Special Guest Blogger - Philip Gwynne
Yesterday I found a
Barclays credit card in the street outside my house. Clearly someone had
dropped it or lost it. Being an honest person, my first thought was not: “Let’s
forge a signature and wipe out this person’s bank account”, but: “Someone may
not even realise they've lost their card and will panic when they find out."
So, I phoned the
customer service number on the card. It took a while for my call to be
answered… by a machine... to be told that this number was no longer valid and I
should phone another number instead.
Having scribbled down
the new number, I called to report I’d found one of their cards. I was greeted
by a robot who wanted me to speak clearly my name, security password and date
of birth. Three times I went round in circles trying to tell a robot I wasn’t a
customer and simply wanted to report a found card. It just kept saying: “I’m
sorry, I don’t understand that”.
Eventually, the machine
gave up and passed me on to a real person speaking in a foreign accent from a
long way away. The whole process took 20 minutes out of my day, and shouting at
a stupid machine did nothing for my blood pressure!
It’s this kind of
unthinking, unfeeling, robotised so-called "customer service" that
drives many of us to the point of frustrated rage.
And ensures I’ll now
NEVER become a Barclays customer!
Philip J Gwynne
The NAKED Marketing
Company
_______________________________
GUEST BLOGGERS WANTED
Would you like to be
a guest blogger on The Customer Service Blog? We have now got just over 10,000 readers, so it is a great way to get your views seen by a large audience. Email darrenbugg@live.com for more details.