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June 10, 2004
Show me my money!
Colin McKay from the Canuck Flack blog emailed us about a company putting customers through hell.
For the last week, the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) could not tell its 10 million customers with any certainty how much money was in their accounts. Automatic deposits didn't arrive and people couldn't pay bills. Chaos ensued. Evangelism plummeted.
Certainly, a serious operational problem is bound to trip up nearly every business one day, but this story is a lesson on how not to respond to a crisis, especially one that involves 10 million people and their life savings.
Here's how a bank spokesperson authoritatively explained the situation: "I honestly don't know. As I say, I mean, it's one of those tech things."
The bank CEO then issued a short apology, saying the problem has been fixed, but wouldn't reveal what transpired or how the bank is ensuring it won't happen again. Well, that's reassuring!
One assumes a bank's core competency is managing money, and a worse scenario could not happened to RBC. "We lost your money, but it's just a tech thing!" In times of crisis, customer evangelists tend to hang in there with you and will often volunteer to become your unofficial spokespeople on blogs or newsgroups, but only if they're satisfied your apologies are overwhelmingly sincere and the situation is explained thoroughly. RBC fails on both accounts, so to speak.
As for irony, here's a current screenshot from the bank's website front page:
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It wasn't so much that they didn't know that they'd lost the money or that people feared for their life savings. It was far more immediate. For all intents and purposes no deposits were going in.
Still awful, still wide ranging and your point is still valid... Just wanted to clear that up :)
Jeremy,
Thanks for the clarification!
