CM October 2023

OPINION
Name check
Customer service requires the
appropriate level of respect.
AUTHOR – Stephen Lewis FCICM
THE other day I had
occasion to contact a senior
management team at a wellknown
High Street Bank’s
Head Office in London.
To set the scene: I was
working towards a conclusion of a
complicated Life Insurance matter on
behalf of a client – it was literally a matter
of life and death regarding a delayed
settlement, through no fault of my client.
As a consequence, I was treating the
matter with a great deal of gravitas in my,
hopefully, usual professional manner.
As most readers are aware, particularly
with banks, it is never easy to get through
to the same person twice, as they work in
teams. So, on the third try that morning I
was connected to a new ‘Team Manager’
who introduced themselves by their
first name and as the senior manager
responsible for my case. I explained in
simple terms, again, the ongoing situation
and quoted the three separate reference
numbers I had on the file. To which came
the reply: ‘Hold on my lovely and I’ll check
the file. Won’t keep you holding long.’
Now, dear reader, if you don’t react in
any way to the above statement, read no
further. I, on the other hand, did react.
Within a millisecond, all my 40 years
of teaching and being taught about
‘customer facing professionalism’ flashed
through my brain. As calmly and politely
as I could I replied: ‘Don’t call me “my
lovely”, I have a name – it’s Stephen Lewis
or Stephen.” Immediately the manager
responded: ‘I apologise Mr Lewis, please
hold and I will find the file.’
Ok you say. Sorted. But I was left
somewhat shaken. Perhaps it’s me, but in
that brief moment of being addressed in
a light-hearted term of endearment I lost
all confidence in the bank, the person I
was dealing with and, more importantly,
a successful and speedy conclusion to my
case. Why? Because I felt that the person
on the other end of the line was not a
senior manager at all, nor was I through
to the right person. More than this, I felt
indignant at the disrespectful way I had
been addressed. I felt I had been almost
verbally abused (or am I going too far?).
Changing attitudes
I appreciate that we live in a world of
work that is rapidly changing, where we
speak to people using different terms
and dress in different ways. Work is
now far more ‘casual’ than it ever was in
many ways – casual clothes and casual
attitudes. To that end, some might say I
am overreacting, but am I? Would that
same bank call handler walk into the
Boardroom and address the Chairman
of the Bank with ‘Hello my lovely’? If the
roles were reversed, and the chairman
addressed the senior manager as ‘my
lovely’ I can only think what the HR team
would have made of it all and would fully
expect to read details of the harassment
case in a subsequent issue of the Bankers
Review!
We live in a world of opposites and
contradictions so my mantra has always
been: ‘Keep it simple – Keep it safe’. It
used to be ‘keep it simple stupid’, but I
don’t use that anymore since I had to talk
my way out of a training course attendee
accusing me of calling them stupid!
The customer is the most important
person to any business, and we should
never presume or assume who we/they
are. So always start any conversation,
verbal or written with the respect
that they/we feel is deserved.
Always address the customer with
an acceptable title, be it Mr, Mrs,
Ms – it carries no risk and allows them
to invite you to call them by a first name
or anything else. But never give yourself a
title. I always teach that scenario.
If someone invites a more relaxed
greeting, then you are more than halfway
to solving a problem. If they continue to
call me ‘Sir’ or ‘Mr’ I need to work a little
harder to break down the barriers. In debt
collection in particular I always say that
you can’t make people pay – you can only
make people want to pay! It is much the
same in any other business or personal
scenario. People don’t want to be forced
into anything; we have to want to do
something.
Some of you may disagree. Some of you
don’t mind that unsolicited call calling
you by your first name and asking how
your day is going. Maybe I am just being
old fashioned, but I do.
Stephen Lewis FCICM is a credit and
collections consultant.
The customer is
the most important
person to any
business, and
we should never
presume or assume
who we/they are.
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / October 2023 / PAGE 11