My bank blocked my card, and the reason given was that I did not submit my KYC (Know Your Customer) documents for renewal. I was asked to submit those documents by mail to reactivate the card.
I promptly sent my scanned and self-attested KYC documents. I received a response with the ticket number. In a couple of days, I received a mail and a message stating that the address in the documents that I submitted doesn’t match the address they have on file.
I was stuck.
So, I called their customer service number. I was told to submit my KYC for the previous address where I lived about eight years ago. Once that is accepted, I was told to change the address and submit the documents for the new address.
I felt stupid listening to this suggestion. Also, I did not have any documents for the old address where I lived.
I explained to them the situation, and the customer service representative politely asked me to write about this situation to another email address.
I wrote to the new email address explaining the situation. I promptly received a ticket number, and within a day, I received an automated response stating that the details they have in the file don’t match the new KYC documents that I submitted.
I was surprised by this response. So, I decided to cancel my subscription and hand over my blocked card back to the bank.
Within a few hours, I received another response stating that my KYC has been accepted and the card is reactivated.
They saved me the botheration of calling up the customer care again and cancelling my subscription with this mail.
What are the touchpoints that I used here?
I used email and telephone as two touchpoints to reach the bank. Were they helpful in resolving my issue? Partially yes, as there was some intervention from someone that made the resolution possible.
What could they have done differently?
- They could have provided me with an option to update my address in their records and provide the KYC documents for the new address
- They could have confirmed my new address with a phone call
- They could have provided me with a web link to upload my KYC documents along with the change of address. They could have automated the process of document acceptance
- They could have provided access back to my Internet login for a couple of days, allowing me to update the change of address and then submit my KYC documents
Intelligence at the touchpoint level
This entire process of updating the KYC took about ten days. This could have easily been just a couple of days.
There was very little intelligence with both the touchpoints. When I sent an email, it had the intelligence to generate the ticket number and nothing beyond that. When I called up the customer service, the executive had the intelligence to provide me with the new email address to explain my issue and nothing beyond that.
If there were ways that these two touchpoints can be made intelligent, it’d make the lives of customers and the customer service staff easier.
