My Bad Brand experience at a leading financial institution!

Recently I had a spat with a leading bank due to 1 inefficient consultant at their Sunninghill branch. As Murphy would have it, my second visit to rectify her initial inadequacy led me directly to her counter. I made my case and explained what had happened the first time. Her mumbled apology sounded more like a grumble from a  grumpy bear awakened from hibernation. After assuring me that it was fixed,i made my way to my office only to discover with horror that it was not rectified.

So I did what any logical Tweep would do - I yelled at the top of my lungs on Twitter for all in Twitterverse to hear. @Absa responded - but that was all it was. A half- hearted attempt to quell my erratic tweets about their poor service. So I had to trek all the way back for a 3rd time and that is when I discovered that it was due to the inept consultant in question that the entire Brand OR Branch got the 3rd degree.

Firstly, it was not up to my investigative skills to discover who the  culprit was. Secondly poorly trained staff will result in a bad brand experience. No-one has yet contacted me from Absa to find out anything - except off-course for the half-hearted attempts on Twitter.

Now. lets give credit where credit is due. My 3rd visit got me a trained consultant who pointed out the same error made twice on my account from my 2 previous visits. This after me speaking to the culprit on my second visit to rectify - AND obviously her assurance that it was rectified the second time around.

Let me point out to ABSA, that it takes people like myself , who complain about poor service levels, who actually drive the quest for better and efficient service. If leading financial institutions can claim fame on national TV but allow bad brand experiences inside their banks, then I think they are losing the plot. If Absa allows untrained staff to very badly inconvenience clients , then they certainly deserve getting knocked on social media platforms.

I write this blog to explain to my followers and anyone else interested the cause for my rants and raves against ABSA. I hope that Absa reads this and perhaps there might be a "lula moment" in all of this. I am not the enemy - I am the client. The fight for better service in South Africa continues.....by Jeeva Govender.