I’m sick of bad customer service. It seems like I’m always dealing with giant conglomerate X and their horrible customer (dis)service infrastructure. I have to believe that No Doubt’s was written by a customer service agent at a call center:
You think that we connect
That the chemistry’s correct
Your words walk right through my ears
Presuming I like what I hear
Sorry I’m not home right now
I’m walking into interwebs
So leave a message
And I’ll call you back
But it’s truly refreshing when good customer service triumphs over evil. Like my recent experience with Bank of America.
In March, I was looking for a free checking account with local branches, no minimums, and no direct deposit / debit card transaction requirements. BofA offered that and a $100 bonus for me to sign up. I’m sold. Having a general mistrust of banks (besides my beloved primary bank USAA), I called customer service to see if I had signed up for the bonus correctly. They confirmed.
I check in via email two months later to see when I’ll get my bonus. They say wait 90 days. Fast forward to this week – I’ve waited 90 days and am wondering where my money is. I email them; they tell me to call customer service. I call customer service; they have no record of any bonus.
I’m frustrated.
The rep transfers me to a department where they’ll file a claim and see what happens in a month. At this point, I’ve lost all faith and am ready to close my account.
By random coincidence, I am reminded about best-in-class corporate Twitter accounts, like . So I Google “Bank of America twitter” and find a beacon of hope, .
I investigate further, to ensure I’m not dealing with some scammer. I find out is a customer service bigwig at Bank of America named David Knapp. I see a post on , an interview, a ton of , and an intriguing story: a customer is charged $350 in fees, all for one overdraft and nine subsequent overdrafts. They remove the nine and make him only pay for one.
I’m sold.
So, cautiously, I follow him and tweet the following:
35 minutes later, I receive a direct message:
I direct message my plight in two tweets. 13 minutes later, he direct messages me:
Within minutes of me direct messaging my cellphone #, executive customer service agent Matt calls me and knows my story from my two tweets. With some minimal information from me, he finds my account and immediately credits $100. I see it in my account within an hour.
David and Matt were both extremely courteous and quick. This all happened in a span of two hours, and most of the delay was because I wasn’t checking my TweetDeck for updates.
They were also great at conveying that account security was a major priority. David’s tweets and profile tell tweeps to not share account numbers. Matt reiterated not to give him any personal information beyond what he asks for. They understand that consumers might be suspicious, given the prevalence of phishing and other scams, and helped reassure me that they were legit.
I’m truly impressed. Thanks to , I have the $100 that I was owed and was saved from hours of follow-up in the future. Other companies could learn a thing or two from my experience.
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