Being a banker for most of my career, as either a bank executive or a consultant to the industry, I have always taken pride in providing services to my clients — whether it was assisting a customer with a banking issue when I managed a bank or advising a bank on how to handle a regulatory issue or modernize the bank’s infrastructure. But recently, I experienced what many experience when dealing with their financial institution, a lack of good customer service. It seems like basic skills are missing. Have we become too siloed? Is that possible? Or is it the processes and procedures that we force on our employees?

My story is not that different from many others. I have been a customer of my primary bank for many years; for me, it has been over 4 decades. This bank is one of the US’ largest banks. I do like the tools and convenience this bank provides, but 2 years ago, our business account information was compromised, and we did not catch it immediately. It resulted in a substantial loss to the firm. With that first hit, we became diligent in reviewing our activity before transactions were posted. But we needed a long-term solution, and as industry veterans, we knew our options. Positive Pay would have been a great solution, if it worked. I have advised numerous banks and negotiated a variety of contracts for banks’ cash management and treasury tools and products. From a consultative perspective, ACH and Check Positive Pay are great options to sell to a bank’s business customers, but only when they work.

This is when the customer service nightmare began — our experience was full of false starts, months of unfulfilled promises, thousands of dollars in fees, and in the meantime, our account was still at risk of potential fraud. After months of trying, we closed the account and opened a new account, and the next level of aggravation started. We lost all our online history. We couldn’t send payments from the new account, but we could do those transactions using business savings. Go figure. After escalating the issue, I was transferred from specialist to specialist, with no one able to help.

Many customers — business and consumer — experience poor customer service from their financial institutions, which can lead to significant frustration and financial loss. The lack of EFT protection for business accounts compared with consumer accounts is a notable issue. Positive Pay tools, while beneficial, often come with challenges such as false starts, unfulfilled promises, and high fees. Our report on Why Customer Switch Banks found that nearly 15% of business customers felt they were treated like a number, and 40% of customers faced challenges with products and services. This is a problem for institutions because retention is critical — according to Harvard Business Review, acquiring a new customer (depending on the industry you’re in) can be anywhere from five to 25 times more expensive than retaining an existing one. Additionally, research suggests that increasing customer retention by just 5% can increase profits by 25% to 95%.

After repeated attempts, I did what any banker from Washington, D.C. would do, I made some calls to some senior people at the bank believing it is who you know, but all I got was more promises, no action. As a customer, it is frustrating when bureaucracy is the problem and good customer service is the answer. I am a big believer that customer service is the ultimate differentiator for a financial institution, but you need systems and tools to augment the customer experience. Not all banks have both.