Posted by: Peter Massey | 4.04.2008
first direct’s withdrawal of mortgages to new customers took the news by storm yesterday. It wasn’t a surprise. As we reported on the 11th of Feb blog entry, it was evident the product was selling “too well”.
So how come it took til now to do something? Why did it have to reach crisis point? I wonder who’s getting what blame?
But they did get brave and do the right thing. Look after the existing customers and the ones who already applied and stop taking more business that couldn’t be handled properly.
Bravo!
Listening to customers it must have been evident it had to happen. I wonder why they didnt just up the rates a bit in February and take more business at a higher margin, avoiding the negative publicity and “first rock” factor?
It’s interesting that there’s now a BBC Today programme on Saturdays that’s designed to do exactly this. Pick up the stories from the customers before the journalists can.
What our customers are saying is in the public domain. Shouldn’t you be picking it up in your business first?
Talk to us about the “what our customers are saying” process
Uncategorized, WOCAS, first direct, listening, word of mouth | No Comments
Posted by: Peter Massey | 6.03.2008
Hi Lynn – not sure what to say. My inbox is already filling with industry people who feel misrepresented – yet again. There’s so much good stuff in the industry, so many people trying very hard to fix what’s broken. Ok Paul made that stance at the start but it wasn’t explored.
I feel particularly disappointed at the editing. The juxtaposition of customer comments with extracts from conversations eg the American “have a nice day” with a first direct agent – it so misrepresents what first direct do.
It looked like “which clips can we use to illustrate the point we want to make” rather than any insightful journey.
dumb things, first direct | No Comments
Posted by: Peter Massey | 11.02.2008
Sorry for radio silence. As you can see we have a new site going live and the blogs will now resume!
Call me sad, but I found a dumb thing at first direct at last! I have given them the feedback - it’s worth it because I believe they will act on it.
Unlike the guys at Swindon station today after I trod on a loose flagstone outside the front door of the station. It had a huge puddle under it that went straight up my legs. At least I was too wet to look like I wet myself!
Telling the ticket clerk, it was clear she had no way of dealing with what customers say. “Tell that guy in the orange jacket over there”. I didn’t bother.
So what did first direct do? A classic in the web site. Click on mortgage sales and it asks you to log in if you’re an existing customer. You log in and click on mortgages. It asks you to proceed to log out and look at mortgages. Back where you started! ! Tee hee.
The other dumb thing is quite interesting. And another classic. Marketing versus operations.
Marketing obviously made their mortgage offer way too good. Not only couldn’t I be put thro now, they couldnt call me back until Monday as they were booked solid!. It’s the classic oversell or underpricing that generates more demand than can’t be handled. Even assuming the forecasts were notified. The customer experience - frustrated. Being a fan I’ll wait. But it doesnt reflect well.
Bet operations are getting it in the neck not marketing.
I asked “Could I do it myself on the web?”. The answer ”We’ve taken it down because of the demand….” !!
Trying again a week later, the same problem. But the agent said “I’ll keep an eye on the queue for you through next week and call you back personally”.
customer experience, first direct | 1 Comment
Posted by: Peter Massey | 17.11.2007
Why is it always me that gets cloned? Well at least a useful comparison was possible this time….
My HSBC business credit card was cloned several weeks ago. By my reckoning the first call took place on the 2nd October. It’s now the 17th November and the replacement is still not set up properly. There have been more than 20 contacts so far.
My first direct personal credit card was cloned last Saturday the 10th November and the replacement was with me and working by Wednesday 14th. It would have been Tuesday but I was away.
First the right way to do it. I’m shopping with my daughter in London and the first 2 transactions bounce so I call first direct. They transfer me to the fraud unit and a lady abroad ( sorry forgot to ask whether it was Malaysia or India - betya it’s an HSBC centre though) asks me if I’ve tried downloading songs from iTunes that morning which I haven’t. So bang goes the Xmas shopping on the credit card. I wasn’t happy. 
She tells me the card will be with me within 5 to 7 working days and I’m thinking “oh yeah?” given what I’m going through with the business account. Anyway I get home Wednesday to find it there and I’ve had no problem using it subsequently. Bingo - one very satisfied customer.
Could it have been better. Well yes. They could have called me before I had the embarassment of a snooty waitress at Harvey Nicks bouncing my card. They could have had the first person I called ask me about the iTunes transactions, rather than a rather lengthy transfer tying up me and the agent. The second agent could have spoken more clearly and been more understanding at my protests of being without a card for a week. They could have said that the card would go out same day and be there Tuesday and I’d have thought they were really trying to make it quick.
What about HSBC then? I’ll try and remember as many of the contacts as I can…..
1) The first call came at about 9pm from an Indian sounding lady saying she was from HSBC and could she have my credit card number, date of birth etc. Strangely enough I said “no - she couldn’t until she could prove she was HSBC and not some “phisher”". We got nowhere as the process says she can’t talk to me til I’ve been through security and since security was evidently silly I wasn’t willing to and they should get somebody sensible to ring me (lucky I had that glass of wine or I’d have been uptight by now !)
2) & 3) I then had a call from my colleague who’d had an earlier call from HSBC about the card. He’d told them they’d have to ring me. He explained they’d told him the card had been cloned.
4) Another Indian gentleman called me and attempts to take me through security again. I again refuse and ask him to go through my security checks. Tell me which company name is the card in? He can’t tell me anaything until I’ve been through security. Tell me the HSBC phone numbers on my credit card - he gave me 2 and both failed my identity check. So we parted company there.
By complete coincidence I had a conference call the following day with the nice guy at HSBC who runs the offshore centres and gave him the feedback on the security process.
Then I did nothing for a couple of weeks. The bank did nothing. Exactly as a phisher would do. My card stopped working though so heh maybe they were real. I just starting using another card from another bank.
Two weeks later on the 17th October I was speaking at the Institute of Customer Services Conference. I use several real examples of “dumb things” and this was at once added to the repertoire.
5) At the end of my talk, no less than the Customer Service Director of first direct comes up and wants my details to sort it out. He may not be HSBC directly but he takes it on personally - that’s fabulous. At the end of the conference I pick up my voice mails.
6) The first direct guy has called the right person in HSBC
7) He or she has obviously called Claire….
& 9) …..who has called me and left 2 voicemails whilst I have been in the conference
10) I return the call but she’s not there so I leave a message and…
11) ….she returns the call and we speak. She’s taken up the case and will sort it out. No security checks required, I notice.
12) & 13) When I get back to email, I find that Claire had emailed me to. I mail back and say thanks
I wait for the card over a week but nothing comes. In fairness there’s a postal strike.
14) Eventually I call Claire again and she checks it has been sent and it must be in the post.
15) I wait some more and eventually it arrives. At my colleague’s house. I get it next time we meet in a few days time. Then I wait some more for the pin number to arrive.
16) & 17) I email Claire again. She emails back. The card was preset up with the same pin so no need to have waited at all ! How dumb do I feel? But heh it didnt say that on the letter with the card….
I use the card and it works… YES ! But wait…. I try to use it on the web to pay for wireless access. This requires my address. The card bounces again. I try again. No. It bounces.
18) & 19) I ask my PA to call the number on the card and get the address corrected which she does. Of course they cant take her instruction as she cant pass security. So she passes the phone to me, but the computer says no. No I cant have my own address on my own card as I had before. Her insistence that it has never been possible drives me to distraction and I pass her back to my PA to escalate to the supervisor. After 20 minutes on hold she hangs up.
20) & 21) So she emails Claire at my request. Claire emails back to say she can’t take my PA’s instruction as she’s not a named contact on the account.
22) I email her back and confirm the instruction to have me on my address. And not to swap my colleagues onto my address!!!! No security but it apparently happens.
23) Last week my existing pin number arrived in the post under one of those sticky flaps in the letter! Not something I was happy with from a security point of view, since as with many people I’m sure, its the same one I use on my other cards.
I haven’t yet tried to use the card with my address details so I don’t know whether it’s really fixed. But I won’t be surprised if it doesn’t. And I wont be dsurprised if a colleagues card stops working.
Have I complained? No, I’ve done enough work. Will I move banks. No - its tons of work and wont be any better. I’ve used many banks and see no differences.
And do I feel like putting our insurance business thro HSBC? You guessed it - about 23 times less likely than going to first direct. Oh when will they start business banking !! Then it would be worth moving.
So an extreme story? - I dont think so judging by our personal experiences of dealing with banks. And we have further evidence from our work with the Amazon Skyline processes. One of our banking clients has reduced their contact rate by 81% in the past three years. Another US client has quadrupled the size of their business and decresed their contact support headcount by 20% at the same time.
If you work at HSBC and want to talk about how we can save you up to 80% of your operating budget then contact me on 07802 793515 or peter.massey@budd.uk.com
If you work at first direct and are reading this - fabulous, thank you and yes - when are you going to start business banking ! ??
If you are just a blog reader - Hi, thanks for reading and you can get more in our white paper “100 things you can learn from first direct”in our library
100 things, HSBC, contact rate, first direct | No Comments
Posted by: Peter Massey | 26.02.2007
Our Fast+Simple free white paper on first direct ‘100 things you can learn from first direct’ was published in November 2005 and still continues to be our best seller in the library at www.budd.uk.com
Not to be out done, first direct themselves have just opened up more information on their culture including some video clips, podcasts and customer videos. You can see them at www.interactive.firstdirect.com
The more you learn, the more you realise it’s no one thing, there’s no silver bullet. It’s a whole lot of things adding up to everyone being a chief customer officer. This theme is also a striking part of our freshly published ‘100 things you can learn from Google Inc.’ (no prizes for the person who says “but there are billions of things on Google…”). Its released this month and available free in the library at www.budd.uk.com
100 things, Google, first direct | No Comments
