CUSTOMER CARE STORIES
Sometimes it is better not to upgrade services that you
regularly receive and are happy about. A couple of months ago I received a text
message from my bank asking me if I would like to have an upgraded debit card.
Since my existing card was a nameless one with a long time ahead before its
validity ends, I thought it would be a good idea to have an upgraded one with
my name on it; and I chose to respond. The new card was a good one, no doubt: Longer
validity and lots of benefits and features associated with it. I was happy that
the bank is actually honoring my long standing association with them, till I
tried to undertake internet banking with the new card.
So here is the procedure: The bank gives you a login ID
for internet banking (I prefer using this mode of payment than using the card
directly) and the user logs in to the system and undertakes the transaction.
After the user enters the transaction password, the website asks the user to provide
some details from the card. The user furnishes the details, the bank verifies
it and the transaction is complete. In case an incorrect user name or password
is entered for a specific number of times, the user ID gets locked and the user
needs to contact the customer care to get it re-activated. You know the drill.
When trying to book a travel ticket, the payment site
forwarded me to the bank website where I am supposed to login with my details.
I found that the website wasn’t accepting my password, and ultimately my
transaction ID got blocked. I knew the drill here too. I called up the customer
care and followed the IVR instructions announced on phone, and finally reached
a point where I need to enter some information from my card to authentication.
To my surprise, despite repeated careful attempts to enter the correct details,
the system did not accept my details. Finally giving up on me, the system
transferred my call to a customer care executive.
The executive was
quite polite listening patiently to my description of the problem. I know the
drill here too. The executive explains the standard procedure and moves the
user back to the mechanical IVR menu with a beautiful voice. User follows
instructions and furnishes details from the card number and the login ID gets
reactivated. Except that in my case it doesn’t accept the details. The call
gets automatically forwarded to another executive. Here I explain the whole
story to the clueless executive and mention that I had entered the right
details. Ultimately as a last hope I spell out the details, letter by letter.
He agrees “That’s right, sir. The values you have entered are the correct
values as per the system.” Then why is it
not accepting the data I enter?
Here I try to explain the executive the possible flaw in
the system: man vs. machine. This incident came to mind while I was reading a similar story this morning from MIT
professor and Harvard blogger Robert Plant. My bank’s system too is designed by
some team that comprises of human beings like me. It appears that though the
bank has started sending away cards with longer lifetimes, the system wasn’t
updated to accept cards with validity periods later than 2020 and hence it kept
on rejecting the 2021 validity year of my card.
When we design systems in order to ensure smooth handling
of customers, we also need to make remind ourselves that the customer is also a
human being like us and won’t probably be happy doing things that we ourselves
don’t.
