Several weeks ago, I deposited a cheque for £122 into my local bank account, but it was paid in as $122. Anyone familiar with the foreign exchange rate will know this left me out of pocket.
So the next day I went back to the bank, and I was lucky enough to speak to the original teller who had processed the cheque. He assured me that he would fix it, and he’d call me when he was done.
Several days went by… nothing.
So I phoned the bank and – big surprise – I was directed straight to voicemail. The machine invited me to leave a message with my phone number so they could call me back, so I obliged.
Several days went by… nothing.
Barnstorming
Soon after, I finally got around to reading 3 Examples of Stellar Social Media Customer Service. All 3 examples are certainly worthy of the write-up, but one concerned me nevertheless.
The article stated:
One customer, Jennifer Hellum, sought customer service after the glass top on her Pottery Barn table shattered in the extreme Arizona heat last summer. Calling the customer service line and the store where she bought the table didn’t get her anywhere. A few weeks later, she posted photos of the tabletop explosion on Pottery Barn’s Facebook fan page. Within 30 minutes she had a call from a customer relations representative who worked with her to find a new tabletop and reimbursed her for it.
WTF?!
Calling both the customer service line and the store where she bought the table didn’t get her anywhere, but complaining on Facebook did.
Kudos to Pottery Barn’s social media team, but shame on the brand overall.
Monkey see, monkey do
Given my problem with the bank, I decided to take a leaf out of Jennifer Hellum’s book. I looked up ANZ Bank on Twitter, but I couldn’t find it. So I googled “ANZ Twitter” and stumbled upon Did ANZ open a new branch and forget to staff it? – not a good omen!
The article states:
Last year ANZ established a dedicated Twitter account called @ANZ_Responds to communicate with customers. The account sat dormant for many months before being shut down earlier this year.
A spokesperson for ANZ says the account was set up as a trial. “However, we found that most of our customers were happier to discuss their banking needs with us directly, at a branch, on the phone, or online.”
ROTFL!
I did, however, find @anzmoneymanager on Twitter. While ANZ MoneyManager is the bank’s online budgeting tool – something completely unrelated – I thought I’d give it a go and ask them for help anyway.
Thankfully they said yes and a few DMs later all was fixed.
So again…
WTF?!
Star struck
Is this what customer service has come to?
Crap service face to face. Crap service on the phone. Stellar service on social media.
That’s no way to run a business.
I could draw a parallel to e-learning and bang on about maintaining consistency over multiple modes of delivery, but I figure that’s a no brainer so I won’t waste your time.
I just hope our service providers figure it out.
In the meantime, I feel sorry for my Twitter hero. Guilty by association, @anzmoneymanager will no doubt be pestered by the bank’s aggrieved customers, despite those customers being happier to discuss their banking needs directly, at a branch, on the phone, or online.
E-Learning Provocateur 