It’s amazing to me the level of crappy service we’re willing to accept. Self-checkouts at the grocery store, ATM machines, rude sales associates and incompetent employees are just a handful of what I feel like I have to put up with. It’s a surprise that most businesses can even stay open. I become frustrated with myself for putting up with it!
Yesterday I stopped at the bank and made a mistake. I wish they could have told me before wasting my time.
I went to a nearby branch of the large corporate bank not to be named. It was a rainy Saturday morning and they were open at 9 am. I had just finished a sales meeting nearby and needed to get some cash.
I have a pre-paid visa card from our cabinet supplier. They use it to distribute money to their sales people as an incentive to sell their products. There was $600 in the account and I wanted to withdrawal it all as cash.
Whenever I try to take it out at the ATM I have problems because of limits on the ATM withdrawal. I didn’t try the ATM, figuring I would go inside and work face-to-face with the teller. There were no other customers and I thought a little ‘people-time’ would be nice.
As I walked in the door the banker at a nearby desk immediately stood up, came over and very sincerely told me good morning and thanked me for coming to their bank. Gold star! Great greeting and customer contact. I was impressed.
I went to the teller and told her I would like to withdrawal the $600 from the account and reason for not doing it at the ATM. She was very nice and asked for my driver’s license. She spent forever working on it and then informed me there were insufficient funds in the account. I said that was odd because I had just gotten the e-mail telling me they’d deposited the funds. I asked her to try a lesser amount in case I had the balance wrong. Again it didn’t work.
She then goes into this long sales spiel about how I need to open a checking account at the bank and how it would make this easier. I informed her that I didn’t want to open a checking account and I knew the account had sufficient funds. It was obvious to me that she had no clue how her own pre-paid card worked!
I pried myself away from her (she was still trying to sell me a checking account) and walked back out of the bank to try the ATM. As I walked out the same nice man got up and sincerely told me thanks for using their bank today. Again this was nice but it was now tempered with my annoyance at having to do everything myself.
I went to the ATM and got the $600 without any problem whatsoever! That’s what I get for trying to work face to face with the teller. This bank had it set up so it only worked at the ATM. This seemed ridiculous to me. It also surprised me that the teller had no clue what their products were and that it would not work through the teller. Even after trying it once!
I applaud them for the kind man at the door with the greeting and thanks. He made an impression on me and I thought it was a very nice touch. All in all they got a neutral on the day. They could have been in the plus if the teller would have known and told me this type of card didn’t work inside the bank. I would have accepted that and not wasted a bunch of time with the teller.
My Bad Banking Experience Has Some Positive Take-Aways
This is where the small business owner can listen, take notes and do it better. Granted, we all have troubles and make mistakes from time to time. Lord knows I’ve made my fair share of mistakes and I’ve learned it’s how you handle the mistakes that make the impression.
As a small business owner you have the power to control the experience your customers have. Make it the best experience they’ve ever had dealing with a company like yours. They’ll take notice, remember and tell their friends about it. It’s better than any advertising you can pay for.
On the other hand, bad experiences also have an impression. People are likely to tell a horror story about someone they dealt with and may love telling it just as much or more than a success story.
Don’t make your customers do all the work. Help them! That’s why they came to you in the first place. They want you to perform the service and get it done without them having to worry.