Whilst not directly call centre related, this topic is worthy of consideration for everyone with a sense of responsibility - everyone reading or contributing to CCV.
My personal banking is currently(!) with Barclays and my business accounts withthe Royal Bank of Scotland. I visited my local branch of Barclays this morning to pay money into my personal account and pay in a cheque I had received for the business into the RBS account – something I had done many times before.
I handed over my paying-in books and the personal stuff was duly ‘dealt with’ – you know, the standard ‘non-interaction’ one is faced with despite paying them a fortune in charges.
The resident Barclays Bank dragon then spoke. Actually it was more of an utterance from her lair behind the protective glass screen (I use the term ‘utterance’ only because describing the verbal scraping of something off your shoe is difficult). Apparently referring to my Royal Bank of Scotland paying-in book, with all the warmth of a 100 year old corpse it demanded, “Vot’s zis?”.
I resisted the immediate temptation to ask whether or not, after her 247 years of ‘faithful’ service, she recognised a book that customers complete in order to pay money into an account – aka a ‘paying in’ book. Realising quickly that she wouldn’t actually understand the word C U S T O M E R, instead I foolishly said with a jaunty smile, “I want to pay that in too please.”
I had not reckoned on the Friday the 13th effect… Frau Ning (for this was what I had decided her name was) snapped, “Do you haf an arrangement?” The last word in the sentence was spat and a demonic glint flashed in her eye.
“Pardon?” I replied.
“Do you haf un arrangement? Ve vill haf to chargeyou ozzervise.”
My mind was reeling. I’d only come in to pay money in to some accounts, not rob the place! To my eternal regret, I then made mistake number two. “I’ve paid them in before and no one has ever said anything.” I bravely countered.
“Pah” she spat. She’d obviously heard this ‘feeble’ excuse before and was not to be distracted from the important task at hand. She painstakingly went through each of the stubs on the paying-in book looking for ‘evidence’. Clearly seeing the BARCLAYS bank stamp for previous entries she stoically ignored them.
“DO you haf un arrangement?” Frau Ning demanded. Clearly I was incapable of delivering the right answer first time, according to her manual at least, so she had fired the question at me again.
By this time my courage had risen - along with my hackles – after all there was a thick wall of bullet proof glass to protect me – and I snapped back, “Why has no one else ever said anything to me?” She just stared at me in silence, smoke rising from her nostrils.
“Give me the book then………..….. please.” After all, you can’t lower your standards to their level can you?
I picked up the book and began to walk out. As I neared the safety of the street I threw a comment over my shoulder aimed directly at Frau Ning’s heart. I naively hoped this would dampen her flames, “Fine. I’ll move my account.”
I’m not sure whether the sound I heard was it bouncing off the bullet proof customer protection or it being burned to a frazzle mid journey by a Frau Ning smile….. Frau Ning no doubt thought I was referring to the RBS account and that Barclays would soon be the recipient of yet more of my money….. Wrong. I’ll take my personal overdraft to a bank where someone appreciates it.
To say I was ‘not amused’ when I jumped back into the car with poor Jo, my partner, would be the understatement of all understatements. We were off to the station where I was catching a train to London. As I recounted this chilling tale to her, I got madder and madder. I guess even more so than normal because I didn’t have time to remonstrate or take it further with the manager due to having a train to catch. However I found my driving getting more and more aggressive till Jo finally said to me, “Go back and kill her - not us. Stop it. You’re driving like an idiot and others will suffer if we crash so calm down.”
I did calm down and felt immediately better but it got me thinking.
Bad service leads, very clearly based on this experience, to potentially huge consequences outside the immediately obvious. Has anyone anywhere thought as to the real cost of such things? It occurs to me that there may be a far wider cost justification and indeed wider social responsibility for companies to ensure that the customer experience they deliver does not cost us more than in immediately appears.
What do you think?
David
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