From the UK’s SC Magazine:
“Barclays Capital Securities and Barclays Bank have been fined £2.45 million by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) for failing to provide accurate transaction reports and for serious weaknesses in its systems and controls in relation to transaction reporting.”
‘Serious weaknesses in their systems and controls’ is an understatement. See Barclays Bank’s 25 year process for driving away customers for details.
Since my last run-in with Barclays, I’ve stopped receiving faxes when incoming payments hit the account. Why? I have no idea. But it might be something to do with the serious weaknesses in their systems.
Question 1: If you receive a complaint from a customer, do you:
(a) ignore it,
(b) panic over it, or
(c) try to appease the customer, then fix the problem that caused the issue.
Question 2: If you receive a long list of reasonable complaints from a long-term customer, which of the above options do you choose?
Happy customers, unfortunately, rarely proactively contact you. They don’t get in touch to say everything’s fine and they don’t post on forums asking “Is anyone else as delighted with the service as I am?”
Unhappy customers, equally unfortunately, need to let off steam. They will contact you to complain, they will share their experiences whenever your name comes up, and may take opportunity to vent their anger in public as a means of showing their dissatisfaction.
When’s the last time you called your internet service provider to thank them for providing a good and reliable service? The last time you called is when your speed dropped or your billing got screwed up, right?
We’ve all experienced the frustration and annoyance created by poor service. And we share those experiences with colleagues, friends and family. If we’re really angry, we’ll share them with the world.
Keep your customers happy. And when you can’t or don’t, repair the damage. The internet has a long memory.
