ARE YOU PROTECTING TRUST?

Trust? I was reminded today how fragile trust is between brands, companies and their customers. It’s hard won, fragile and easily broken.

An incident today with WHICH, the consumer champion organisation, who I have been a loyal and avid supporter of over many decades, showed how one phone call could reduce my very high levels of trust with them to next to nothing, due to inappropriate responses, possibly aided by poor systems or poor training.?

Since I sometimes consult with companies on how they unwittingly create their own stories about themselves among their customers and users, which may be damaging, and the consequences of encouraging the wrong stories,?I thought I would highlight my experience.?

WHICH run an online Will creation service. I already have a premium Will Account with them. Previously I found it provides, like WHICH in general,?an excellent, ethical and informed service. Their Will service avoids the excessive and?inflationary prices many solicitors charge for straight forward wills.

Due to changing circumstances I need another Will for myself and so does my partner. After some excellent phone help from one of their Legal Executives a week or two back as to what kind of will I might need, he offered me as a Premium existing customer a significant discount. All good, I thought. When I tried to purchase the additional package?from their site, it did not get me to the pay point with a way to apply the discount. This was after I had filled in the online forms required. I also noticed an IT glitch on one of the online questions asked.?In addition the system kept redirecting me through to my old Will. A possible IT problem???

I called back and got one of his colleagues. He was helpful but didn't know why this was happening, but efficiently emailed me a link to a page that did offer the discount.?Progress I thought—all still good— if taking a long time.?However, having filled out the form again, it?still wouldn't let me make a new Will or allow me to pay but took me back to my old Will. I was no further forward. This had all taken me a good deal of time. It was frustrating.?I seem to be a good deal more computer literate than many people I know and have run and managed multiple company websites. Still, maybe I had missed something. Perhaps the online instructions were not quite clear, or there was an IT glitch— not good for a predominantly online facing company.

When I called back the third time?I got the man who had been so helpful originally. When I explained what was happening. His tone rapidly became short and offhand. He said ‘there’s nothing more I can do’. I was astounded, and asked what else could I do to get another will with them? He repeated he’d done all he could.?I said, ‘You seem to be saying Which can not sell me another Will?’ He agreed he was.??I wondered why he couldn't ask someone with more of an IT remit to help? I explained I was looking for a solution and he didn’t seem to be looking for one.?‘There’s no point in us talking because if we spoke for an hour nothing will change.’?His tone was abrupt and curt.

At this point I found myself wondering if the trust I had placed in placing my earlier will through Which was justified??Or misplaced? No commercial organisation would be encouraging that to happen. Trust is hard won, and wills are important and sensitive documents.?

I accept that?logically there should be no direct connection between my?exchange with this man and the generally high standard of?service WHICH provides. However on an emotional level, there is a feeling of connection, and a bad impression was vividly formed. I?told him, and I tried to remain very calm throughout this call, the response to the problem made my rating for Which plummet from 10 to 1. He didn't seem bothered.?

It made me wonder how careful they were about wills in general. Did they care enough about them?

Organisations and companies create stories around themselves by their behaviour. Maybe this man was having a bad day? He had initially created a very positive?impression of himself and Which. It fitted the story I held about WHICH, that they were well organised and a force for good. Maybe today I didn't explain it well enough to him, or perhaps he didn't ask me the right questions to?understand exactly what the problem was. In any event it didn't end well.?

The irony is that a consumer campaign group, with a long and impressive history of raising standards and challenging poor consumer treatment, does not have a better system in place for an issue like this. I suspect most of the problems I had were with IT glitches.Perhaps that's not something this legal executive could deal with but on this occasion didn’t offer to seek help; he just said there was nothing he could do. Is that really true? There should be a better solution than crudely?turning me away. My version of the Which story I have has changed as a result.?

The website says if you want to complain about Which they prefer you to call rather than email. I did, several times and on each occasion it was an answerphone. The message said they would return the call within two days. Again a dissonance between impression and outcome.?

I am really surprised that I had this experience, with an organisation I admire, but I hope this is informative for others, about how stories travel and how we all need to build and protect trust by enbedding it in organisations, employees and systems.