Video Mystery Shopping: A wolf in sheep’s clothing is still a WOLF!
Once when I was a little girl, my mother tried to get me to eat lima beans. Now, I don’t like lima beans…..never have and never will. Anyway, back then, I had never actually eaten a lima bean before, but I could tell by the way they looked (and smelled) that lima beans would probably never make it on my Top Ten favorite foods list. Anyway, Mother decided to disguise the limas by hiding them in a casserole and neglecting to tell me they were in there. Well, I took a bite of the casserole, immediately tasted a lima, and promptly spit out my food! (Mother was not real pleased with my reaction; but she also never hid lima beans in any more dishes either!)
Anyway, I share this experience not to provide you with too much information about my eating habits, but instead to stress a point…..a wolf in sheep’s clothing is still a wolf. Or, a lima bean in a chicken cacciatore casserole is still a LIMA BEAN!
Fast forward to today……I am sitting in my office and my bank manager calls and leaves me message. Of course, I call her back (good strategy on the bank’s part!) to see if something is wrong with my account. Am I overdrawn?? Has someone stolen my identity?? Did a mystery person deposit a MILLION dollars into the account???
When I reach the manager, she begins by reading from a script, (yes, it was THAT obvious). She asks me if she can send a team member over to my house as a “courtesy call”. A courtesy call? Who are they kidding? Banks and Courtesy Calls are polar opposites!
When I explain to her that I am busy (my January is like an accountant’s tax season! I am in IBS mode…International Builder Show, NOT irritable Bowel Syndrome. I am writing speeches, creating marketing materials, rehearsing with fellow speakers; I have NO TIME for a courtesy call!)
Anyway, at this point I AM getting irritated. The bank manager then starts ‘introducing’ me to all of the bank’s new investment products and services. Ugghhh. Finally, I tell her point blank that I am not interested and that while I appreciate the call, I don’t appreciate the pretense upon which the call was made.
This is an excellent example of how NOT to provide good service. The bank had disguised a sales presentation as a customer service call………..the old bait and switch routine. After I hung up, I couldn’t help but smile as I recalled that evening many years ago when Mom did the same thing with lima beans. No matter how you slice it, a sales call in customer service clothing is still a sales call…and a lima bean in a casserole is still a lima bean!
