Thursday, January 02, 2014

Thoughts On Customer Experience

Lost my bank debit card the other day.  It took me about 4 hours to realize it was missing.  My first move was to use my iPhone to check my account using the bank’s app…sigh of relief, my money no unrecognized charges.  Then I called the toll-free number (a prominent link from that same app) to block the card - they not only blocked the card for new charges, but assured me that any fraudulent charges would be refunded to my account (because I called within 24 hours of losing the card).  I slept peacefully that night, knowing the money in my account was safe.

The next morning at 9:00 am, I received a phone call from my local branch:  based on my call from the prior night, my new debit card (with a new account number) was ready for pickup.  The cool thing here was I didn’t even have to ask for the replacement card…the bank took the initiative based on my call from the prior evening.  I was instructed to drive over to create a new PIN and pick up the new card at my convenience.  So I did.  The card was waiting for me…show some ID, punch in a new PIN, and we’re done.  From the time I walked in the door of the local branch, I walked out with the new debit card within five minutes.

Driving away from the branch, I realized that the total time invested by me to report to check the account, call in the lost card, and have the card replaced?  20 minutes, including the drive time to the local branch.  And it was easy…no fuss, no muss, no stress.


My point in sharing all this here?  I think I just had a superior customer experience.  And, yes, my bank now has a customer for life.  All tech related: 1) simple, easy to use mobile app; 2) easily-accessible live service from that app; 3) integration that automatically caused my replacement card to be created, along with a follow-up phone call.  So maybe this is the type of thing that all those customer experience pundits are talking about?  Hmmm...

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