Dear Editor,
The words “customer” and “service” when placed together form “a unicorn” on our “Friendly island”. This has also caused us to accept that proper customer service should not be expected or demanded. We cower and nothing changes.
My experience outside of CIBC Bank at Emmaplein with a “senior interior” security guard on Monday was one of utter disrespect and was beyond bad customer service. What is worse is his behaviour and treatment of customers (read: bank clients whose money also pays his salary) are well known within the walls of the bank and among regular clients. People actually go to the bank prepared to be confronted by this unprofessional man.
We are living in tough economic times and before anyone decides I am affecting anyone’s means of income, quit the thought. This is about personal financial business being exposed to the public, someone who is rude and unprofessional, and about an institution doing nothing about it because clients have no choice but to visit the bank where their money is.
So, what happened:
I received an email to visit a customer service rep about going into the bank to complete a service. I was given the name of the representative and the bank’s opening times.
I arrived at the bank and told the security guard I have an appointment with customer service. He was already gruff and behaved as though I was bothering his day and how dare I think I could speak to him (this is my impression). He goes inside and comes back out in an even worse mood than before. He “communicates” (if you can call his tone of communication) that the rep I said I had an appointment with said he had no appointment with anyone.
The guard proceeded to ask me why I needed to go to customer service. I mean, am I to tell the security guard what my business in the bank is? I am also to tell the security guard what my business at the bank is with zero privacy standing outside the bank’s door in front of everyone else waiting there?
I received quite a dressing down after he saw the email I received about coming into the bank. When I said I had an email, he was next looking into my phone and reading it off my phone – zero privacy. “That is not an appointment,” he said in a rude and unfriendly tone. How am I to know what the heck it is called when the bank informs me I have to show up to complete a service that the bank offers? A service I am paying for btw.
I was prepared to let this incident go, but couldn’t upon learning that the nasty behaviour of this security guard is a constant and well known factor.
1. One woman waiting to get into the bank remarked: “He is the reason I don’t like coming to the bank.”
2. The customer service representative after hearing my complaint about the way I was treated asked, “Which security guard?” When I indicated who it was, the rep’s response was that this behaviour is known and other clients have also complained.
3. Another rep hearing the issue indicated the same as rep 1 that the behaviour is known and added that his behaviour is known to management, et al.
This is not a “me” issue. This is a chronic issue at a bank I do business with and it needs to be fixed asap. Either this security guard is sent to customer service classes and monitored after for change of behaviour or removed from dealing with the public.
CIBC Bank, your customers are not a bother. They should not be treated with disrespect, rudely or in any unkind manner. They should not come to your branches expecting to be treated like the scum of the earth, to be dressed down, or to be “put in their place” by anyone.
I don’t want an apology. Those are fickle and empty things. Fix the issue of the behaviour of this guard.
If I hear of this continuing to be an issue or I face the same issue again, I will know the way this security guard treats clients is a reflection of how you as a bank feel/see me, us, we, as clients. And, as difficult as opening an account is in the country, I will know my business is not in the right place and will move it elsewhere.
Alita Singh
A loyal client for 16 years
