Yet another example of Corporate Speak. The headline says ‘New Ways to Order’, which is an all a honky dory way of ordering Marks and Spencers goods through the internet. A fantastic piece of good news.
But the reality is this is a lie. This is really saying that the customer can not really order anything in store. That is after many, many years of giving a good service and taking orders of products, not held in store, and making arrangements with the customer for them to collect – well customer you can forget it.
And while I can understand that because of the downturn, and er maybe because of mistakes made by management in the recent past, things maybe not as good now as they used to be a few years ago. It might be that the cutting the level of service may be necessary to keep the business going and, of course, the maintenance of director’s bonuses, enhanced pensions, etc.
But let’s not treat us customers as stupid. You’re not giving us a new service – you are cutting an existing service.
So let’s have a – Sorry we regret that we will be discontinuing the service – not the cheap, smug PR stance -showing that you think the stupid customers will be so pleased to have this new, except it’s not new service.
This reminds me of the takeover of the Woolwich Building Society by Barclays. We were going to get an enhanced service which would combine the benefits of belonging to a large group like Barclays and not lose the benefits of Woolwich.
In the Woolwich the cashiers new my name. They had good technology so that I only had to go to the counter, hand over my account card and maybe sign a printed document when I took money out. The atmosphere was extremely friendly, pleasantly friendly.
Now with the ‘enhanced improved service’ at Barclays I first have to fill in a paper slip, admittedly with free pens, which if you sneakily keep, you find they stain your jacket pocket and shirt. You have to write the date, your account number, the amount I want to pay in, detail the amounts I’m paying in etc. None of which I did at the Woolwich.
Then I queue longer, often quite a bit longer. The staff are nice, but the friendliness is corporate and superficial. The staff seemed to have had less training, as I’ve had quite a lot of problems dealing with what should have been a routine set of transactions, for a euro account.
Again I’m angered by being patronised and told, with tons of paperwork, that the move to Barclays will be to my advantage. The service is worse than I had at Woolwich. So corporate PR man why not just tell us that things are changed, but don’t lie, don’t patronise me – just tell me things are changing, things will be different – NOT THAT THINGS WILL GET BETTER.
And should I change – no because other banks are just as bad.
