We All Loathe The Banks' Digital Maze
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday April 5, 2008
LAST week's column about the horrors of trying to make a simple phone call to the National Australia Bank drew the biggest email response I've had in a long time. It was not quite as big as the uproar when I suggested that Israel wasn't doing too well in its bungled 2006 war with Lebanon; for that one, Telstra had to put on three extra staff to handle the traffic from Dover Heights alone.
But for the banks, at last count there were 112 letters in the inbox, almost all of them with a tale of woe about trying to navigate the digital maze of a call centre operation. The NAB came in for a particular hiding, but all the big banks and a variety of corporate gorillas were caned as well. People believe, rightly, that they are treated with contempt. The thing that sticks in many craws is the silken assurance that "your call is important to us". This was mentioned time and time again. And with good reason, because it is specious nonsense, the slick hucksterism of modern marketing-speak. Other readers suggested a remedy. They claim that if you just keep punching the zero or nine on your phone, eventually you will cut through the microchips and get straight to an operator. I have yet to test this out.
© 2008 Sydney Morning HeraldNews Archive
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