Recently, I had to call my bank’s customer care ( not calling out the name of the bank), and I had this frustrating experience. Don’t get me wrong, I was not fed up with the customer service agent, but with the wrong optimization strategies of the bank. I’m sure you all had similar experiences with many institutes.
So the story begins with the news floating around, that the banks are going to stop sending OTP messages for online transactions, and it will be replaced by the app notification and confirmation. I was ignoring these messages and news for a long time, thinking that we have time, no worries.
During this vacation, one day I had nothing to do, and I was literally a couch potato and this message popped up again, saying the end date is nearing. That is when I remembered that I have a credit card that I have been using for the last 7 years, but somehow the app never allowed me to log in. I was not bothered by that because I could log in using the Internet banking web application.
I thought maybe they had fixed that issue, so let me retry.
I opened the app, and it says
Scan your National ID to activate mobile banking.
I had to get up from my comfy couch, and I walked all the way to my bedroom, opened the closet, took my wallet, and scanned the national ID.
I had to scan both sides, and the app started showing a loading screen.
I walked slowly back to my couch and sat down. That is when it showed the same error in red color
“ The ID doesn’t match the ID in our system.” Please call 6XXXXX to fix this issue.”
“Oh man! Years have gone by, but nothing has changed”. And I dialled that number.
It started ringing, and after two rings the automated message started playing
“We have identified you using the number you are calling from. To verify your identity, please repeat this phrase after the beep.”
I was happy because I didn’t have to go through all those security questions. Little did I know that happiness was short-lived.
That female voice came back, and it said:
“Welcome Bivek, please state your reason, and I will be able to help you with any queries.”
“ Really, you can! ” I was wondering in my head and said:
“Can I speak with the customer care, please?”
I was wickedly smiling and thinking, “Let’s see if she can help me with this”.
She replied in the same tone:
“You don’t have to go to the customer care, I can help you with anything, just state what you are looking for eg, say credit card, debit card, internet banking, mobile banking….”
oofs “mobile banking”, I repeated
“I understood that you are looking for mobile banking. Please say yes or say go back.”
I said “Yesss!”
Then she gave me another three choices, and none of them made any sense. I went back and forth to different menus, hearing those monotonous repetitions. Out of frustration, I disconnected the call twice. Almost 20minutes went by, my mood and tone changed from casual to frustration to anger to helplessness. I even remember begging,
“Please, can you please connect me to a customer service agent?”
And the voice will respond in the same tone without any emotion,
“I can help you with anything, please say,..”
And I disconnected the call.
After some time, I decided to log in to their online portal and see if I could find any options there. I went into almost all menus in their internet banking site, and inside some where ( don’t even ask me how and where I found that, please) I found an option “Your Documents” and I clicked that,
They have an option to see your National ID, and it is well hidden waoo.
Without much hope, I clicked on that, and it was true, you can see the National ID. I was surprised,
But you need a magnifying glass to read that ( I am not joking). It was that small…. I zoomed in and found that one digit was wrong.
“Viola!”
That was the eureka moment; finally, after 7 years, I found the problem.
Soon I started wondering after every renewal, I have uploaded the National ID(the bank will send an email with a link, and it can be done only through that ), so for the last 7 years, this ID was wrongly captured, but my card was still working, how? No Idea..
Another story for another time. Now let’s focus on this one.
Back to the story
Somewhere else, I have seen an option to reupload the national ID, so I tried that option, but it didn’t allow me. Instead, it showed me a message.
This time, they changed the color of the message, which was blue.
“ Call 8XXXX for assistance.”
Oh please, I lost all my hope, but I dialed that number, and it started ringing, and the same voice came back,
“We have identified you….”
“Welcome Bivek, I can help you with ….”
My patience was all gone, and my tone was harsh; my face turned red. After a split second, my consciousness came back.
This is just an automation, and why am I shouting at that? Anyway, you don’t have anything to do today, so let’s make this your time pass and see where this will take you.
And I decided to play with that voice to figure out what options they have and somewhere deep inside, it says
“If your problem is something else, then say something else.”
I didn’t let her complete that sentence, and I shouted,
“Something else!”
The female voice responded:
“ Please explain.”
In a desperate and hopeless voice, I said
“ I tried logging in to the mobile app, and it is saying my national ID is not match the records you have in the bank. How can I update the national ID, please!”
The female voice responded:
“It’s about updating the National ID. If so, please say Yes, else …”
I didn’t let it complete, I shouted out loud as if I had achieved something big
“YES”
Then came the big statement
The female voice responded:
“You can update the national ID by logging into the app. If you want to repeat this message, say repeat else, say disconnect the call.”
I shouted,
“You Idiot @@##@#@ @##@#@ ”
I was about to throw my phone, that’s when I realized this poor thing didn’t do anything wrong, and if it breaks, I have to buy another phone, so I decided to throw it safely to the couch next to me
I was sitting on the couch and staring at that credit card, and my inner voice started speaking
“You don’t have anything to do today, so let’s explore and find out what all mess they created inside that.”
So after 10 minutes, I took the phone again and looked at it.
“Good that I put it on the sofa, nothing happened to it.”
And I started dialing the number and started playing with that voice again.
After many tries, some were down the line, the automated voice stopped, and it went to the old model(don’t ask me how and when it happened)
Press 1 for credit card
Press 2 for …
Press 3 for mobile banking
The treasure I was looking for was hidden somewhere deep inside the option 3
“Press 8 to talk to customer care.”
I didn’t think much and pressed 8 immediately,
For a moment, I thought I was dreaming because
I got connected to a “Real Human .. a Real Human,
My inner voice said:
“Can you believe it, Bivek, pinch yourself and see if it is a dream!”
I talked to the customer care agent, and she explained to me that this can be done only by going to the branch.
I asked her.
“Don’t you have an option to upload this using the web application?”
Maybe because she detected the frustration and helplessness in my voice ,or maybe because it is a common query, she responded immediately in an acknowledging tone,
“Sir, I know it is not your mistake, but we don’t have that option. Unfortunately, you have to go to the nearest branch to do this.“
She even gave me the nearest branch to me, and it’s like 35 minutes away from me. It’s because of another cost optimization strategy by banks. They are minimizing the branches… anyway.
I spent almost 30 minutes going through all those options, and finally, when connected to a human, I got a resolution for my problem in two minutes.
Since I wasted almost 35 minutes travelling, another 35 minutes is not a big deal, so I decided to go to the branch. I went there, gave my documents, and by the time I reached back home, the problem was solved.
My point is …
Wait a second, there are many points…so the two main points are
Point-1:
You can, and you have to optimize customer journeys and systems to make things better and save costs. But everything should not be automated.
There are some problems that you can solve with automation and AI. For eg: the way they automated the customer identification and verification. It’s beautifully done! But everything else went wrong, terribly wrong.
You have to think from a customer’s lens, in this fast-paced world, if a customer is picking up the phone and dialing your customer care. Then it means he or she has a real problem to solve.
It’s not your opportunity to showcase your tech advancement and optimization. Instead, it’s time to show some empathy and compassion.
So, “You should automate, but don’t take out the human from the loop, and don’t hide that option deep inside.
Point-2
On one side, the operations team is optimizing by decreasing the number of branches to save cost, and on the other side, the product and technology team is unable to fix a document scan and upload functionality( most probably they don’t bother), and is asking customers to go to a branch to do that. Where is the alignment?
Good luck, customers. Have a nice drive!
Moral of the story
“Even the couch potatoes can be productive.”
Trooming 