I just got off the phone with American Express customer service. The conversation ended in one of the most unimaginable sequences I’ve ever experienced.
American Express is one of those iconic and pristine American brands that I grew up with. The image and the voice of the brand was authoritative, global, secure and customer-focused. The exhortation of “Don’t Leave Home Without It” was more than a path to using debt to satisfy your wants…it was protection and certainty in a big and uncertain world.
Tomorrow, my 16-year old son Will is going off to Spain for three weeks: a couple of weeks in a language immersion program and then a week with my brother Andy and his wife Maria at their home in Madrid.
Will got his first AmEx card this year, when he started driving, so that we could feel confident he would be safe in an emergency. So, this weekend, before heading down to the bank to get Will a debit card for his trip, I figured I would call American Express and see if we could set the card up to handle his cash needs while he’s in Spain.
The representative was helpful and personable. He asked about Will’s trip. He quickly set up the bank debit feature. He told me that we should get a PIN number in the mail by Tuesday, and that if we didn’t get it before Will left, Will could get a temporary number to use while he was in Spain.
The representative was also completely wrong.
I’m on the road this week, so I called home this evening to see if the PIN number had come. It hadn’t, so I gave Will a call. I figured that it would be a good experience for him to contact customer service and work through getting the temporary number to use while he was on the trip.
He called me back 20 minutes later. They told him that he wouldn’t get the PIN number in the mail for 5 to 7 business days, and that if he needed money he could call an emergency number and withdraw up to $500. (That’s $355 euros.) He could access that emergency withdrawal function once every 90 days.
That was a lot different from what I had understood during my very delightful call to set the service up. Don’t worry, I told Will. I’ll give them a call and sort it out.
Because, of course, this is American Express…I’m a capable professional…and I’m a long-time cardholder. That’s kind of brand-alignment nirvana. We’re cool.
We weren’t. I get a service rep on the phone and explain the situation. He repeats, likely from a script, the circumstance under which Will would be able to use the emergency withdrawal pin.
“I’m sending a 16-year old to Spain with the ability to withdraw 500 euros — and only that — because of information that your representative gave me in my last call. If I’d thought it wasn’t possible, I would have gone to the bank and gotten a debit card!”
“Actually, sir, it’s $500. I don’t know how much that is in Euros.”
We went through my issue a couple of more times. The question I asked in several different ways, with elevating degrees of frustration, was: Can’t you do something to fix a situation that isn’t acceptable?
The answer was always no.
“Please put me on hold and find someone who can help me solve this problem.”
After a few minutes, a woman comes on the phone. They do a very polite hand-off, with the first rep telling me that the supervisor will help me with my problem.
That wasn’t true, exactly. She simply repeated everything that the first customer service rep told me, in a more cultivated voice and with a slower cadence. But, the bottom line was that no one at American Express could either a)give me a
PIN that he could use more than once or b)increase the amount of money that he could withdraw during the one use of his emergency PIN.
Why couldn’t they? “The regular PIN is generated by a computer and no one can see it.” “The system won’t allow us to make an exception on a withdrawal limit on the emergency PIN.” (Of course, their computers are able to calculate and adjust credit limits on a moment’s notice…but anyway.)
She did have a couple of bright suggestions. “Why don’t you give your son traveler’s checks and cash for his trip?” Answer: Because, as I mentioned at the start of the conversation, I’m 800 miles away from him! And, “Why don’t you have your son go to a hotel or bank and get a wire for some cash?”
This is how it ended: “So,” I say, “let me understand this clearly. I am sending my son to Spain without the ability to get cash, based on erroneous information that your representative gave me when I set the features up, and you are telling me that American Express feels no need to find a way to solve this problem, and that there is no way to work around your systems to make sure my 16-year ol
d has access to money.”
“Yes,” she says.
“So, there is no way that you can help me?”
“No,” she says.
I hung up.
Amazing.
So, the essence of customer experience is in every contact. The way that these reps were scripted, the clear directions they had received to not go off script, the complete and utter lack of interest in my problem all are critical parts of the American Express brand experience. By the time I got off that call, I had a strong sense that AmEx was no different than any other financial services brand. And that’s a long drop from where I started.
