Customer Service and how it fuels Word-of-Mouth Marketing.
How a company lost 10’s of thousands of dollars in 10 mins flat and how the competitor gained that very same business in 2 mins.
I'm a fan and believer of word-of-mouth and referrals. When I think of all of my significant purchases, it’s likely because a friend or a trusted source recommended it. As we all know word-of-mouth can travel like wildfire. Anything from purchases you make at Apple, where you talk about the new camera capabilities for months to friends, or Air B&B and where to never stay.
I reevaluate my finances when it comes to structure, banking and investments every 6 months, simply because I like to stay in the loop. I keep an eye out for things and plan my next move for the next 6 months when the time calls. My indicator is strangely my dentist. After my bi-yearly dental cleaning, when I come back from the dentist, like clockwork, I hop on and take a couple hours to evaluate a few things regarding my business and personal finances, anything from investments to operational day-to-day efficiencies.
I recently decided to inquire into the higher yielding “online and virtual” Money Market accounts. Big name banks offer these too and the rates are all comparable. I like the smaller financial institutions though and decided to give this specific company a go… let’s call them "No Clue Financial” — I set up the account and tested it. (I reveal who they are at the end of this post) Like everything else I do… I apply a stress test and this time I’m glad I did! The test actually came to me first and led me to me to call the bank the next day because the procedures to get an account set up came to a halt right after I had moved some money into it. Does that even sounds like it makes sense so far? Exactly.
They didn’t send me a user ID, steps were not clear and I supposedly “selected” the wrong dropdown… you can imagine the line of bull they were feeding me on the phone instead of solving my problem. After 5 mins I’m handed to an unrequested new customer service person who also was not much help as they ended up transferring me back to the first. I put it together that a bank who supposedly cannot find a single competent person to answer the phones wouldn’t be a company I’d want to do business with. What I was asking for wasn’t rocket science, the person didn’t need a finance degree… They just needed to be friendly, eager to solve my problem and even if they didn’t know how to solve my issue that very minute, find a way! I’m patient… somewhat. After 7 minutes of hold time between my 2 new friends and 10 mins of my life I would never get back… I made up my mind before they even got back on the phone.
While I was on hold, I actually called my local bank and got the lovely lady who handles most of my requests right away, greeting me by name and asking how the kids were… She was on her game as usual.
30 secs in... I ask her two questions: “What’s your interest rate on your Money Market accounts right now?” and “How liquid are the assets and are there fees?”
Her answers were: “1%" for question 1, and “As liquid as going from your checking to your savings and vise versa, oh and zero fees”.
She then said, "I can set that up for you right now and let you know when it’s ready, would you like me to do that?”
That’s at 90 secs into the conversation. I said "yes please!", told her where to fund the new account from and said goodbye. The call took 2 mins.
As if it was on cue, as I hung up with my local banker, the customer service rep picked up from the other place. They still didn’t know their backside from their elbow. And I asked them to just close up the account that was barely open because of all the fine print she managed to tell me only after the account was open. Quickly she gives me more bad news saying that whatever has been transferred cannot be stopped… etc. Now this bank is actually a national bank but not as large as say a Chase and B of A. Which you couldn’t bribe me to bank at either of those.
The results — What happened?
Well, this company just lost potentially 10’s of thousands and over time 100’s of thousands of dollars to be invested at their bank because of two customer service reps that couldn’t serve, couldn’t care and made it sounds very apparent that their best effort combined wouldn’t keep me from walking away. They were the front line of the this bank, can you imagine? YIKES! It’s like walking to a teller in a physical bank and catch them watching a cat video on YouTube while asking you why you were standing in front of their window.
I’m not saying 10’s of thousands or 6 figures was getting moved by me this very second, but the impact is if it were. If I would have liked this new company, because of their high yielding rate for MM accounts was at 1.35% with no fees, I would have told everyone I knew! Instead. I decided to give up the .35% difference when compared to my bank and not put up with incompetence and the lack of care from this other bank.
Is anyone else like that? Opt out of the cheap route and go for the more expensive option just because you of how you’re treated? Sometimes you have no choice I understand, but if you’re in a position to do so, you’d likely vote with your feet when faced with that type of experience. There is ALWAYS a competitor waiting, and sometimes, bad companies just market for the good ones.
The lesson(s) — There are two here… Lesson 1 — To be fair the relationship between me and No Clue Financial didn’t exist, at least not yet, but when it did, it was a bad one right out of the gate. They didn’t seem to care that a new client, not a prospect, a NEW CLIENT just signed up to use their services. Not one but TWO people didn’t care. That’s interesting for a smaller financial institution. Lesson 2 — The lack of care both from management shows for not placing go-getters and customer service oriented people in the front lines. That just shows neglect and poor business sense. That alone just cost the company what could have been 10 fold whatever I was going to bring to them because of word of mouth. Customer Service reps can be trained but bad leadership can’t be excused.
Word of mouth goes both ways by the way. You talk about the companies you love and promote for them just by telling stories of your experiences. So No Clue Financial actually has a name… The bank is called Quontic Bank They could pay me 5 times the interest and I wouldn’t bank there. On the other hand, MidFirst Bank is our neighborhood bank and everyone within our branch are simply amazing. Great to be around, you can actually see them at community events and fundraisers etc, they’re part of the community. I guess there’s a 3rd lesson here. I should have stuck with the folks who take good care of me now, support local even through banking and even if they aren’t offering near the same interest rate.
Great service costs.
But…
It doesn’t cost as much as the headaches and loss of time you get from working with those who don’t care about you as a customer. Where can you trim the fat where you're serviced? Is it time for that pointless company in your life to go? Should you lean harder on the small business instead of keeping that complacent company who’s lost their touch and are just fat and happy?
I know my answer.
- T
Photo Credit: @jpvalery
