Mind the gap
The intersections in organisations and the impact on customer experience
Recently I opened a new bank account. This experience was the perfect example of how the intersections of organisations (the space between the silos where one department's responsibility stops and another departments starts) can lead to a terrible experience for the customer.
With two small children and not much spare time, I was excited to find this bank enabled customers to open an account online, even in my case where they were I was not an existing customer. I completed the (very well designed) online form only to get to the point where you hold your passport up to your computer's camera. It was impossible to use. I have a new computer and after 7 years working in technology, I’d say I’m reasonably competent with digital tools. After an hour of trying to get the passport photo to pass their test, I gave up. A few days later I received a letter in the post (despite the bank having my email address) saying my account was pending but that my passport hadn't been verified. Thinking it might be quicker to speak to a human at this point I wrestled the smaller family members out the door and went to my nearest branch. Explaining what had happened I asked the team member if she could verify my passport to open my account. The response .... “ you’ll have to go back through them”. Who are these ‘them’ you speak of? You are all the bank, you are them!
As a customer I’m not conscious of the different channels or how your organisation is structured (e.g your digital team vs branch network) and nor should I be. After asking if I could see someone who could open me a new account while I was there I was told it would be a 10-day wait to see someone.
Getting nowhere in the branch I called the 0800 number on the letter, now onto the fourth different mode of interaction (online, post, in person and now phone). After being on hold for 30minutes (!) the person on the phone couldn’t help either and suggested I just start a new application online. Yes at this point I should have taken my business elsewhere but I really wanted to see how this loop was going to be closed. This time around the passport functionality worked and I was the frustrated owner of a new bucket to put money in with a blog post brewing! So where’s the lesson in all of this....
“Your customers don’t interact with your organisations in silos and yet this is how we continue to structure our businesses. ”
I wanted a relationship with a bank - not a team within that bank. I’m sure in this case this new online account opening functionality was tested fully by the team that implemented it but I do wonder if anyone really put themselves in their customers' shoes to go through the full end to end process if something went wrong. The challenge to you all - identify one of your key processes, walk through that process as if you’re a customer of your business with no insider knowledge. Better yet, walk beside a real customer doing it. You may be surprised how many times they trip on the gap. In my view that's where the customer experience can be won or lost.