[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bj73s4dqoUk]
This is a hilarious video about visa’s personalized customer service.
My experience with the banks with whom I have a card account is eerily similar to the customer’s experience in the video.
1. I am always forced to listen to my balances whether or not I want to know about them.
2. I am always informed that the call maybe recorded for quality purposes. I dont know if it was or if it was not.
3. Even after having entered all the validation, I am again required to validate myself.
4. I am asked to be put on hold almost everytime I call, irrespective of the query.
5. There are times when all I want to do is to talk to a representative and be done with. Instead, I am forced to wait and wade through a lot of options (at times with no clear instructions on how to reach an operator).
6. When I do opt to talk to an operator, the wait time is so loong.
A simple solution to this problem could be to provide the following options:
1. Know your balances
2. Know your transactions
3. Talk to a customer service representative
There is a choice that the banks need to make regarding what is more important to them:
1. Is it satisfied & happy customers or
2. Decrease in the cost of managing the customer engagements.
There could be another alternative for the banks which could be a win-win arrangement for both the bank and their customers.
“Customers can talk to their service representatives once a week for free. In case, they do more than that, the bank can charge a small fee to provide the service”
Before making claims of personalized customer service, organizations should first ensure that their service truly is personalized.
If not, it is better not to claim this as customers do understand the meaning of personalized customer service and can’t be fooled.
Hope the banks and other financial institutions are paying heed to this advice and change the way they connect to their customers.
Have you had any such experience and what would you want to tell these banks about their services?
