Yet another incident involving our online banking "tech support".
Very similar to the linked thread: customer calls in to make sure that a balance transfer he set up online is pending. Once again, there is no transaction pending on the credit card but there is a system-generated comment on the account that the customer made the request online. No confirmation that it is processing, and no rate information.
I put the customer on hold and call over to online banking and was yet again stunned by the complete lack of professionalism. I must be more gullible than I thought; I don't know why these people surprise me any more. The rep finally got around to asking me for the account number of the credit card or debit card for the account. Keep in mind that I just told her that I was calling from Card Services for a customer who had requested a balance transfer...
She seemed very confused and asked me if this was a credit card, which I confirmed...multiple times. Then she advised me to call the credit card department...
"That is the department from which I am calling, and what I need is for someone in online banking to verify if this balance transfer was set up correctly online and at what rate. Once again, it is not showing as a pending transaction on his credit card but I understand that this may be because he just requested it earlier today."
Cue more hemming and hawing, so many "um"s and "uh"s, followed by the rep informing me that she does not have access to the customer's credit card information, only his deposit accounts (never mentioned previously when she was verifying whether this was a credit card or a debit card!), and that she does not have access to his online banking profile at all. When I asked her who I might call who would have access to his profile, she was absolutely clueless and again recommended that I call my own department for information on balance transfers. 
Let's just make a long story a little bit shorter and concede that we round in circles a bit more with her unable to provide me with any information leading to a department with access to actual online banking support and me getting more terse in my replies...ending with the customer hanging up because he had been on hold for far too long. 
The kicker? Just as I realized that the customer had disconnected, the other rep said, "I'm sorry, but I will not be able to assist you with that information today."
Even though I have been doing a lot better with my sales performance, there's still room for improvement. This is 100% due to my anxiety and confidence issues, which I am working on in therapy, but of course I'm not going to tell this to my manager. So he set me up for some additional "coaching" today by having one of our top performers sit with me and listen to my calls for 30 minutes.
A customer called in to close his account. When I asked him why, he said that they were consolidating and no longer using this card, so they need to get rid of it. This man has been a customer since 1998. His credit line was $30,000 with a $0 balance, and his APR was 7.24%V. Basically an awesome customer that we do not want to lose.
I showed appreciation for his business and flat out told him I didn't want to lose his business. If he's looking to consolidate his debt and pay off balances, I can help him do that by using this account. He had an excellent promotion for 0% interest on balance transfers until February 2015. The transaction fee, which is normally 4% of the total, would be capped at $199. He politely declined.
I checked under the new promotions window. "What if I could extend that 0% out until May 2015?" He was really nice, but he declined again. I thanked him for his time, told him I would need to transfer him to an account manager to handle the account closure, and transferred him to retention.
So what did our top performer have to say about all this? "I never would have thought to transfer him to retention. After he turned down those offers, I would have just gone ahead and closed the account." 
Believe me when I tell you that he learned more from me today than I could ever learn from him. If a customer is "retention eligible" and wants to close the account,especially for a customer with this status, you always transfer to retention. That is the whole purpose of the retention department: to retain the customer's business!
So what did I learn from this experience? If that jackass can be a top performer, then so can I! The only thing this idiot does better than me is be persistent and consistent in his offers to the customers.
Why can't people pay attention to the words that are coming out of my mouth?
Every day, I have customers who answer the question, "May I have the last four digits of the card you're calling about?" with the last 4 digits of their SSN. Sometimes I have to ask, "What is your credit card number?" and they give me just the last 4 digits of the card; then they get upset when I have to repeat myself and specify that I need the full account number.
I just had a call that I answered with the usual, "Thank you for calling card services! This is Headset. May I have your full name please?" The caller gave me his name and I said, "Thank you, Mr. Customer, and what is your credit card number?"
"My credit card number?!"
"Yes, sir; I need your full account number, please."
"I'm not calling about no credit card!"
"I apologize, sir; it appears that you've been routed through to the wrong department. What type of account are you calling about?"
"I'm calling about my truck!" Okaaay...maybe he has an auto loan with us?
Nope. When I asked him which department he was trying to reach so that I could transfer him, he answered, "The Department of Motor Vehicles!" His tone of voice implied that I was a complete idiot and he just could not believe how stupid I was. I was too happy to inform him that he had dialed the wrong number and reached Big Bank by mistake.
Call me crazy, but the last time I called the DMV, I'm pretty sure that the greeting did not include the words, "card services." I've also never waited on hold to speak with someone at the DMV and listened to messages advertising banking services the entire time, but maybe I just wasn't paying attention. 
I recently passed my one year anniversary at the bank, and no one was more surprised than me.
Back in July, I was placed on a written warning. Even though my numbers had shown improvement, I was still not meeting expectations. I was extremely discouraged and started feeling really sorry for myself, like I just could not do this, I'm not good enough, I'm never going to "get it," and so on. I was crying at work over stupid shit and my anxiety was getting out of control. It was not cool.
I sat in a closed office with my team manager and our department head, where they asked me, "What do we need to do to help you succeed?" My answer was that maybe I'm not cut out for this type of work. My department head looked me in the eye and told me I was wrong, that he and my manager really believed in me and my potential. That they had spoken with other managers who had overheard me on the phone and were impressed by my skills.
Well damn.
So I had to admit that as far as training and assistance was concerned, that my manager had already gone above and beyond what could be expected to help me succeed. My manager is fucking awesome; he is hands down one of the best people I have ever worked for. I cannot blame him or the company for my failures. My biggest barrier at this job is my own anxiety and that is something that I need to work on myself.
It was not easy to say that out loud in front of two people for whom I have a great deal of respect. I don't want to be seen as the office nutcase.
After signing the written warning, I did get some additional coaching and picked up some great techniques from one of my co-workers. Nothing drastic, just a slight change in tone of voice. I had been trying to speak in a very upbeat, cheerful voice. It's hard to explain, but for some reason I've found customers to be more receptive when I speak in sort of a soft, soothing voice instead. Silly, but it's working pretty well so far. Mostly, though, I've been making a huge effort to slow down, swallow my anxiety, and just...talk to the customers.
Speaking of my anxiety, I started seeing a therapist once a week. This was a huge deal for me. I've had some very negative experiences with mental health "professionals" in the past. We're still in the "getting to know you" stage, but so far it's going really well. I think I can trust this guy, and I feel like he understands me. It's been very helpful; I feel a lot more positive in general lately!
I've also been taking St. John's Wort daily for about a month now, along with some vitamin supplements. While I'm not noticing a huge difference, I am feeling a little better. It's definitely not making things any worse, so I'm going to keep taking it. My only complaint about the St. John's Wort is that is smells fucking gross. Like moldy dirt or something. Even though it's in gel caps, I end up tasting it later. Nasty.
Aaanyway, by the end of July...I was a "meets expectations" for performance! Just barely, but who cares! At least I wasn't getting fired, right? I started to relax a little and feel a little bit better about my abilities at work. Then, I made expectations for August, too.
Maybe I can do this shit, after all.
If we change a customer's credit card number because someone stole their card and racked up a bunch of fraudulent charges...and that customer calls back to ask how much longer it's going to be until they should get that new card in the mail...you don't activate that fucking card! But hey, at least you didn't fuck up as badly as the next rep this customer spoke with...
If the customer calls back a week later to say, "Hey, I still haven't received that card in the mail. What gives?" and you simply mail out an additional copy of the same card...you are a dumbass and you suck!
WTF! Seriously?! The icing on the cake is the fact that the rep actually typed in the comment, "never received card," as the reason for mailing a new one. With the same exact account number. For a customer who has already experienced fraud on their account!
Do you know how easy it is to report a card as lost or stolen, have the number changed and simultaneously mail out a new one? It takes, literally, two seconds. That's it! You click two buttons in total. It does not require any comments to be entered. Zero keystrokes. Two seconds!
I had a woman call today asking to lower her interest rate on her credit card. She had an outstanding balance close to $5000, with an APR of 17.99%...slightly above average. Because of the high balance, I had to request a rate review from a manager, but in the meantime would she mind if I discussed some other opportunities on her account?
You see, I'm looking at the big picture here, and there's more than one way to save money.
She had some 0% balance transfer offers that would save her interest on other accounts, but claimed she didn't have any other credit cards that she was paying interest on...okay, scratch that, moving on...
I could see that not only is she paying off a high balance, she's continuing to use the card, charging several hundred dollars each month. She pays the minimum due or slightly over; even if I can lower her rate, she's still digging herself into a hole. So I offer her this:
I can take the remaining available credit on this account and use it to open up a new card. You still have the same amount of total credit with this bank; it's just split between two cards. You stop using card A and begin paying down the balance without being charged any additional interest.
Because card B is a new account, I can offer you the promotional rate of 0% (ZERO!) interest on all purchases for the first 15 (FIFTEEN!) months. Therefore, you have a credit card to use for your daily needs...without being charged any additional interest. After the promotion has expired, the APR will be 14.99%, which is considerably lower than your current rate.
She completely flipped her shit.
Apparently this was a terrible idea because then she would have two separate payments and that is just ridiculous. Even though those two payments combined would be much less that what she's paying now. My manager was able to lower her rate to 13.99%, which is great, but let me just recap real quick what she turned down:
I gave her an opportunity to use that credit with NO INTEREST for fifteen months. By the way, I also explained that the existing balance would still be lowered to 13.99%...I was simply offering her an additional opportunity that would allow her to make new purchases for zero interest.
She would rather pay the 13.99% than have a second bill.
I don't even know what to say. I'm just going to leave it at that.
I know I complain about my customers as much as the next CSR, but the truth is: I love working in customer service. I love feeling productive and useful when I help people, and I will bend over backwards to do so for the majority of my customers.
I had a gentleman call in who had received a phone call from Bank B, alerting him to some suspicious charges on that credit card. When he checked his online banking with us, there were pending charges from the same merchant on our credit card. He and his wife have never heard of this company and did not authorize these charges.
Normally, we advise customers that we are unable to do anything with the charges until they have posted and settled to the account, but I felt bad that they had been alerted to this by another bank, causing them more concern. Our fraud protection is supposed to be top-notch. I decided to conference over to our fraud claims dept and see what we can do to reassure the customer and resolve the issue.
I also normally do not stay on the line beyond providing fraud with the customer's information. I decided to remain on the line, and stated this with the fraud rep on the line, so that I could process a request to have the replacement cards mailed out priority overnight. I had noticed that these customers use their card on a daily basis, and wanted to provide that courtesy to them. I also knew that fraud would just send them out regular mail or charge for the overnight delivery. I have the authority to waive the fee and wanted to make sure it was done correctly.
From the beginning, this was a terrible conference. First of all, she answered the phone, very curtly, "Card services, Jane.*" That's it! They're supposed to identify themselves as working in the fraud department, but ok. I was more disturbed by the lack of, "How can I help you today?" or "May I have the card number you're calling about?" or even, "Can I have your name, please?" So there was a bit of a pause as I waited for her to say something else, anything, before I finally said, "Yes, hi...This is Headset Hellion from customer service. I have Mr. Smith* on the other line, who would like to initiate a claim against some fraudulent charges."
The conversation went downhill from there.
She asked me three times what I had verified to authenticate the cardholder. If she had bothered to check the comments on the account, she would have been able to see exactly what had been verified, so this is annoying. Then I brought the customer on the line for her and it just got worse.
She was so incredibly rude and nasty to this man that I just could not believe it. Despite the fact that I had him fully verified, she began asking him for additional verification as if he was a suspicious caller. Maybe I'm wrong; maybe that's their policy, to get an addition verifier for security purposes. It's more the way she did it, the way she was speaking to this customer. Her tone of voice was just...nasty. Even when I have transferred a legit suspicious caller to the fraud department for verification, I have never heard someone speak to a customer this way. It was just uncalled for.
She asked him what employer his wife had listed on the credit card application back in 2007. Apparently the wife has been working freelance for some time and he wasn't able to remember what she had written on the application...six years ago! So Jane gets very irritated and says something to the effect of, "Now this is going to take longer because you're not able to verify the employment information. I'm going to have to place you on hold!"
She kept us on hold for over 5 minutes. I don't know what she was doing or looking for. I've never had this happen before! The entire time, I was trying to figure out a way to hang up on her but keep myself and the customer connected. No dice; you have to ask the third party to disconnect...and I didn't see that going very well. I apologized to Mr. Smith, assured him that I would remain on the line, and hoped for the best.
LULZ! I should have known better. When Jane finally got back on the line, she had apparently decided to throw decent customer service completely out the window. Without any explanation, she immediately started asking him more security questions. She asked if he could verify the DOB of a family member. Not normally a problem, except that this family member has a unique Asian name...and Jane could not pronounce it correctly. Mr. Smith became confused and asked her if she could spell it because he has two relatives with names that sound similar (when pronounced badly, I'm sure). Of course Jane refused to do this for him. She moved on to another family member. This time she spoke the name as last-name first...on a name where both the first and last names could be used interchangeably as first or last names! Thankfully Mr. Smith figured out WTF she was talking about and was able to give the correct DOB.
When he asked why he had to answer so many questions in order to report to us fraudulent activity on his account...to which he had been alerted by another bank...she snapped at him that it was his fault because he hadn't been able to verify the employment question! She gave him no explanation of our fraud protection guarantee, just informed him that the charges would be refunded, the cards blocked, and replacement cards sent regular mail...expect delivery in 7-10 business days.
Of course the customer started to protest. I interrupted and said, "Mr. Smith, I'm sorry. This is why I've remained on the line for you. I noticed you use your cards on a daily basis. I can get the replacements sent out overnight for you; I just need to confirm some information first." Somehow I finally got Jane off the line and launched immediately into damage control.
I don't think I have ever apologized more profusely and more sincerely for the sins of another. Seriously, it was ridiculous. I was upset on a personal level because this bitch is giving a terribly poor representation of the bank, at a time where a customer needs the most reassurance that we are going to take care of them! In the end, the customer seemed satisfied and actually stated that he was very happy with me and my customer service, but he didn't understand why the other rep was speaking to him like he had done something wrong.
I promised him that I would be forwarding a written complaint to management, to be reviewed for a reprimand or at the least, a "coaching opportunity." And that is exactly what I did as soon as I got off that call.
That's right. I logged off the phone for 10 minutes to type up a very detailed letter to my manager, including Jane's information.
I might complain about some of my customers, but if you want to act like a bitch, treat a nice customer like shit for no reason and make the rest of us look bad...I will throw you under the bus in a heartbeat!
*Names changed, obvs.
