My wife and I received this card in the mail at the beginning of 2024.
On the surface, this is a nice gesture from this individual and the organization. However, this card only confirms the best choice we made and the worst customer service experience we ever had!
You see, if this person, and the organization (and I've blocked out their name to protect the embarrassment), would only have looked at their customer database, they would have known that not only are we no longer a customer, but we haven't been one for almost four years! Let me explain...
About one month after we worked with this mortgage company to secure a loan with their organization for us to purchase a new home, we closed out that loan and refinanced our mortgage with another organization. And this was in April of 2020! This was due to the worst customer service experience we have experienced (and as you know, I speak and train on this subject for a living!). There was poor communication from the loan officer throughout the process, excuse after excuse on why challenges kept popping up, the inability to listen to us, very little empathy for us, passing the buck to everyone else, and more. It became so challenging for us, that I asked that his manager become involved as my wife and I were no longer going to be working with him. Luckily, he agreed. And their poor service almost cost us an opportunity to buy our current home, as the buyer was getting a little nervous, and I couldn't blame them.
Here's what made this experience even more frustrating. We had a relationship with their organization, as we had been customers of their bank for about 15 years! (I've since moved my banking to another institution.)
Here's the lesson in my mind for all organizations, and I talk about this all the time in my seminars...
Mistakes may be made during the customer experience. We as the service provider need to acknowledge them, own them, and fix them, without passing the buck, or making excuses.
Service providers need to focus on being PROACTIVE with their clients. This means you are one step ahead and are able to see and anticipate any challenges. And then be able to communicate that to your clients. This alone would have helped our experience.
The opposite of this is being REACTIVE. Here, you're always on your heels, apologizing and really not finding any solutions to the challenge, until it's too late..
I guess no one communicated to him that 30 days after we closed on the loan, we moved our entire loan to another organization. One that did the exact opposite of what I wrote above. But, it’s nice to know he’s thinking of us and wishing us a wonderful new year!