Fraudulent transactions are scary. In my case, the amounts were small. And, it was a credit card not my bank account, so it was a little less nerve-wracking. But this experience reinforced what I’ve heard countless times from our leadership team. Mapping the customer journey is crucial, especially when fraud is concerned. I also know from our technology team that the IVR experience can and should have been better.
If you’re responsible for customer experience, here’s what you can learn from mine:
1. Don’t tell a customer to do something impossible. If you tell them to call you, you better be able to answer. I’m sure the fraud alert system my credit card company uses is automated, but the messages to the customer need to take into account the time at which they’re delivered. Or at the very least, include the hours of operation any time you’re prompting a customer to get in touch.
2. If a card is replaced and fraud is reported, block further transactions in a timely manner. This is an industry best practice, but it’s clearly not foolproof. I’m not sure how the $6.90 transaction went through. If it was there when I spoke to the first agent, he and I both missed it in reviewing the transaction history. If it went through after, there was a delay in actually blocking the card. I’m thankful my fraudsters were hitting me up for small amounts. It could have been much worse. Still, it would have been nice if my credit card company had reached out to me about that transaction. Instead, I came upon it by happenstance when I logged in to pay my bill five days later.
3. Don’t make your customers listen to a host of irrelevant menu options. My card was blocked for fraud. The IVR should have known that I was either calling about a dispute or checking on the status of my replacement card. I most certainly wasn’t calling to update them on my income level, to increase my credit line or to add another person to the account. Predictive IVR could have helped me get to the right option faster would have made all the difference in my experience and mood.
4. Don’t lead your customers down the wrong path. I can forgive an IVR for not being advanced enough to anticipate why I’m calling, although my open dispute status should have been easy enough to flag as a likely reason. That said, I do expect the IVR to listen and respond appropriately to the reason I gave. “It sounds like you’re calling about a dispute,” did not lead me to a dispute agent. Instead I was bombarded with a series of totally irrelevant menu options. And, asking for an agent and pressing 0 did nothing to advance my call. I felt trapped and was extremely frustrated by the time I spoke to an agent. The worst part is knowing that it all could have been avoided.
5. If an agent is trained in disputes or other customer service matters, don’t let them answer the phone as “Tech support”. A simple, “Good morning, how can help you,” would have been simple and reassuring. Finally, a person who can help!
Understanding who your customers are and anticipating their needs should be baked into your customer support process. In this case, it didn’t really matter to me how good the fraud-monitoring system was that flagged the suspicious transaction because my experience after it was so irritating and troubling. If those transaction amounts had been higher, I might well have decided not to activate my new card when it arrived.
