Category: Future Tech

Recently, a member within the family wanted to open a bank account. They’re young and off to study at university.

I remember when I opened my student account. I walked into a bank, said I’m a student and need an account. They said, any ID… I said yes – showed them ID and within a matter of minutes and a few forms later, my account was set up.

Rather quick and easy.

I thought it’d be the same if not, easier, these days.

How wrong was I.

Natwest was the bank of choice. Firstly, it’s all online. That’s ok. We can do all online.

So, this is was happened…

1. Download the app
2. Upload 3 different types of ID
3. Once uploaded wait

Sounds simple, right?

But… what happened was – minutes after completing the process the bank said, your ID has not been verified, your account can’t be opened. Sorry.

Didn’t tell me which ID was not verified. Nothing.

Ok, we’ll try again. So we did. And nothing. No email, no nothing.

We try again. And again. Then we thought we’d go into branch.

They said, yes – you’ve got to go online. And try again.

So we did that. And guess what, an email saying sorry again. The staff in the branch couldn’t help us because it’s all ‘online’. The Natwest staff on the phone couldn’t help us, because it was all ‘online’.

Now… isn’t the introduction of technology meant to make processes easier?

Frustrated – we popped over to Nationwide.

Hi, we’d like to open an account.

Sure…. it’s online, but we’ll sit with you and make sure all goes smoothly. Ok. So we did just that, did it online whilst someone was near us and guess what… it worked! The lovely lady said, it’s all processed, you’re all good – everything in the post in the next few days.

Now the difference is, people. The human touch. The emotional connection.

Whilst technology is great. At times, you need understand what the human is going through. Are they frustrated? Do they need some additional help?

If you’re a company using technology to replace processes, make sure that all areas are covered. What happens if an account does not open? Do you reach out to the potential customer and help them? or leave them to figure it out?

I can see why there are alot of modern banks, online only and digital everything. That’s great. We didn’t use any of those in this instance as they didn’t offer anything for students (Nationwide offer some justeat vouchers if you open an account with them).

Nothing worse, than a frustrated customer!

Recently, I needed to speak to someone at an insurance company.

As normal, I headed to their website first.

No number. There was a Q&A and a chatbot. So I entered a chat with the bot. It wasn’t the best. But what was most frustrating, was that there was no quick way to speak to a human.

I asked the bot, can I have a telephone number.

It gave me a telephone number. It left the ‘0’ from the front. Anyway, dialed the number and… nothing!

The number didn’t work!

Frustrated. I googled what the telephone number is. Within seconds, I had the telephone number. It was 0345 246 8372. The bot had the wrong number!

I get it, It’s cheaper to have a bot to help with most questions.

I get it, It’s quicker for customers sometimes, to ask a bot and get a quick pre-programmed answer.

I get it, you want customers to utilise a messaging method (they even offer whatsapp!).

But what if you want to talk to someone?

When building these bots, please please please… test!!

It took me back to when I used to lead Innovation at Coca-Cola. We used the Lean Startup principle of Build, Test and Learn. Clearly, this bot has been built… but has it been tested?

Frustrations like this, can lead to resentment. Customers will be driven to go elsewhere and you lose money.

We’re living in a world where there are different generations trying to engage with you. You have to understand that one platform does not fit all. Hybrid. Different ways to contact us. Telephone. Message. Email.