Don't Be So Shocked: Excellent Service From Citibank CSR
"Above and Beyond" service often comes down to the management of a particular location, rather than an individual employee, no matter how big or otherwise problematic a company may be. Fred had such an experience with Venkatesh, the overseas customer service rep he reached when he called to cancel his ancient Citibank account. Venkatesh not only talked him out of canceling the account, but was so competent and nice in the process that Fred felt compelled to speak to his supervisor and write to Consumerist.
Banks get a bad rap these days, and many deserve the criticism. Today, however, Citibank saved me as a customer by gracefully and reasonably dealing with my issue. The back story is what makes this interesting.
I clearly remember opening my account in 1977 at the age of 14 with my first $200. Back then it was called First National City Bank and was the only institution with ATM devices. Because I was under 18, my account was flagged as a minor and service charges were waived. Well, that setting lasted until this month when I finally got hit with checking account fees! Can you believe that I got away with service fees for 32 years! The nerve of some people :)
Since this has become my secondary account, I called them to cancel. Venkatesh, the outsourced, overseas CSR noticed that my account was from the dark ages. In fact, it was configured as close to a passbook account as you can get these days. He quickly suggested another checking account option that will work just fine for avoiding fees and does not require changing my account number, (which is much shorter than what they give out these days). I'm not kidding when I say that Venkatesh was really excited to save a long term customer. I could hear the inflections in his voice. He did such a good job that I asked to speak with his supervisor to personally extend my thanks and compliments for such a good job.
So, chalk one up for Citibank in this age of impersonal banking and customer service.
Hire the right people, train them well, and you'll have satisfied customers who don't want to leave. Simple enough in theory, but hard to do in practice. Evidently.
Not that everyone can get personal satisfaction from their work as a bank customer service rep. Maybe Venkatesh is an aspiring actor.
(Photo: kiwanja)
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It's nice to hear these stories! All too often, all we hear are the horror stories.
I have a student account at PNC Bank. They refuse to let me close the account over the phone, insisting I must come in to close it. Problem is, there's no PNC Bank branch near my current location. It's $32, not a lot of money, but I've been trying to get it back. Except I can't.
I wish there was a Venkatesh at PNC. :|
I don't think poor Venkatesh was faking his excitement. He has a crappy job and he makes the best of it by doing it well and with a sense of pride. If more people were like that Consumerist would be out of a job!
We need more Venkateshes in the world.
@dumblonde:
plus, he was probably excited to have a story to tell to co-workers ... "I worked with a guy with the oldest account, beat this one guys!"
there's gonna be a new competition.
I work at Citi. It's a new company wide initiative called Woo Wow Win. The idea being that every time we have the "client" on the phone we must Woo Wow and Win them over by going above and beyond. The pushing factor for this is client retention as Citi has come to terms with how hard it is to gain new clientele in this economy and that we need to do everything we can to keep the ones we already have. It has even become the new model for the quality scores, with old scripts and quality standards being thrown out the window.
@Nick Livingston: Does that go for the credit card side of the house too?
I have a citi mastercard and I just checked out the interest rate. Its 20% which has never been a problem because I always pay it off, but out of principle, I'd like it lowered. Never know when I'll have an emergency or something.
Once-in-a-while you WILL get a good CSR. However, that should not be the exception, it should be standard practice. You should never have to cross your fingers and hope someone who is at least faking interest will answer the phone when you call.
@dumblonde: Just b/c it isn't what you'd want to do doesn't mean it is a crappy job. Maybe he loves this job.
To the credit of Citibank, they have always provided me with great customer service which is why I stick with them. A few years back they were getting out of the Western NY area and transferring their clients to another bank called M&T, I was pretty upset about that, but I decided to stick with them regardless and I do not regret it one bit. Sure there are no Citibank branches up here but I have found a way to work around that.
I believe that is the true power of providing good customer service.
@Nick Livingston: Do you get paid extra for that? How do they measure the effectiveness of the new initiative?
I called Citibank recently over my card, which is actually closed, and I am slowly but surely paying off. I spoke with a foreign gentleman from probably India, who was really great, and I wish I had gotten his name.
He reduced my interest to 0%, scheduled minimum payments for the next year, which I can add to if I want, and was all-around a wonderful help. I was beyond excited, and I WISH I had gotten his name or spoken to his supervisor.
Kudos to the OP to think of that.
@IgorAcacallis: I believe it does, based on my recent experience. I posted about it below. They were great with mine, and my account is actually closed.
Based on the service, though, I would be open to starting over with them.
I've always had good customer service from Citibank. In fact, I have an above and beyond story from this winter. I have a credit card that I've been paying off at 3.9% interest. In December, I was so busy that I completely missed sending in a payment. This reset the interest to a regular market rate. A CSR called me to ask if I was having any trouble, since I had never missed a payment before. Then, she took my payment over the phone and reset the interest rate back to 3.9%.
You go above and beyond to woo? I guess this doesnt count with credit cards. A merchant I had shopped at had a security breech and I was not notified. The only way I found out was when I logged in to check my account balance. When I called in to activate the new cards all I got was a CSR rep reading a script to sell me identity protection. Why should I pay for the protection when it was their merchant who compromised me? The CSR rep had nothing to say but have a nice day and hung up.
@Nick Livingston: "as Citi has come to terms with how hard it is to gain new clientele in this economy and that we need to do everything we can to keep the ones we already have. It has even become the new model for the quality scores, with old scripts and quality standards being thrown out the window."
How long after the economy recovers does it take for the VP who implimented this to get canned?
@Narockstar: You were lucky it was just to regular market rate and not to the penalty rate which is typically 27.99 % to 29.99% for most cards.
I've actually had nothing but good experiences with Citibank's customer service also. One of the advantages of a Citigold account is that your call is routed to a customer service agent in the US (who are always a pleasure to deal with).
I would definitely rate them as one of the best out there in customer service (even though I depise some of their sneaky new account scams...where they constantly come up with a new type of savings account or the like to give the newer customers a better interest rate than their existing customers who don't keep on top of the latest rates for each account).
@Narockstar: I've never really had a problem with Citibank myself either. Whenever I've called them, I spent less than 10 minutes on the phone and accomplished what I had set out to accomplish.
I recently purchased a home from United Bank and Trust , they sold my mortgage to Citibank, the Insurance was paid at closing and Citibank took it upon themselves to take the premium out of my escrow, so the insurance has been paid twice no refund as been issued and now citibank is trying to raise my mortgage - one income household with two teenagers welcome to my nightmare!
My account at my credit union is still flagged as a minor, from like 10 years ago. I talked to them about trying to switch it over (my dad still gets ATM cards in his name), but it was too much hassle, involving actual mailable documents and authorizations and such. Forget it, I'll just see how long they consider me a minor, hah