|
Today I continue with my mini-series. It is about my encounters with organizations that I had seriously considered as a supplier. In other words: I was about to buy from them. In terms of opportunity probability we are talking about 80-100% when I got in touch with them for the first time.
Yet they managed to drive me off. And usually that took only a single interaction. How did they "achieve" this?
My posts will be anonymous. Their purpose is not to shame anyone. But these encounters usually taught me a lesson. In some cases I even must admit that I might have done something similar. So I thought that perhaps others might benefit as well.
Today's story is about a relatively small bank in a rural area about 50 kilometers away from Frankfurt/Main. I have been a customer of their retail division for more than 10 years. The customer experience was, shall we say "mixed". But the account was free and overall it was ok.
So when I needed a new business account (simply a current account without credit line, no cards etc.) fast, it was natural for me to turn to them. The website made it next to impossible to book an appointment, so I ended up calling their central help desk. It was a friendly and professional call and I was promised a call-back the same day.
And indeed I got a call about 2 hours later. I explained my need and emphasized that speed was critical because of a project deadline. From there things went south. It was as if I had never mentioned urgency.
In essence they followed the standard process, which meant to only respond to emails from me once per day. The second email was only answered the next day. In addition the office responsible was only staffed until around noon due to summer school holidays. So at 11:45 am it was not possible to speak with someone.
The next day we spoke and I asked how long it would take to open the account. I didn't get a straight answer but a long-winded explanation of the steps involved and that postal delivery times were outside their control anyway. When I pressed for a date, they estimated a full week.
Wow. I happen to know that opening such an account used to take less than 1 hour about 30 years ago. Perhaps we now have an additional step or two because of anti-money laundering legislation. But an entire week?
The core problem, as far as I can tell, was that the people simply didn't listen. I really don't expect a definitive answer on the phone immediately. But is it really too much to expect something along the lines of "I understood speed is critical, so let me check internally and get back to you later today" ?
A few days later I wrote a very polite email, thanking them for their effort. I also informed them about my decision to not pursue a business relationship at this time. They never asked back why.
Things can and will sometimes go wrong. How you handle such a situation will either kill or strengthen the relationship with your customer. Your choice. |
