You can't bank on good service

I knew I should have expected the worst, when I was queueing for... 'cashier number 5 please' when I overheard another customer asking why a side door was locked that meant he had to walk into a busy road to get around road works that had closed the pavement between the bank's car park and the main entrance...this simple solution (open the side door) versus placing the banks customers in mortal danger was beyond the capability staff on the ground to sanction...and they certainly lacked the 'bottle' or initiative to deal with the problem imaginatively. It might also have been an unscrupulous 'life insurance sales technique'of course!

Any way, I duly arrived at the cashier to deposit some cash. I then had a query about my business account and asked the cashier if she happened to have the number of the office. "Oh no sir, that's business banking, I don't have that, you need to go over to the 'service' (sic) desk"

So I joined another queue at the under 'personed' service without a smile desk, and waited 15 minutes whilst the service provider provided detailed account problem sorting for the customer in front of me. Great service for them, crap service for me and the 8 people behind me.

Then...hooray my turn...or so I thought...the service person finished with Mrs Detail, stood up and walked past me saying "Sorry to keep you, I just have to sort out a customer in the meeting room" - To cap it all another (obvious newbie) ignoring me, came up to the woman behind me and asked " So, are you together?" (meaning me) and proceeded to deal with the woman's query!

At this point I was in total bemusement, and, in a semi-catatonic trance, walked out the bank and nearly got flattened by a bus because I couldn't walk on the pavement!

Arriva Trains - 21st century Highwaymen?

Arriva trains have recently won the UK rail franchise previously managed by Central Trains.

In a staggering piece of customer care avoidance which makes most other forms of train service ineptitude pale into insignificance, it has been announced that Arriva trains are going to Penalise, yes, Penalise bona fide passengers not just fare dodgers

The specific example concerns the Liverpool - Norwich line. This policy is applying to other major routes in the UK too.

If you buy a ticket on the Liverpool Norwich route south to Nottingham and then decide during that journey (let's say you recieve a mobile phone message changing your plans) that you would like/ need to progress one station further using a connecting train you will be penalised with a £20 additional ticket price if you didn't buy the ticket for the 'full' journey when you started out.

The reason? "because you should have purchased the connecting ticket at Sheffield sir as this takes you through one of our (arbritary) travel zones."

How utterly ludicrous! which senior manager of this appalling poor organisation allowed this policy (and the idiot who created it) to walk out of his office without sanction?

So, as a customer you have three options:

a)develop 20:20 foresight, deny yourself the choice of responding to changes of plan and inconvenience yourself for the convenience of the train company

b)instead of walking 10 yards to the connecting train walk 500 yards into the station to buy a new ticket and 510 yards back to the waiting (mostly empty!!) connecting train

c) pay £20 for a normally £2.90 journey


Arriva are clearly badly managed, devoid of any customer orientation, lacking in intellectual agility and are an utter disgrace.

They are also totally out of touch with modern social-media opportunities and I would urge any reader to promote this example of Corporate ineptitude at every opportunity

WORLD'S TALLEST MIDGET

What's it all about - well its nothing to do with midgets - or not directly!

In a world where people have made lots of money talking about creating customer experiences what sort of service do we get from companies on a daily basis? Okay - so those of you fortunate enough to have visited Disney can claim to have had a memorable experience. Is this what life is like most of the time on most days?

The phrase 'World's tallest midget' was coined by a friend of mine of reckons that in most markets companies don't have to be great they just have to be better than the rest. Given the the rest are often very bad all you ever need to be is The World's tallest midget - the tallest guy in your market.

We begin with the view that most companies dole out poor service to customers most of the time. What we are looking for are examples of service 'experiences' you have had - good or bad. We begin with a view that the bad will seriously outweigh the good - but let's see.

So - if you've had poor service please feel free to vent your spleen to me Mark Serve on the World's tallest midget. If you've had a great service experience feel free to gush!


Mark Serve