Penny For Your Thoughts: A CX Story
The following post, originally titled "A penny for your thoughts... (An Open Letter to the CEO of TD Bank.)" was published via LinkedIn on August 31, 2016.
Over 60,000 people viewed it; it earned 1,638 "likes" (the only reaction available on the platform back then) and prompted 234 comments.
A friend of mine who works at a TD Branch messaged me a few weeks after it was published to tell me that her District Manager brought a copy into her branch to use as training material: "This definitely should never have happened!"
I'm not republishing it below to pick on TD Bank. In fact, I sincerely hope after you read this post, you'll click the link at the bottom to read the post I wrote two days later, which outlined what happened in the aftermath of my article going viral: how TD Bank made things right.
I'm republishing it, with only very light edits, because the customer experience (CX) opportunities I outlined in this article continue to exist today at too many companies.
I use this article as a mini-case study in the "Retail Marketing Strategies" course I teach as an example of how a bad customer service experience can go viral and cause companies a whole lot of headaches.
And I'm republishing it here, on my blog, in the hopes that decision-makers at companies everywhere will stumble across it, laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation, and then think about the policies and operating procedures that exist within their own organizations that might prompt me to write something similar about them.
And then maybe, just maybe, make the changes needed to ensure I never do.
Dear Mr. Masrani:
You don't know it, but yesterday I gave your bank a penny. And so, today I'd like a few of your thoughts in return.
I'll explain, but first, some context...
I'm a former customer of your bank. Actually, TD Bank was my very first bank! I opened an account with you (and my Mom) when I was ten years old because that's where my parents banked, and it just made sense to do that when I didn't have a driver's license and couldn't go anywhere else. But I continued to bank with you for almos