It’s the holidays, and in the spirit of giving I’d like to share a little story with you—a holiday cautionary tale, if you will.
Not about men in red suits breaking into our homes in the middle of the night, about the spirit of giving and helpfulness. (Don’t worry, this isn’t a Hallmark card.)
With all the present buying and money spending this time of year, I’ve been checking my account balances more frequently to make sure I stay on top of my finances (as we all are).
Since I’m no longer secure with mobile banking on my smartphone (I used it a lot for a while, then read some things that made me leery), I’ve actually called my banks to check on my balances while I was out and about shopping.
One of these fine institutions is a national bank (I won’t mention which) with branches everywhere and a sizable chunk of the marketplace in its pocket.
I called one day to see if a bill I’d paid had gone through already. It wasn’t showing up yet online although I’d paid it almost a week before. I thought I’d double-check with the bank via phone while out.
I dialed the number and my bank’s IVR picked up first ring, as expected. I entered in the last four digits of my social security number and gave my mother’s maiden name when prompted for security.
Then the IVR gave me a menu. I listened to about six options and chose one. I proceeded to another menu and chose another option. I went to a third menu, and that’s where things got annoying.
The third menu only had three options, none of which were what I was looking for. I backtracked to the previous menu, listened to the options, then backtracked to the original menu.
By now I realized I needed to talk to a call rep. But when I listened to the original menu again, it never gave me an option for speaking to a representative. It just didn’t say.
You know what this told me? My bank didn’t want to talk to me (sad). Intuitively, I pressed “0” and got through to someone, but the experience left me flat.
The main purpose of an IVR system from the customer standpoint is to provide help, not screen or block calls. (Yes, I got screened by my bank.) Evidently, they aren’t in a very giving mood this holiday season. Bah humbug, bank.
