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Reassurance: Rule #1 in Customer Experience Today
Author: Jeannie Walters
September 25, 2008
Does the economy feel a little scary to anyone else? Yes? I thought so.
It’s more than the economy, however, that drives us to focus on customer reassurance as a tool today. We are living in a world where we fear our personal data will be swiped off the receipt we casually throw in the waste basket. We are living in a world where we fear our invoices will overcharge us and nobody will care. We are living in a world where one small typo could mean we lose our health insurance and have to deal with a cumbersome and painful process to rectify things.
It is difficult to be a customer today. There is little that works the way it should. There are guarantees created to cover us only long enough to get us out of the store. Billing has become a complex and convoluted process.
So imagine my surprise when I received a call from Chase Bank requesting Janet Walters call immediately to rectify a serious credit problem. Two things you should know:
1. I do, in fact, have an account with Chase.
2. My name is not Janet. It’s Jeanne (or Jeannie) and always has been.
I called back the 888 number provided and heard the man answer “Credit Services.” He requested my credit card number (didn’t have it in front of me) or my social. I hesitated, but then provided. I explained my situation and he put me on hold. He came back and said “It’s done. You’re out of the system.”
It was a brief exchange that left me feeling anything but reassured. Was this even Chase? What does “It’s done” mean, exactly? Is my SSN now floating through space to thieves and crooks worldwide?
I frantically tried to find a way to reach Chase. I was in my kitchen, so I found the yellow pages. I found a toll-free number to call and wandered through the maze of choices until forcing the darn system to give me a real person. What do I select, exactly, to inform them they have the wrong J. Walters and I believe I may have been duped??
I explain my situation and am transferred to the credit department. “I just need to know if you, Chase, just accessed my account. Is there a way you can do that? I have the number I called - can you verify this??”
No. Again and again. The credit department; the security department…then they go to transfer me again and I’m left cold. Nobody can reassure me. Nobody can tell me anything.
I give up.
I have to tell my husband that I may have jeopardized our family’s financial security because of a call from Chase.
I wait for a few weeks to pass. Nothing happens. We get no more calls.
I’m still not reassured.
My only reassurance? I’ve told this story to a few people who had the EXACT same problem from Chase.
Reassurance is all we want as customers. We want to know our faith in people is still valid. We want to know someone, somewhere is looking out for us.
Online, reassurance is more than critical. In any interaction, it can be the difference between feeling like “Phew! I made a great choice” to “Oh no. This is a terrible mistake.”
Knowing what we know - that it’s hard to be a customer; that it’s a scary world - we have to do more to reassure people doing business with us. What can you do to reassure your customers today? What ways are you leaving them feeling anxious? Address those things and you’ll have loyalty.
Back to the economy: it’ll be fine. Feeling reassured?
Me neither.
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