Customer Service Done Right!

Yes, I'm gobsmacked... Customer Service *with* the customer service...

Wifey got a call from a call centre and was immediately suspicious (due to my constant drumming of being cautious of unsolicited calls), but it was for me from my credit card provider.

It was from the fraud team enquiring about a suspect online transaction that was automatically blocked late last night which turns out being legitimate (I was trying to renew a Flickr Pro account), but I guess it turned on some warning bells in their system, and it was automatically blocked from going through. That was frustrating initially for me, but in hindsight probably a safe position for the bank to take since the whole Sony PSN fiasco etc. I actually retried like 5 times, a few from the iPad (hrm, maybe a iPad safari browser issue) and more from my Mac. No luck, so decided sleep was a better option... Although it turned out my thumbs decided they needed a workout and snuck in some more time to get more Portal2 achievements... ;)

Interesting points:

• They first mentioned what the transaction was for which verified for me it was actually the CC provider.


• They then apologised for not calling earlier when it happened, but decided it being after midnight in Australia (EST), that it would be rude to call to wake me up... *golf clap*


• They were pretty spot on in how they verified my identity (as I wouldn't have given much over the phone anyways), they asked me to confirm *only* the year of my date of birth and postcode.


• When I confirmed that it was actually me trying to put through the transaction, they proceeded to make adjustments to my account profile (I assume check a box which states 'Likely to put through dodgy online transactions past midnight' and 'Really doesn't like being woken up whilst in deep sleep'), so that other similar transactions (from Yahoo/Flickr or similar) would go through next time.


• When I further queried what if I tried to purchase other things online which does not sidestep the newly modified rules and get blocked again (like shamefully staying up late at night whilst wifey sleeps and browsing the Apple Store and secretly buying things), they provided a direct number to the fraud team so that I can sort it out promptly... "Yes, I really do want to buy the latest iDevice... Yes, I know my wifey put a block on these purchases, but I'm the primary cardholder so just do it!!!" :)

I found it really interesting as they were looking out for my interest (well, theirs indirectly really), proactive in resolving this issue (I wasn't going to call them until maybe another 5 failed attempts or so), and provided low friction to sorting it out (like simple verification without too much concerns from me about given them too much information), and providing a simple way for me to sort this out in the future...

I'd throughly recommend them, however I won't be posting who they are as it'll just open doors for me to be a target of social engineering attacks... :P but if you know me personally and would like to know, just DM me via email or twitter, or *shock horror* phone or in real life...

So if you are in the service industry, have you changed/evolved your client facing business processes to react to more recent concerns from clients regarding privacy/security when you contact them to make it a surprisingly pleasant experience for your clients?

Food for thought...