The time was of the early 2000s. I would not say that wire transfer technology was immature. Instead, it would be honest to say, I was new to it. There were several wire transfers which were managed by my bank, HDFC for customers across the globe. The particular transaction I refer here was with a financial institution from the US with my account in India with HDFC. I didn't receive money in my account. I approached the customer care centre of the bank three days later to the expected due date.
People working in the service industry know to manage grievances. Some do it genuinely, some just fake the empathy communication. In either case, how it occurs to the customer depends on the problem the customer is dealing with. I choose to give the benefit of the doubt and agreed to whatever the "customer care" person had to say. After a week's follow-up on emails and calls, I managed to connect with the manager from HDFC bank. It was communication on a direct line with the manager.
HDFC has a brand line, "We understand your world". First thing I did was to remind the manager of this commitment the bank stood for.
Normally, with such a long non-resolution of my problem, I would have lost it. However, I chose a different approach this time. HDFC has a brand line, "We understand your world". First thing I did was to remind the manager of this commitment the bank stood for. Once I saw the manager's acknowledgement to this brand line, my only job was to hold him to account for that promise. This made the conversation clear. The manager being in my world, was able to empathise with me. Many times the real problem is communication and thus when it’s sorted, the problem gets solved. The same happened with my wire transfer issue. Knowing the exact history of the transaction, the manager could trace the blockage. He made a few calls to his technical team, and in just 2 hours, there was money in my account.
Brand lines are created by the marketing and advertising teams with the obvious intention. We as a customer, can take them seriously and remind the service providers to stand in those promises while delivering to their customers.
In this weeks series of posts, let us try to look at some such brand lines and what opens up for us.
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