I bank with smile, largely because they are called smile (and the ethical policy keeps me warm at night). Their online banking experience is OK: it’s a bit boring but I get things done. Their phone help, however, is outstanding, the best experience I’ve had with any organisation. This week they came to my assistance again all because of an email I’d been sent.
On Wednesday I got an email from smile. It began “Your current account statement is now ready. To read it, access your
account and click onto statements.” So I accessed my account and clicked onto statements. My most recent transaction was dated the April 24th. But today was the May 2nd. My current balance was £300 less than the balance at the end of what I’d been told was latest statement.
I was confused, and a little bit worried, so I rang the telephone banking. Turns out I was the victim of a batch(-it) job. The operator could see my latest statement on her system, only they didn’t appear online till “later on”. I’d only discovered this because I’m in Canada and an email that is usually sent in the middle of the night (UK time) arrived while I was online. Typically users find this in their inbox first thing in the morning and if they are motivated to look at the details they will find the statement ready for them to view. My first thought though was why not make the communication follow the fact and not precede it?
It may be that there are processing reasons that compel this approach and that for the greater good it may be worth surprising those few customers logging on from overseas or lonely obsessives online in the middle of the night (I realise those groups are not mutually exclusive – hem hem). But I wonder… it seems to me a relic of an “overnight batch-processing” paradigm that an internet bank should not be reliant on. Moving to the web means shifting thinking patterns in all manner of ways. Satisfactory user experience means keeping your promises – including (especially?) the small ones.
