Archive for the 'HSBC' Category

Posted by: Peter Massey | 5.10.2010

I use airports a lot. Many seem to be plastered with HSBC red lines, pretty pictures and slogans. Like the one above ” our belief is what we learn from one customer will help us to better serve another”. Of course that makes me wonder how they learn from each customer. Before giving any company feedback I always ask “what would you do if I gave you some feedback?”. From the response you can always tell whether there is an organised way of doing this. And you can tell whether the member of staff believes in it and so tries to get feedback. Or whether they know its a waste of time, turn defensive and try not to take anything on.

Today I had the latter experience with HSBC. Again. Why was I trying to give feedback?

The security on their business bank account is a dumb process with dumb questions. I told them that back in April and before. The security process involved me

• guessing if we have an overdraft facility – we’ve never asked for one, but I certainly don’t know if they gave us one and with a 50/50 chance of being right, I’d hardly call it a security question
• going online, opening the account and reading back the last transaction.

Talking to them today just took me straight back to the multiple run ins with security and my card being cut off whilst trying to get back from Sweden during the ash cloud problem (see blog ). Each time I try to give them feedback but I know I’m wasting my breath by the way it’s rebutted.

Why did I have to call the call centre today anyway? I don’t deal with the banking after all. Months and months of trying to change a name on the account. I was asked to call the call centre by the branch because the paperwork we sent in weeks ago had come through but wasn’t correct. The call centre say it is correct, so it was a complete waste of my time anyway. I asked my PA to call the guy in the branch back to confirm – but she can’t. You can’t call a branch. So much unnecessary customer effort around what should have been a simple change months & months ago.

In April I got so fed up with the way HSBC business accounts work that I tried to move our business bank account. I couldn’t get anyone who would recommend their banking supplier and all the forums were poorly rating everyone. So we took the second best in the consumer world ie Co-Op but the effort involved stopped us eventually. You had to join the Federation of Small Businesses for a fee. They insisted on coming to see you even through you didn’t want to see them. The account opening team screwed up the names and addresses – so we stopped at that point.

So much unnecessary customer effort around what should surely be the simplest process – winning a customer.

So some questions for HSBC:

• When oh when will first direct, clearly the best in the consumer world, open a business account so something sensible can be offered in the SME market.
• What has HSBC done, since spending millions on advertising, to fulfil the slogan ”what we learn from one customer will help us to better serve another”. What have they done to make it practical and true?
• What did marketing think when they made that slogan?

If anyone at HSBC is listening – please reply? I’d love to talk

Customer effort, HSBC, Marketing promise, customer experience, dumb things, financial services, first direct | No Comments

Posted by: Peter Massey | 22.04.2010

I flew to Stockholm last Thursday morning at 7.30am by British Airways from terminal 5. I’m just on the way to pick up my car, one week later.

Why did I fly? Because no one mentioned any possible disruption, despite the fact that 90% of flights were already stopped by 7am. Blissful ignorance.

Did they not have the information to give? Somehow I doubt that.

Did they think about the effort they would cause their customers downstream?  To quote Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon:

 “I think most big errors are errors of omission not commission. The times when they were in a position to notice something and act on it…and yet failed to do so”

The chain of ‘customer effort’ and frustration that BA have created for me is fascinating. And the amount ot work it caused other people and companies. All avoidable, had BA been open and honest. I’ll try and précis it.

• An afternoon of calls and web searches by me, my PA, by my concierge service, by my Swedish collague. To get information, assess options, arrange hotels, try to get a car. At least 3 calls into hotels, 6 to the office, several to local car companies, that I could see. Many calls, texts and emails to friends and contacts to try to get a car. Many calls on our behalf.
• 2 hours shopping for clothes and necessities.
• 6 texts and 2 calls to a colleague’s son whose friend had a car we could hire.
• Multiple attempts and 4 calls into 3 insurance companies to check cover for the car.
• The colleague’s son’s friend taking the morning off work to get the car test renewed before it ran out the following week.
• The son planning to fly to his sisters in London who would have to keep the car before he drove it back for his friend.
• The PA trying to get a car crossing for the channel and googling, texting  routes.
• The 26 hour journey across 7 countries by car.
• The 3 calls to HSBC for bouncing my card, presumably for being used in different countries. The very poor handling of which is resulting in them losing our business accounts. It was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
• The re-organising of picking up a new car back home.
• The colleague’s wife driving to Dover to pick us up.
• The re-re-organising of picking up the car ( with 2 subsequent re-visits, but that’s another story of customer effort)
• The abortive trip to Heathrow to move the car, but there were no shuttles. Big well done to BAA for waiving the car park fees!
• The actual trip now to Heathrow to pick the car up.

I could go on……. but I’m distracted by the effort in resolving how Fiat sold me a “previous model” as a new car without telling me and hoping they’d get away with it. 

One small omission by company, many large effects for customer. Huge customer effort…..

So my message is….. think about the effort you cause your customers downstream. They will. To quote Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, again: 

“I think most big errors are errors of omission not commission. The times when they were in a position to notice something and act on it…and yet failed to do so”

British Airways, Customer satisfaction, HSBC, airlines, banking, complaint, customer experience, dumb things | 1 Comment

Posted by: Peter Massey | 5.11.2009

Our business bank account is interesting. There’s usually sufficient balance to keep the bank manager in bonuses and the cheques roll in from well known household names. We’ve never been overdrawn on our business account. Yet nearly every month my HSBC business card gets stopped. Usually at an awkward time like paying for a client’s lunch.  So why do they do it? The rules of course….

The company credit cards have an aggregate and an individual maximum and eventually you may hit one of them. Particularly if business is doing well. But you’re not allowed to  pay any money off mid month to keep the card useful. Against the rules. So it’s useless til month end. 

More business  = more spend = more for the bank you’d think.

So why do they cut you off from doing more business? Because the “product” can’t cope with any flexing. Ah well….. But after regular and irritating calls to the call centres it was time to do something. 

Irritating because they wont talk to our finance person. Irritating because you get ID&V-ed again after transfer. Irritating because security questions like what was the last transaction on the account mean nothing to the average MD of a  SME  company. Irritating because they also cut you off frequently for security checks…… all basic stuff really, but no one is thinking about customer effort they create from these policies and product rules.

So I called the sales call centre to find there was no real alternative. I tried it again for somebody who was bovvered.. Same answer. I tried the man on the end of the newsletter. Lo, there was an answer – a commercial card that you can pay down mid month. So we ordered that. You can guess what happened next…..

Yes, they cut the existing card off. Why because the new one had been sent out. Where? To my PA. I’ll see the new one some day when the post is working again…… dumb things, dumb things, dumb things…… 

What’s the collective name for a bunch of dumb things….. answers on a postcard please (but not til after the postal strike)

HSBC, dumb things | 1 Comment

Posted by: Peter Massey | 1.12.2007

I’ve had a lot of feedback about the HSBC and first direct credit card blog “1 contact vs 23 contacts“

When I tried to use the HSBC card on Tuesday night to buy some tube tickets for the Chief Customer Officers’ trip across town, as I suspected it wasn’t over yet. It didn’t work.

When I came to pay the bill for the excellent dinner at “Dans Le Noir” it bounced. Now if you saw the size of the bill you wouldn’t be surprised. I did wonder whether I’d bust my limit.

Wednesday I thought ‘one more try’ and tried to top up my Oyster card with it and it bounced.

The following day was a busy one and so on ThursdayI checked with our finance lady and it seemed ok. I called the number on my card to be answered very quickly by a lady of impeccable manners. Strangely she called me Peter before I had given her any details. Clearly they were on my case! The only marker she had was for ‘payment requested over the limit’. The helpful lady suggested that I probably hadn’t bust my limit but had probably bust the aggregate limit on my card.

I accepted the point and talked to finance to sort it out.

So far so good but something didn’t smell right. The first payment that was declined was only for £16. It wasn’t enough to break a limit. Whatever, life’s too short, move on.

Then Friday night I got a text from my colleague. “You’ll never believe it, but I’ve had a call from the HSBC fraud people asking for you to ring them”.

As per the last story, obviously they still had my colleague’s names and details attached to my card and were ringing him.

So I rang the number on the card on Saturday. And went through security. Card number, date of birth and any two consecutive letters from my favourite word. At least they stopped asking me for my postcode and then telling me it was wrong. But I havent given them a special word. “It could be your mothers maiden name” the helpful lady suggested. It was. I realised she obviously had the whole of my mothers maiden name on screen and that the lady a few days before had done the same thing with the same helpful suggestion. Is that security?

Nothing wrong with the balance. No flag on the account. Eventually I got transferred offshore to the fraud department. Just before I hung up after waiting 2 minutes 25 seconds on hold.

She asked had I tried to make a payment in Steam. Avoiding all jokes about trains, I didnt recognise it – but we moved on before I answered yes or no (afterward I remembered the beers late in the night in the Steam bar….). Had I tried to make a payment at Hilton. No, but I had stayed there this week. And not paid anything on my credit card. All cash. Had I paid anything on SE Trains earlier – yes.

OK, she would reinstate my card. It was just a fraud check she said, nothing to do with balances. I didn’t argue because I don’t want to go through 23 contacts again to get a new card.

So the questions that I am left with are:
1) Will they ever get me attached to my phone number and details, not my colleague?
2) Why did my card bounce for £16 when that wouldn’t break the limit? Was it in fact a fraud check?
3) Who tried to take money off my card at the Hilton?
4 ) Why was my card reinstated when there could have been a risk? It was my fault – I just wanted my card working and I need to find out what was going on at the Hilton. I think I know so I took the risk.

I got the outcome I wanted, my card working again. This time in only 7 contacts (me to finance, me to bank, me to finance, finance to me, bank to colleague, colleague to me, me to bank).

But shouldn’t the first 2 contacts have sorted it and left no questions open:

• Bounce at the tube, be it fraud check or balance problem
• Text or call to me (not my colleague)
• I call the bank and we agree it’s real or they tell me I have a balance problem so I dont try and use the card to embarass myself in front of 15 of the top customer experience people in the country

If you’re reading this – do get in touch with your observations at peter.massey@budd.uk.com

HSBC, customer experience design, process improvement | No Comments

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