Do you honor what your employees’ promise?

by
Do you honor what your employees promise?
Like millions of other homeowners, I recently applied to refinance my mortgage at a lower rate. When a very low rate was advertised on my financial institution’s web site, I acted so I could lock in the rate.
Wednesday morning I began to complete the convenient online application. At one point the curser spun and spun. The site said it was processing and if I got tired of waiting to click a button and someone from would contact me. After 10 minutes I clicked.
Thursday when no one contacted me I went back on the site and picked up where I left off. When I reached that page, the curser spun. I called and left a message for one of the loan offers I’d dealt with before. Later that day she emailed me that a different loan officer would be in contact that day.
The next day with no contact, I called again. Neither loan officer I knew was available so I was asked if I’d like to speak to someone else in the dept. Sure. I talked to Bruce and explained the spinning curser and my concern about wanting to lock in the rate since it had now been 3 days. He said, “No problem. I’ll figure out what’s wrong with the web page and make sure you get the rate on the day you started this, as rates change on the weekend and this is Friday.”
Monday late afternoon, one of the loan officers called. She looked at the online application and found a minor error that I would have never found. She corrected it and the spinning curser disappeared and I could proceed. I mentioned locking in the low rate from last week, as this week’s rate was considerably higher. She said, “You can’t lock in last week’s rate since you didn’t complete the application until today.”
I was livid.
“I didn’t complete the application because your system wouldn’t let me. I called your colleague Thurs. and she said you’d call me back that day. When you didn’t, I called Friday and got Bruce. He said he’d lock in the rate for me.”
She replied, “Bruce is a temp. He can’t make those promises.”
I was even more livid.
“Bruce is a representative of your company so you have to honor his promises. How would I know he was a temp? Am I supposed to ask everyone with whom I interact if they are an employee or temp in order to know whether to believe what they tell me? That’s not a way to do business.”
She said she’d see what she could do.
When I didn’t hear from her for another week, I called the department head explaining the scenario. At first he didn’t want to honor the lower rate either, but eventually he gave in as my 20-year payment record with them is unblemished and I have a high credit score.
* Are you holding your customers accountable to pay more because your systems are not functioning?
* Are you not honoring what your employees promise your customers?
* Are your employees clear on what they can and can’t promise?

Like millions of other homeowners, I recently applied to refinance my mortgage at a lower rate. When a very low rate was advertised on my financial institution’s web site, I acted so I could lock in the rate.

Wednesday morning I began to complete the convenient online application. At one point the curser spun and spun. The site said it was processing and if I got tired of waiting to click a button and someone from would contact me. After 10 minutes I clicked.

Thursday when no one contacted me I went back on the site and picked up where I left off. When I reached that page, the curser spun. I called and left a message for one of the loan offers I’d dealt with before. Later that day she emailed me that a different loan officer would be in contact that day.

The next day with no contact, I called again. Neither loan officer I knew was available so I was asked if I’d like to speak to someone else in the dept. Sure. I talked to Bruce and explained the spinning curser and my concern about wanting to lock in the rate since it had now been 3 days. He said, “No problem. I’ll figure out what’s wrong with the web page and make sure you get the rate on the day you started this, as rates change on the weekend and this is Friday.”

Monday late afternoon one of the loan officers called. She looked at the online application and found a minor error that I would have never found. She corrected it and the spinning curser disappeared and I could proceed. I mentioned locking in the low rate from last week, as this week’s rate was considerably higher. She said, “You can’t lock in last week’s rate since you didn’t complete the application until today.”

I was livid.

“I didn’t complete the application because your system wouldn’t let me. I called your colleague Thurs. and she said you’d call me back that day. When you didn’t, I called Friday and got Bruce. He said he’d lock in the rate for me.”

She replied, “Bruce is a temp. He can’t make those promises.”

I was even more livid.

“Bruce is a representative of your company so you have to honor his promises. How would I know he was a temp? Am I supposed to ask everyone with whom I interact if they are an employee or temp in order to know whether to believe what they tell me? That’s not a way to do business.”

She said she’d see what she could do.

When I didn’t hear from her for another week, I called the department head explaining the scenario. At first he didn’t want to honor the lower rate either, but eventually he gave in as my 20-year payment record with them is unblemished and I have a high credit score.

  • Are you holding your customers accountable to pay more because your systems are not functioning?
  • Are you not honoring what your employees promise your customers?
  • Are your employees clear on what they can and can’t promise?

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