How should you respond if a customer asks for information outside your expertise?

• A. Guess and provide an answer to avoid delays.
• B. Refuse to help and end the conversation.
• C. Admit you don't know, commit to finding the right answer, and involve subject matter expert or supervisor.
• D. Provide an approximate answer based on intuition.

Answer: (C)

When you don’t have the information handy, the right move is to be honest and take action to get it from the right person. Admit you don’t know the answer, commit to finding the correct one, and involve a subject matter expert or supervisor. This approach keeps the information accurate, builds trust with the customer, and shows you’re proactive about solving the issue. In practice, acknowledge the request, avoid guessing, offer to escalate, gather any needed details, set a clear follow-up timeframe, and then deliver the accurate answer after checking with the appropriate expert. Guessing, ending the conversation, or giving an rough answer can mislead the customer or stall resolution, whereas escalating to the right person ensures quality and reliability.