Customer Service - Good Idea, Bad Execution

The count is now up to one in-person visit, two automated confirmation e-mails, three inquiry e-mails, two telephone inquiries and three weeks after-the-fact, all of which concluded that there isn't anything to be alarmed about because my checks, debit and ATM cards are in the mail and should be delivered to my physical address within 5-7 business days. Today, however, I receive a letter from my new financial institution advising me that they were unable to open my new online accounts due to a pending unsigned document. By the way, this letter arrived at the same time as my checks, which according to this letter I should never have received, and it arrived only hours after receiving an e-mail from customer service confirming that "there is no additional paper work for you to complete." Do you ever hear yourself asking aloud, "Now, why couldn't they have just told me that in the first place?"

I'm a California transplant and have moved to the New England area about a year ago. Due to the ongoing obstacles I've had to overcome simply to get established, I've been left feeling neglected, and at times, censured by the state of Connecticut . After a hearty "rant" to my significant other this afternoon, it occurred to me that it's nothing regional-related; it's simply a decline in quality customer care, at what appears to be, on a national level. Could it be due to the increase of online customer support supplied with an arsenal of standard reply template? Possibly the technical changes requiring continual training of the customer service staff is to blame. Perhaps both are necessary evils as a result of the shear size of these institutions; financial or otherwise. Certainly, I would not begin to presume that the role of the representative is easy. The inquiries are most likely knee-jerk reactions to a bad situation; or, the customers are brand new to the service and often-times don't know what questions to ask. Have you noticed that whenever you call or e-mail via a company website, that more-often-than-not you are directed to a different department or "link". In my case, I was inquiring about an three different issues; therefore, each inquiry was directed to separate department specialists. Are they now so large that the right hand truly has no clue as to what the left hand is doing? Are they improperly equipped or improperly trained?

Each customer service call I had made within this past month was prompted by a "survey participation request" recording. Ideally, this survey should provide the organization with feedback that is relevant, unbiased, practical and objective. Basic monitoring was once the industry norm for customer care centers. Fortunately, companies are realizing that basic monitoring is not enough to make a difference. The demand for solutions such as those is increasing, especially in the call center environments.

Congress is also taking notice of the customer service issues at hand. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, authored a bill which, if passed, would require the Office of Management and Budget to establish and enforce customer service guidelines for agencies. As expressed by the committee's ranking member, Tom David, R-Va, "The committee always has sought to improve the performance of the federal government. And, as anyone who ever has worked in the private sector knows, customer service is the lifeblood of any organization. We often look to the private sector for best practices, and I think it's important in that regard that we capture data on how each agency does in regards to customer service."

True, these are big steps in an attempt to improve the quality of customer care. However, there's always room for improvement as the feedback would be much more accurate if the surveyors would follow-up with their participating customers at a later date to see if the pending issues were indeed resolved as promised.