in that webinar either by text or email or maybe even sometimes verbally it might be a zoom meeting. Right about that subject that you can ask questions sometimes they're one way where they mute all the participants. So it just becomes a one-way webinar, but those are. Methods you can maybe navigate the system to try to get information from a professional that knows what they're talking about Somebody who is, legitimate in that industry, or has the knowledge and experience to be able to answer your question. Remember if you do get ahold of somebody who has the knowledge, try not to monopolize your time remember they have a job to do They have. clients and customers to take care of. So if you just sit there talking to your off on the phone, they may not be able to stay that long on the phone call So try to be concise get to the point as soon as you can. Ask a simple question. Express your appreciation because remember every minute they're talking to you they're not able to go out and make their living So the more you can keep it. short make it easy for them to help you The more information you can get, another thing you can do is if it's a company that has an in-person. Type service Let's say an auto mechanic, right? And you want to get some questions answered about your car, maybe buy a very inexpensive service from that place. And while you're there use that time to their brain Maybe just get an oil change for $25 or $30. And while you're there you can ask a multi if I decide to change my exhaust system how does that work Or if I decide to…put on a. New set of tires How's that work? So if you buy something inexpensive from that company, especially if you're right there you might be able to get some information from them without having to, to buy the information So hopefully that's good information You'll see on the link on the bottom of the screen there's some other links to being able to get advice from professionals, hopefully that. Helps alleviate the pain and. And, anxiety of having to wait on hold for customer service and the frustration of not being able to reach somebody who knows what the heck they're talking about.