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A bank customer experience
Oct 5, 2006
I recently received an unforgettable fax from my bank. The bank's logo was in the upper-left of the page, visible and clear, but that was just about the only thing on the page that I understood.
Just below the logo, in bold letters - the only bold text on the page - read the following:
I was surprised. I've been a good customer of this bank for over 10 years, and I wondered what I did, or forgot to do, that would result in a fine. Reading on, I saw several lines of notifications, transaction numbers, and IDs, all in a mix of digits and cryptic, all-capital abbrevations. Fortunately I spotted a number to call "for questions". I hoped it might yield some answers, too. Unfortunately, it was a long-distance number, as though for miscreants like myself they couldn't spare a 1-800 line. I called anyway.
"Hello, [bank name]," the voice said. Right away I could sense that this person was busy with her day, and I was a potential distraction.
"Hi there, I have a fax here that says I might get fined, but I have no idea why. Could you help?"
"Sure, what's the zlarby-glarb on that?" (She asked for an abbrevation that didn't appear on the page.)
"I'm not sure what you mean."
"Do you see some numbers on the fax that say something like 3, 5, 8,..." and here she read off a string of digits that did appear on the page.
"Yes, I see those... what do they mean?"
"Hold on a second..." (typing, typing) "...oh, I see. You'll have to change your TRN because we're transferring our branches to [global corporate bank]." Her affect, while not rude, was fairly blunt, as though this was as obvious as the time or the weather; something I probably should have known already.
"Wait, you just said two things," I replied. "There's a number I have to change, but also, did you say something about [global corporate bank]?" I thought I had heard her right, but this was no time for assumptions.
"Yeah. All our branches are moving to [global corporate bank], and their TRN is different from ours, so you have to change it." Again, a matter-of-fact manner, as though I should have known all this.
"OK, that's news," I said, making a mental note to close my account as soon as I could. "And this TRN, what does that have to do with it?"
"Any money deposited in your account goes through a TRN, and so if you have the wrong number, it won't get to you."
Finally I understood what was going on.
"Ahhh," I said. "I think I know what this means. You've just sold all your branches to [global corporate bank], which needs a different code for the direct deposit of my salary. So my employer, not I, but my employer has to change where it direct-deposits my salary. Is that right?"
"Yeah," she said, with a tone that said "Duh! Of course." She wasn't being rude - in fact she was trying to be helpful - but I could tell that she was a little puzzled why I was so slow to pick up on these elementary terms that she knew so well.
"I've got it now," I said. "Thanks again for your help."
"You're welcome." Click.
Later that same day I opened a new account at a new bank. It was as good an experience as this had been bad, and I plan to write about it in a future column. [Update 10/11: I have written this as Part 2 of the story. -mh]
For now, consider how this transaction - the fax, the call, and other data surrounding it - might be interpreted inside the bank.
An executive concerned only with usability might consider the transaction a success, since my "task success" was 100%. I got the information I needed, and I went ahead and changed the appropriate routing number. (This was before I got the routing number from my new bank.)
A branding executive might also feel OK about the transaction, since the bank's logo was clearly printed, according to the corporate style guide, in the upper-left corner of the page, with the correct dimensions. And the person who answered the phone clearly said the name of the bank.
The mass-marketer in the bank is probably satisfied with the bank's work, because two days later I received a glossy brochure in the postal mail. "Coming Soon: More convenience for you," the headline gushes, just next to the stock graphic of a man dancing with a delighted mid-air child (the graphic designer must be pretty happy, too).
It's only the person who's really concerned with the customer experience who might have a different perspective. The transaction was a complete failure, because it gave me, a loyal customer of over ten years, several reasons to close my account. The fax was confusing and threatening, the long-distance phone call was flawed, and the glossy brochure, which arrived after the fax, is the kind of corporate happy-speak that I'd expect from the mega-bank that bought their branches.
The reality of business is the customer's reality. But seeing things from the customer's perspective, and then acting on it, requires something outside the realm of traditional usability, marketing, branding, and graphic design. It requires listening to, and empathy for, the customer. It requires reaching beyond one's narrow discipline and learning, sometimes painfully, that things have to change.
When is the last time you let a customer speak freely about their experience with your organization?
- - -
See also: The rest of the story, in Part 2: A bank customer experience.
Why not include the banks' names?
You haven't written anything that isn't true (I assume) so you haven't slandered anybody. Including the company names makes this case study real and gives it some weight - without the names it is a theoretical exercise that lacks punch.
To me, the story sounded like a scam - that it was cons trying to steal your money.
I am glad you are writing about this, because I recently had a similar experience with a bank, that both I as well as my parents have been long-standing customers of.
I'm still trying to process the indifference with which this matter was handled, and the basically automaton response I received when I called the "800" number.
When I get some time, boy is the VP of Marketing going to get a letter (w/ attachments) from me!
i didn't see anything on snopes about it, but it sounds like a scam to me, too.
I am moved to write as I recently had a Kavka-esque experience with a bank. It was WaMu to be specific. I made the mistake of thinking a bank that looked/felt more like a Starbucks would be able to handle a modest deposit for a new CD (they had advertised a great rate).
I made an error when I wrote my deposit check which WaMu did not notice, from there, things went from bad to worse, until ultimately, WaMu admitted they had no idea how to find the transfer of money from my originating bank to WaMu adn told me it might be "lost"
It took my husnand and I phoning the Federal Reserve in complete desperation to learn that the money had been transferred but WaMu had no idea how to retrieve it. We had to teach WaMu how to conduct their own internal processes...literally conference calling their various departments and teaching them how to find the transferred money. I even escalated my complaint to the Chairman's office and they started a formal investigation.
After weeks of wrangling with WaMu they located the money and told me everything was in order. Now, a couple weeks later I am getting calls that say the account has a problem (referring to an earlier issue, now resolved). It seems the departments in WaMu have no contact with each other and I, for one, won't do further business with them. My experience is not unique. In fact they just announced they are closing many Chicago area branches claiming it has to do with low consumer response. My hunch is it has to do with their complete inability to serve their customers with even the most rudimentary of banking services. DO you know we never even received an apology from WaMu? We were the customer, thrown intot the role of trainer for their woe-begotten business practices. Mark, I completely empathize with your story this week.
Don't you just love global banking? I try to avoid megacorporations whenever possible. When my bank went public a number of years ago (after being a private savings institution), I saw my service charges rise. They were then bought out by a regional bank which was soon bought out by a gigantic megabank. Before that happened I moved my accounts to a small local savings bank...privately held.
As for customer service, since corporations reward executives who 'downsize' the staff, you have fewer people doing more work than ever before. When that happens customer service is going to suffer because people get burned out (and stressed out) faster. Corporate accountants don't care about that, neither do stockholders looking at the bottom line. Being a global corporation effectively eliminates any chance that employees (or customers) will be treated like human beings. Everyone is a number these days.
I recently spent a few years inside the belly of a major bank, and it never failed to amaze me how far people inside had become distanced from how they were perceived by customers or how customers would experience the company. Externalizing acronym-jargon, service silos, brand soup, and online experience disconnects were all part of the outcome.
Stop caricaturing usability--it's not necessary to make your point. No usability engineer, information architect, or interaction designer would support the cryptic language and interaction you've described. Nor is usability as a practice reductively concerned with "task success." Good usability specialists moderate sessions with exactly the empathy you describe, and they use a range of techniques beyond usability testing to determine customers' needs and practices. (Little wonder, then, that 'user experience' is now the predominant term, rather than 'usability'). Your advocacy of customer experience is welcome; your poorly-informed attacks on user experience practitioners are counterproductive, as we have the same goals. So stop, already.
This isn't the only misstep these large conglomerates make. They tout consolidation so that they "know you better as a customer" yet never deliver on that promise. After 20 years of having multiple accounts at Citibank (personal checking, business checking, mortgages, credit cards) all of my credit card accounts were frozen for two late payments (despite paying off the cards in full each month). Despite multiple calls to "managers" they informed me that each business was run separately and there was nothing they could do. I immediately closed all accounts, and set up new ones at a different provider for each. Of course, when I closed the account their "customer service" team wanted to know why. I told them I'd moved out of town.
FROM THE DESK OF ZLARBY GLARB
CEO/CHAIRMAN, BANK NAME, LLC
Note to self:
Brief transition team on benefits of customer experience training.
I am a physician, and I work in a hospital. I see this kind of problem all the time in the medical world. It's very hard for medical personnel, especially doctors, to look at the medical experience thru the patients' eyes. I think I'm able to do it as well as anyone, but even I don't always get it right. But many physicians aren't even willing to admit there's a problem.
Oftentimes the medical treatment or procedure went well, but the patient or family are not really satisfied. In that case, many medical professionals simply think the patient is demanding and unreasonable.
But the patient's experience of a medical encounter (especially in a hospital) is usally much different than seen through the eyes of the doctors.
One of my professors in med school used to ask, not rhetorically, I might add: "Are you treating the patient or the disease?" It took me many years to figure out the difference. A lot of my colleagues never will.
Just another true service saga that reinforces the necessity of:
1) truly understanding the experience for the silent frustrated customer...not just the vocal ones!
2) lost customer analysis (assuming you can't anticipate everything in item 1).
Yup. This is (obviously) a problem that can affect any big (or even small) company.
My experiences range from recently - UPS overnight shipping that was ordered (and delivered to UPS) on thursday afternoon for friday delivery. I received on Monday, after repeated calls friday afternoon & evening, and saturday. Desperate pleas, angry calls, supervisor conversations - all yeilded confusion and lack of action or empathy.
Other experiences include airlines (need I even elaborate?) There are a few good ones in general which when maintenance or weather affect my plans, I'm able to forgive. But, most range from indifferent (American) to absolutely fucking useless and rude (United). Makes me wish I lived in Singapore.
Mark,
Great story as usual.
One big hurdle to improve the experience I have noticed is that when I/people are not satisfied with the experience they either complain or they do not want to bother one more sec with the source of bad experience and just move on (leaving the company like you did or staying but minimizing interaction to what needs to be done regardless how).
That's why from my humble experience it is so difficult sometimes to collect the precious bad experience feedback...
Keep up the good work.
tk
Hi Mark
I read with interest (no pun intended) the piece you wrote about your banking experience. A similar thing happened to me recently and I wrote a letter to the CEO of the bank about it. In fact, I wrote an open letter about it and stuck it on the web, you can get it on google by typing 'woolwich customer services' and a number of other things.
http://www.litsl.com/miscellaneous/poor_customer_service/barclays_bank_barc_the_woolwich.html
In the end they sent me a holding letter and a leaflet telling me how to complain (it didnt mention putting an open letter on the web and sorting out good SEO!).
Only today I got a letter back telling me they had reviewed the tape and found in favour of their own staff and that it was me being unreasonable. I wish they would let me publish the tape!
My experience is like yours. I ended up closing my mortgage account and going elsewhere. As far as the bank is concerned I am being an awkward customer. The bank I am going to is called Smile, part of the co-op bank in the UK. They win awards for customer service and I actually quite like talking to their staff. Odd then that The Woolwich is happy to put me down as a miserable customer. I'm actually a shareholder at the bank so think I deserve a better answer and I used to work for a bank too so I have an idea about how they work.
Anyhow, just wanted to say that I liked reading your piece on that.
Keep it up.
Carl
Your experience really resonated with me, and I felt compelled to write a post of my own about it. The banking industry is on my list - it's just got to change. Their customer experience is ridiculous, and in my experience, they watch each other so closely that they fail to notice the customer. They do as their competitor does, and are far to caught up in keeping up with the competition or growing into new markets that they don't realize how miserably they are failing at keeping the customers they have and how valuable those customers could be to their long-term growth. More of my rant here:
http://www.resultsrevolution.com/weblog/2006/10/bank_communicat.html
I will continue to visit enjoyed the reading thanks
I worked for a bank and I believe every word of that story! It was utterly frustrating to work to change well known customer service problems and improve customer experience with the bank. Banks have to change their internal culture before any real improvement can happen. Unfortunately, most bank employees only want to maintain the status quo.
It looks the same all around the world: your bank loves you and your money, specially your money, and you are and materialist stupid being that not understand all the work involved to keep your money on safe and warm in their beloved computers...
Good anecdote for the importance of a cross-channel perspective on customer experience. My only issue with your story is that no usability engineer worth his or her salt would be OK with the scenario you described. At least not anyone on my team, nor anyone I would hire, for that matter. Any interaction with a customer needs to be seen holistically; designing in silos leads to disaster.
Like many industries, the banking world is full of this kind of thing. I'm a usability professional at a large banking organization. The organization is extremely siloed, understaffed and quite miserly when it comes to spending money to ensure a good customer experience. There's no way that our team can even affect everything that goes out on our website, never mind marketing and communications to our customers through other channels.
Until organizations start integrating user experience professionals in all levels of their organization and/or top management cares enough to talk to customers on a regular basis, this sort of thing will continue to happen with regularity.
I actually received this post as part of the Good Experience Newsletter. The newsletter also contains job ads, which I greatly appreciate. I could not help but notice the one just following the article. It stated:
"Candidates without 4+ yrs e-commerce experience in the following will NOT be considered: search engine techniques..."
Too bad the adverstisers don't practice what Mark preaches. All that negativity, just after his positive and uplifting words, certainly wouldn't make me run out and help them change their user experience, "e-commerce" or otherwise.
"When things get so big you can't trust them at all. If you want some control, you've got to keep it small." -- Peter Gabriel from the song "DIY"
I have performed research and consulted with banks re: customer experience for years. Here are some insights I've gained that can be applied to any large organization:
--People within the bank know about these issues and care. Unfortunately, they often can't do anything about it or feel powerless to do so. After gaining insight re: a bank client's Small Business web site I recommended that we share the information with the other division's site managers (personal banking, corporate) since the issues were consistent with their particular pages and functionality. My client told me "great idea but good luck." A simple sharing of information across divisions was considered a joke. Just imagine what happens during an acquisition when you've got two banks who have never talked to each other before.
--Your bank will spend more energy and money on a communication "strategy" than on the actual direct communication with customers. Why? It's not sexy. The top VPs of Marketing will go to the focus groups and pore over the reports and recommended language re: how to sell the acquisition via TV, mail, etc. But no one at higher levels within the org. will see a sample of the letter you quoted. It will most likely be handled by someone who has NEVER SEEN THE STRATEGY let along had a hand in it. Most firms are still stuck on the usual communication touchpoints and don't realize that it's EVERYTHING that touches that customer that matters. I would fall off my chair if a VP Marketing, Sales, Operations, etc. in any large co. said "Get me a copy of everything that my customer sees, I mean everything." Not going to happen.
--Selling is more important than communicating: Another case in point, most branch employees do not know how to use their own bank's online banking. Surprised? I've had many employees -- these are the ones who speak with customers every day -- say that they don't know how to use the site themselves ("I just haven't gotten around to it but I heard it's nice, my customers seem to like it."). Whey they get inquiries, they just tell customers whatever is written in the brochure and to email or call the "Web people" with any questions. Why don't banks require employees to learn how to use their own freakin site? Because it's free. They'd rather spend time training employees to SELL. They don't realize that maybe they shouldn't look like idiots in the process. And that true selling comes from someone who can also provide information, the right information.
Suggestion: if you are working with a client like this or work for one remind senior managers that user experience involves all customer touchpoints: from the sides of the vans, the dunning letters, to the odors coming from the bricks and mortar. And, ask the top people if they've ever asked that question: what do my customers really see?
Post script: I just closed a business account at my bank that I've had for 7 years due to similar issues discussed. My banker asked my why. Guess what she did with my answers: write them down and forward them to the individuals responsible, their managers, or their corporate customers service dept? Nope. They just shook their head, apologized and said goodbye.
-Dk
You get faxes from your bank?
This was almost certainly a phishing scam.
Mark,
It couldn't have been Bank of America, could it? These guys have reached new standards in poor service.
I have had the same account for the past 20 years, from United Jersey Bank, to Summit Bank, to Fleet Bank, and now Bank of America. At each progressive buyout, I was surprisingly pleased to see an increase in Customer Service both online and at my respective branch.
Then came Bank of America...
I cannot believe the significant drop in the customer experience. Not capable of providing transaction information on my home equity LoC like Fleet had been doing for years, shoving new and uninteresting marketing offers on both login/logout of my online banking site (which I can't opt-out of), clogging my main Account screen with a line under each account 'helping' me receive ebills only (and I have 4 savings accounts)... I could go on. Add in the silly nuisance/usage fees for every nook and cranny transaction... OK, I have to stop now.
Ironically, online banking was a pioneering web application, providing one of the first pervasive online consumer experiences beyond retail. While advances do continue, companies like BoA have clearly realized that unless it has a direct and measurable impact on the bottom line, it's not a priority. That's a shame.
Congrats on switching... let's hope someone upstairs at your former bank makes the connection.
- Ronnie