Generally, I’m a very happy Bank of America customer.  Sure there have been a few snags here and there over my 15 year customer relationship with the bank.  I’ll give them the benefit of doubt on those because the circumstances were beyond what I would consider normal daily operations.

Today’s snafu is a little different.  It’s one that could have been avoided.  I’m sure Bank of America doesn’t care because I was able to resolve the issue on my own.  Still, Bank of America’s lack of forethought or a proactive approach wasted my time.  That ticks me off.

So what was the situation?  Bank of America sent me a new credit card for my home equity line they acquired in the Countrywide deal.  Cool!  I don’t like the checks on the HELOC and a credit card is more convenient in handling the transactions i use the HELOC for.  Kudos to Bank of America.  So I call in to activate it.  This is where the customer experience starts to go downhill…

First, the audio greeting is way to long and you MUST listen to it in two languages.  Sorry there is no quick key to move forward in the process.  Did I mention this message was long?  I was surprised I was still awake when the Spanish version finished playing.  And then I had to punch a key to state what language I wanted to continue in.  Grrrrrr.

How Bank of America can fix this.  Simple:  Great the customer and ask what language to continue in.  Then give them the long speech.

Next, they asked me to enter in a lot of information.  I’m nowhere near my files and I don’t have my computer in front of me, so I can’t access the information they are asking for easily.  Yet, they give you an option to continue and enter in more information that you may or may not have.  Again you can move forward.  Then they say sorry, we can’t activate the card.  Please call this number – and then they state the number in triple speed.  Huh?  What just happened here.

How can Bank of America fix this?  There are two ways.  First, In the documentation that they send with the card, you know all the fine print that you need a magnifying glass to read, they could put an insert that states what information you will need to activate your card.  Heck they could even print it right underneath where they glue the card, “You will need the following information to activate this card: [list of info].”  Second, they could put it in the information script when you call in.   If I had known what information I would need, I would have gathered it or I would have hung up before wasting my time on the first call.

All in all, a transaction that should have taken 10 minutes took closer to 40.  I’d like that half hour back.

At least I haven’t had the experience that Chris Brogan recently had with Apple.  See “Be There For Your Customers” on his site to read the story.

The point of both of these stories is this…  As customers we will gladly use your websites and call systems.  If they are well designed, we like them and they save both of us time and money.  However, if these systems become an impediment to us completing the task at hand, then we start to get annoyed.  Annoyed customers may start to rethink their choices of using you as the provider for their products and services.

Thank you for listening to my rant.  I feel better now.  I still want my half hour back, although it’s more like an hour by now.  In addition, now I’m wondering why the mail Bank of America sends me is not bilingual as well.