Client service stinks, nearly uniformly across the board. There I said it!
Everything is either an appeal to a supervisor or a duplicate effort to get what one should have accomplished in one step but didn’t work as promised.
Time wasted and blood pressure rumbling. Not good.
I say that because in 3 banking transactions this week alone, I have had to drive to the branch and speak to the brank manager to fix something that should never have been broken or happened in the first place. In one week!
The global customer service ship is taking on water faster than anyone can bilge it or bail it, adding to its own demise. In a sense, the bank really doesn’t want me going to the branch, taking up teller and/or manager time (hence the branch is nearly always empty of employees yet full of septua- and octogenarians) any more than I savor going there.
Banks have developed an entire subindustry of nonhuman-contact banking, dissuading you from coming to the branch: check deposits on your mobile phone, ATMs everywhere to be used other than the bank, direct deposit of payroll, online bill paying, and the myriad of internet banking services.
As if that’s helping anything become more efficient and personal! Well, it does actually, in the inverse…It helps me hone my client service, as I would never (heaven forbid!) treat my clients as I have been treated thrice this week.
Yes, there are some rare times that I cannot accomplish what my client wants, usually a regulatory reason, but I advise them exactly what they need to do, a number to call or website to visit, and check up to see if it was resolved.
In fact I got into the online payment industry (my other persona outside of LinkedIn evangelist) to provide the style and level of service that I expect others to give me. And I do the same as a LinkedIn trainer and coach because it’s the right thing to do and it’s in my DNA.
I can choose my vendors and am aligned with the right service providers whom I know will match my vision of proper client care, even if I am not directly involved, something my clients tell me they appreciate. I live the tagline: my clients repeat to me: “I exceed expectations.”
I expect the same in return.
Unfortunately the expectation for my bank to do much more than debit and credit my accounts makes for low-hanging fruit for another bank I may have to transition to. I am just not quite incensed enough (yet) as that radical action might coerce me. The saga continues until I pull the plug. That may be soon.
Snarkily, I am not a believer in banking miracles, for the record.
On a positive note: tomorrow I bring you a guest blogger whose business makes things as right as possible for her clients via mediation.
