Humble Pie from Credit Unions of BC
Posted by Trey Reeme on August 6th, 2007
Paula writes:
A couple of weeks ago, I visited the BC credit union website to search for an ATM close by. The search found 4 that I went looking for, only to find that one didn’t exist at all, two were much further south than shown on the map, and the other one was 10 minutes east of where the map showed it to be. The experience was pretty frustrating, so I sent them an email to let them know what had happened. I gave them details on my search parameters, the results, and the ensuing frustration.
How did Credit Union Central of BC respond? Paula goes on:
This reply came from Alana a few days later … “Thank you very much for bringing this matter to our attention. I can understand your frustration of being misdirected by us. We were unaware of any problems with the ATM mapping feature on our website, and upon receiving your email have been in contact with our technology partners to ensure that all mapping errors are corrected as quickly as possible. The specific information you have provided us with has definitely helped us narrow down where the issue exists, and we truly appreciate the time you have taken to send us this information.”
I’d be more than pleased with that response. But Credit Union Central of BC didn’t stop there:
She asked for my mailing address … I assumed to send me a card. What arrived knocked our socks off! On Friday, while we were in the city, we got a call from a courier to arrange a delivery time for a pie. Cool – just what we needed, because we were having company for dinner and Patrick didn’t have time to make dessert.
But this was no ordinary pie! It was GI-NOR-MOUS!!! Imagine a 4.5 lb pie in a reusable pie plate, packed in a wooden crate filled with strips of “thank you” paper, with the note of thanks I had been expecting. The pie’s ingredients were also listed with instructions … it was so fresh that it is recommended to finish it within 5 days. . . .
Can you say “customer service”?!? ... what a great business concept! If you EVER need to send an apology or thank you, please consider using this company – you will definitely earn some brownie points in the process from the recipient!
Consumerist said of the affair: “We will add ‘humorous pies’ to the already long list of reasons we prefer credit unions to banks.”
Too cute!
Now that’s service!
That’s friggin’ beautiful.
*Schemes a way to be offended by the Credit Unions of BC to satisfy sweet tooth.
What I love about that story is how the credit union turned a member from a state of frustration…to the complete opposite!
How rare is that? I was very frustrated recently by a certain big box retailer’s service and convoluted rebate process (long story) after I bought a new laptop. I wrote a letter and an email – their response? Nothing. Nada. And do you think I will patronize them again? No way.
Flipside of that – I had a problem with a digital camera of mine shortly after the warranty expired. I called and had a really bad experience on the phone. Wrote an email about it to the company and guess what? They fixed the camera free of charge…AND added another year to my warranty in apology. Will I buy from them again? Yes and I do.
Perfect complaint resolution – three cheers for Credit Union Central…My only problem is, what kind of pie was it? I mean, I’d go from annoyed to down right pissed off if it was rhubarb!
Apple pie? Chocolate pie? Now that’s jubilation!
Wow! Those British Columbians certainly gave powerful testimony to what the credit union brand truly can be.
Wow!
You know I was impressed at the thought of a $15 pie shipped out to a customer that ultimately helped to improve their service offerings.
But they paid over $65 for the pie plus tax and shipping. That is HUGE! I know that most CEOs would not permit an expense like that to cover an “Oops”.
But now look at the return on that simple gesture. That is dedication to branding.
Good Job Credit Union Central!
Dear Trey:
A couple of weeks ago I came your site and tried to leave a comment but received a “ruby on rails” error. This was quite disconcerting since it had taken me at least 3-4 minutes to type the comment (I’m a lot older than you, and tire a lot quicker) and because I haven’t the slightest idea what ruby on rails is. I was distressed that maybe I had done something wrong to your site which caused me great agony. I thought you might like to know this.
Ron Shevlin
p.s. please send me a pie c/o Epsilon, Wakefield, MA.
Ron,
Nice. We can learn a lot from the Humble Pie delivery of the BC CU.
Now we all need to practice what we preach. Ruby on Rails makes me think of an amazing beer made in Portland, Oregon called Ruby Tuesday by the McMenamin brothers. www.mcmenamins.com.
I’m pretty sure they will ship it. Seems more appropriate than R & D (rip off and duplicating) the pie idea.
Cheers!
Thanx, Trey, for sharing the story – I’m glad so many people are hearing about it! Anytime a business does me right, I like to share it as widely as possible (mind you, I do the same when they do me wrong).
We figure the end cost of the pie, with note card, personalized shredded paper, and delivery, probably set them back $100 – an amazing gesture!
Warrior … for the record … the pie was apple and sour cherry! Scrumptious!!!
Apple and sour cherry…nice! The frown is officially upside down! :)
This is a great story and all kind of our fault! We (at Currency Marketing with our technology partners K1 Technology) created and host the marketing site for Credit Union Central of BC’s that is being discussed here. The mapping application was built using Google’s first release of their API and unfortunetly these original maps and the plotting have proven to be a little flakey at best.
We have since reimported the ATM databases and are using Google’s latest API which now takes into consideration the address, postal code and GPS coordinates and appears to be working much better.
Alanna and Martin at CUCBC are first class folks and I was delighted (but not surprised) to hear how this was handled when this came to our attention last week.
When you are relying on a third-party service to plug into your websites (in this case Google), you are assuming that it is 100% correct. And we all know what happens when you assume…
Tim
Thanks for a wonderful story! It’s great to hear of a credit union that “gets it” and takes care of its members that support it! It is also great to read the discussion this has generated (and to dream about the apple and sour cherry pie!!!)