Do you ever wonder why banking is called the financial services industry? Or who coined the term? Most likely, it was the banks themselves, in which case it can only have been due to massive self-delusion or an unlikely and hitherto undetected sense of irony. Increasingly any link between banks and service appears coincidental and more likely to be the result of luck more than judgement.
This was highlighted in a recent Sunday Times article “Saved from Hitler, Lost by Barclays” in which a journalist described how Barclays not only lost the contents of a safety deposit box, but managed to absolve themselves from any responsibility for the loss. One would think Barclays would be more sensitive to such publicity in this day and age (especially in light of their new corporate values) but, alas, it would seem not.
Yet, while I can heave a sigh of relief that I don’t bank with Barclays, my experience with Santander suggests there is not much to choose between them. My story hardly fits in the same league, but nevertheless seems to epitomise the apathy and general “couldn’t-care-less” attitude that passes for service in these monolithic, overgrown and overblown organisations.
I recently had to pay a US supplier. I duly logged onto my account, went to the international payments tab, identified the payee and processed the payment. The next day, I logged on to ensure that the payment had been processed correctly and was happy to see a £7,083.24 debit. A week later, I logged on again to find an unexpected credit of £6,612.06 which appeared to be the reversal of the payment. Naturally, I phoned the bank to ascertain what was going on and established that the payment “had been declined.”
How’s that for service? Here (in a nutshell and leaving out some other relatively minor annoyances) we have a situation where:-
- A bona-fide payment has been declined, but nobody has bothered to inform me. (Why should they, I am only the customer?)
- The bank has “pocketed” a £471.18 (6.65%) difference between the amount it charged me and the amount it returned to my account. (Maybe that’s why nobody informed me!)
- Nobody could explain the position to me, but had to follow up with the International Payments Division.
- A week later the only answer I had been able to obtain is that the payment details were incorrect. (But they were the same details as when I last successfully paid this supplier!)
- Two weeks later I am still awaiting a detailed answer and the matter to be resolved.
With this kind of insight into banks operations any bank that fails to make a profit has to be guilty of gross negligence, because the message is quite clear that a customer is not someone to be served, but someone to be fleeced and fobbed off. Of course this is made easier by the excuse of different divisions and departments.
When problems are encountered is it really too much to expect someone to call me and say, “Sorry, we are having some difficulty with this payment you are trying to make. Can we go through it together and sort things out?” That to me is the minimum of what customer service means. Instead, my customer experience is one where I am made to feel that I am a nuisance and that any problems are my fault.
Yet it could all be so different, if only these organisations could see that it is not “the customer” who is the source of profit, but the service provided to customers. That is what builds sustainable success and comes from engaged employees working with a common purpose and the strategic integrity that comes from working together as a single organisational team. Hopefully you understand this, even if the banks don’t!