Poor service delivery stifles business

and numbers that designates that particular bank.
Requiring a transfer into the country I obtained my code from my local bank, they were nice and efficient and even had a little printed slip with all the details I would need (obviously someone has done this often enough to warrant the extra effort of a printout). I dutifully furnished the sender with this information.

One successful transfer later we agreed to another. Same overseas bank, same details. “We can’t seem to recognise the SWIFT code, please check it,” he was told.
I checked, twice! Same code, same response. Finally, I called my local bank with the problem.
“Ah, sometimes only the first few figures of the code are needed by the sending bank”, I was informed.
Another email with the new information; but still no success. My frustrated client gave up and tried a plan B, change the sending agent.

Enter third bank, a two minute phone call later my customer was informed that “indeed only the first eight digits are necessary, and yes we have found the receiving bank on our system so you can go ahead. Oh and while you are at it here are a few extra recommendations we have for ensuring that the transfer is flawless.”
A few things to learn from the story. Firstly that service delivery problems are not just a Zimbabwean issue. That does not make it an excuse, but remember that the best fail from time to time. Learn from them.
The interesting thing is that nothing had really changed between trying the first successful and second failed transfer.

Simply, the person who processed the first one knew that only the first part of the code was needed. The second person did not. Experience and information made the world of difference.
That the second teller had no way of finding the correct information, when something as simple as a phone call to a superior or an advisor could have solved the problem, is disappointing.
More than that it cost the bank business, not just the immediate transfer but future business from both myself and the person sending me money.

Poor service delivery results in a bad reputation. The only reason I’m not spamming the name of the bank across this column is a slight sense of ethics and that fact that in other areas my friend has had good service from them. Other solutions are online operations manual with a “frequently encountered problems” section for the teller to access on their Intranet.
Take my number and call me back when you have found a solution if time is a problem, perhaps simply ask the teller in the next door cubicle if they know an answer.

Let’s look at the third bank. They had encountered the problem before. They had a solution.
In fact they had encountered other unforeseen problems with transfers and before you even came across them they were able to map out a way of avoiding them at no extra cost. The information was volunteered as a bonus, a “plus one” to help you get your desired result. Moreover, the person on the other end of the phone was able to access this information and give it to you.

How does this all apply to your business? We have spoken before about an operations manual in this column.
One that sits on a shelf gathering dust is useless. It needs to be accessible, either in hard or soft copy, by those who need it. Constant review and adaptation are key aspects to making an Ops manual relevant and useful.

The addition to it of stepwise solutions to common problems makes it more useful (where possible your systems should really avoid these issues in the first place but humans are just that human).
A simple “try turning it on” as step one in the “My printer is not working” checklist can often avoid the step two of “call the overworked IT technician on extension 555”. Try speaking to your IT guy to see what the most common wastes of his time are that can be solved by common sense, add them to a list.

Restaurants could do a lot by empowering their waiters to implement simple remedies to issues like wrong or delayed orders (an extra drink on the house if there is a 10 minute delay maybe) rather than the ubiquitous “let me call my manager.” Perhaps if the duty manager spent less time apologising to customers he could get to the bottom of the real issue (there is fault in the kitchen flow plan that delays all meals requiring a salad).