ON THURSDAY and Friday of this week, the Center for Global Best Practices (GBCP) is hosting an online training conference entitled Best Practices in Complaints Management. The meetings will be held from 1:30 p.m. to 4:45 p.m. via Zoom on each day.
GBCP mentions that complaints handling skills are among the most valuable skill sets for any employee who deals with customers. True. But customer complaints, in order to be handled effectively, often need to be passed on to someone who has the authority, and therefore the responsibility, to address the issue.
GBCP has provided customer complaints handling seminars to organizations such as AMEX, Sitel, Toshiba, Fujitsu, McDonalds, Jollibee, BDO, SM, Metrobank, Cebu Pacific, SSS, PhilHealth and many more.
I am nervous about the rapidly expanding role of Information Technology (IT) in the Banking sector. Can it be trusted? Since trust is of overwhelming importance in banking, it is vital that IT systems are rigorously tested.
This concept was put under public scrutiny in December 2021 when there were numerous complaints from BDO customers that unauthorized withdrawals were taking place from their ATM accounts. Over 700 accounts were involved. There was extensive press coverage. I thought this was a story that would ‘run and run’.
Not so.
In January 2022, press reports suddenly disappeared.
BDO worked on the assumption that customer redress consisted simply of refunding the unauthorized withdrawal. It seemed that this was accepted by the victimized customers.
BDO Chairman Teresita Sy-Coson awarded CEO Nestor Tan with a six-year extension to his stewardship of the bank. (Mr. Tan was due to retire in 2022 so this is now 2028).
The customer complaints situation was clearly adroitly handled. What could been a public relations disaster became a successful exercise.
As CGBP says when it is soliciting support for this week’s seminars:
‘Enroll and turn those customer complaints to compliments!’/PN
