Postcard from Bahrain – How to Burn your Brand

Go to just about any country in the world, and if you seek the comfort of the familiar, you will find a MacDonald’s. Your Big Mac will taste the same in Omaha as it does in Pago Pago. Stay at the Marriott in Jeddah, and your customer experience will be similar to what you would encounter in the Glasgow Marriott (apart from minor local differences such as the absence of Newcastle Brown in Jeddah).

Successful international brands offer a consistency of service and experience which drives customers to them wherever they are, because the customers know what they’re going to get. At least that’s the theory.

So what’s the difference between a fast-food chain, a hotel franchise and an international bank? The theory is that each of them is underpinned by core values, well-honed business processes and staff training. As a result, you will not find rats and cockroaches in a MacDonald’s kitchen, bedbugs in a Marriott, and your average international bank is not going to drop your precious millions between the floorboards. Or, to look at the positive, your Big Mac will taste the same and arrive at lightning speed, there will be a chocolate on your bed in the evening, and if you order a debit card, it will arrive without a hitch. That’s the basis of the brand promise: promise an experience and deliver it.

Why am I asking such a strange question? Here’s a little story about an international bank. To protect the well meaning, I’m not naming the institution, because from the stories I have heard from friends and colleagues in Bahrain, what I’m going to describe could have happened with any other bank in the Middle East. But this happened to me, so I know it’s true!

About six weeks ago, I had a call from a lady called Noora. She explained that she worked in customer service, and she wanted to know if my new debit card had arrived. By way of background, the bank is replacing all its ATM cards with debit cards, which means that I can pay for goods and services with the new card, as opposed to just drawing cash.

“No”, I say, “it hasn’t arrived”.
“Oh”, she says, “then I will have to issue you a new card. It will be sent to you by courier within the next two weeks, and the PIN number by a second courier.”
“When does the current card stop working?” I ask.
“In two weeks time”, she replies.
“So what will I do if I need cash, and the new card hasn’t arrived?”
“Well, you can always come to the branch and cash a cheque.”
“OK”, say I – “I can live with that”.

A month later, no card. I call Noora.

“What’s happened to my card?”
“Let me check and call you back”, she says.

She never calls back.

Two weeks later I call again and learn that Noora is not available. I speak to Rasha. Same process – let me check and call you back.

“OK”, I say, “but make sure you do call me back, because Noora said she would call me and never did”.

Ten minutes later, Rasha calls back:

“Your debit card is at the branch awaiting your collection.”
“But I thought you were sending it by courier!”
“Well, do you want it to be delivered by courier?” says Rasha.
“But Noora said that you definitely going to send it courier.”
“Sorry, I don’t know about that.”
“OK, fine, I’ll collect it.”

Two days later, I go to the bank and present myself at the corporate desk.

“I’ve come to collect my debit card.”
“Take a ticket and join the queue”, says the guy at the desk.

I take a ticket, and sit there for ten minutes while people who came in after me are served. I go back to the guy at the desk and ask why I’m not being served. He looks at my ticket.

“You have the wrong ticket”, he says.
“Well, I pressed the button for Deliveries and Collections”, I reply.
“My friend who handles deliveries and collections is off sick today, so you should have pressed the customer service button.”

I let that one pass without asking how I was to know that his friend was off sick. I press the customer service button and take a new ticket. Ten minutes later my number comes up. I present myself to the same guy, and ask for my debit card. He does off and fetches it, and then gets the PIN number from another office. During this process I’ve made no attempt to hide my irritation, and before I leave I explain that I’ve been without a debit card for a month, which is why I’m upset.

I expect to get the usual line: “I do apologise sir – mistakes sometimes happen, and we’ll try and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

But no – in a superb leap of logic, he asks:

“Who opened your account for you?”
“Ahmed”, I say.
“Ah”, he replies, “Ahmed has left the bank, and he caused a lot of problems by promising customers things that he should not have promised”.
“But this has nothing to do with Ahmed. Your customer service people promised to send me the card, and didn’t do so. I’ve been without a card for a month!”
“Oh”, he says, “this is a problem – we get these girls, they stay for a couple of months and then they leave.”

I took my card and left before he could blame anyone else. When I got home, I read the bank’s cover letter accompanying the card. At the end of the letter, they stated that the ATM would expire at the end of June, in direct contradiction of what Noora and Rasha told me.

So for the past six weeks I could have happily continued to use my ATM card instead of having to go to the bank to draw cash, and would have been able to do so for another month!

So what’s to learn from this convoluted little tale?

You could argue that nobody was hurt; nobody lost money and all I suffered was a little inconvenience. All true, but my experience is far from unique. A friend, for example, recently lost money because his bank (another international name) failed to carry out a forex transaction on the day promised. Three days later they told him that the transaction hadn’t gone through, asked him for more funds because the exchange rate had deteriorated. Another friend transferred $100 million to a related account within the same branch, and was surprised to learn that the transaction took three days, during which the bank pocketed the interest on the funds. Only after a prolonged argument was he able to recover the interest.

From these and other stories I could recount, a clear picture emerges of poor customer service, failure to adhere to process, failure to train staff and, ultimately, failure of management.

It’s as if all the banks realize that their customer service is as poor as everyone else’s, and are happy to accept the status quo. It would be very easy for one of them to grab a competitive advantage by looking after their customers just a little better than the others. But they just don’t seem to get it.

The same goes for customer service in other sectors in the region, especially in telecoms and other utilities. Bahrain has made admirable efforts in introducing e-government portals, yet the new systems still fail to deliver full satisfaction because of some simple flaw, such as clear directions as to how to pay for some of the services online.

So the moral of the tale is this: if, like me, you come to the Middle East and buy services from international institutions like my bank, don’t assume that you will get the services you would expect from the same institution in the UK or the US. Yes, you’ll get the chocolate on the pillow, and I can confirm that your Big Mac will taste the same, but in matters of real importance, like banking, insurance and telecommunications, prepare for disappointment and you won’t be disappointed!

All of which represents a massive opportunity for those who can up their game by just a small amount. Much as I love telling positive stories about the Middle East, and there are many to tell, customer service is an area I struggle with. I often encounter individual acts of heroic service. Unfortunately, these acts tend to be down to the qualities and values of the people, rather than to the companies that employ them.

As for my bank, my experience, and that of many others, should cause them to reflect on the damage they are doing to their worldwide brand by rank incompetence in this region. Given all the other troubles in the banking world, perhaps that’s the least of their concerns.

Steve Royston
June 2010