deal architect

Business Process Angioplasty: Banking technology

May be I was too generous too soon writing about them on the New Florence innovation blog, but the last 5 out of 6 times the Bank of America ATMs have either not recognized the checks being deposited and just spit them back or they have not recognized the amount of the check and I have had to punch in the amount. And this is across 4 ATM machines in 3 branches – so not just an isolated machine. BTW – all the machines appear less than a year old.  When I went in to the teller inside to deposit the checks that the machine would not take, I zipped my ATM card in the pin pad opposite her, so she should have had all the account information on her screen – and she still had me fill out a manual deposit slip. One of BofA bragging points about the new ATMs – when they work – is they make deposit slips redundant.

Talking about adding labor to a process which should be way automated, my Chase credit card security group loves to call me every few weeks. After years and thousands of transactions most of which are with repeat vendors, their pattern recognition algorithms are either not tuned (recently they asked me to verify  4 transactions, the total of which was under $ 20 – can we talk materiality?)or their security is trigger happy.  Of course, the usual comment is “Sir, it’s for your security” Yeah, then how come Amex which we do even more business with has called us may be once in the last 5 years to check on something – and I tend to use that on my international trips which should trigger more alerts.

PS – I should have mentioned most of the checks I have tried to deposit were written on other BofA branches. Maybe the ATMs are actually pretty smart and trying to tell me something about BofA. I should try a Chase check next :)

Absolutely Mind-Boggling!

This will shine as an extreme example of  a “process needing angioplasty”

Four years ago, we canceled our account with Blizzard for World of Warcraft as I described here – we could not make it work even with a new computer, new modem and hundreds of dollars in network diagnostics. Every quarter since they have billed my credit card and the card company has disputed it with them and credited my account.

For four years!!

I sarcastically blogged about it again a year later hoping a marketing person would notice. No action.

I even sent a snail-mail letter to President Mike Morhaime begging for some executive attention.  Check – there has been no activity on the account. Stop the insane cycle. No response from him or his staff.

I finally get an email:

“Access to the World of Warcraft account XXXXXXXXX, has been temporarily disabled due to a dispute filed against the account's past payments. This dispute was filed by the bank, credit card company, or financial institution associated with the payment on the account.

As a result of this dispute, funds paid on the account were withdrawn from Blizzard Entertainment in direct violation of the account's terms. This is known as a "chargeback."

The total withdrawn by this chargeback(s) was: $XXX.XX

If your charge is returned to Blizzard Entertainment for any reason, Blizzard Entertainment reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to suspend or terminate your access and your Account, as well as terminating this Agreement and all of Blizzard Entertainment's obligations hereunder.

The account is now considered by Blizzard to have a negative balance, and will be unavailable for play until any and ALL outstanding balances have been repaid to Blizzard. These funds can only be repaid via a United States money order for the full and EXACT amount of the disputed funds: $XXX.XX

This money order must be made out to "Blizzard Entertainment" and MUST clearly list the World of Warcraft account name in question:

XXXXXXXX

It should be mailed to this address:

ATTN: Billing & Account Services
Blizzard Entertainment
P. O. Box 18979
Irvine, CA 92623

We strongly suggest you use some form of tracking to make sure your mail gets to Blizzard Entertainment; we are not able to assist with lost inquiries. If we do not receive your package, we will not be able process your request. Once the money order is received and processed, Blizzard will unlock the account for play again, provided these instructions have been followed. Upon payment, Blizzard will also credit the account with play time equivalent to any paid subscription time that the account was locked out for (up to a maximum of 180 days).

This process to unlock the account is offered with this email is considered as a final warning: ***ANY subsequent payment disputes will result in a permanent closure of the account for repeated breach of the Terms of Use.***

Unless the above process is followed to get the money order to Blizzard, the World of Warcraft account in question will remain unplayable until said funds are received. Please do not reply to this email, as you will receive no further response. Be aware that Blizzard Billing representatives will NOT be able to provide any alternatives or expedite this process in any way.

Regards,

Billing & Account Services
www.blizzard.com”

All I can say is hooray – some body there finally noticed!

RIP: Dr. Michael Hammer

I have been remiss to not blog about the passing of "Mr. Reengineering" two weeks ago.

My vivid memory is him presenting in a large auditorium and his booming voice reminded me of Neil Diamond's Brother Love "And when he lets go half the valley shakes".

The next time I saw him was in a much smaller room, he was much more subdued and seemed very aware that many mass layoffs in the 90s had been justified using his book. As he told the WSJ, "I was reflecting my engineering background and was insufficiently appreciative of the human dimension"

There is one nugget I picked up from his writings and speeches. Look at any business process from a customer POV. If the customer does not see value in a process step, obliterate the step. Screw what the accountants or attorneys or engineers say about the step being critical. Look at the process coldly from the customer's eyes. That nugget inspired me to have a category on this blog "Business Process Angioplasty" .

I rededicate that portion of the blog, to you, Dr. Hammer.

Banks: New tech, old processes

a) "Immediate Credit for Cash Deposits" says a big sign in red at the new Bank of America ATMs.

Huh - what's the big deal? Well, I guess there is the risk of counterfeit notes so immediate credit is a step forward. But it also draws attention to the fact that other 99% of deposits - checks - do not get immediate credit. In fact, the bank can put holds for up to 2 weeks. So they can make money on what they call "Interest on Uncollected Balances". And even more punitive in-bound wire charges if you get an electronic payment to your account.

Banks spend 3-4 times more on technology than the average manufacturer or retailer. In this day and age of 24x7 electronic banking, you think we would be able to do better. With all the data mining available they can see patterns of accounts where deposited checks are more vulnerable to problems.

b) Like most, I toss the countless credit card applications we get in the mail. But I do scan for what I call 0/0/0 offers - 0 annual fee, 0% interest on cash transfer, 0 transfer fee and will take advantage of those. Recently I got one from Capital One. Even better it has an invitation reference number and a web site where you apply. Great so far, except the web interface just will not accept data in certain fields. Reluctantly I call the toll free number. The agent wants all kinds of information - you know what I mean by all kinds. 2 weeks later I get a letter in the mail. No card, they want my address. Well, duh - you just sent me that form at my address. Curious beyond belief now, I sent the form back.

I just want to see just how convoluted they have made the application process - so far they have made me use the web, the phone, the post. Guess SMS is next? Next an in-person visit?

c) Wells Fargo just introduced vSafe - a "personal online safe that lets you safeguard, organize, and access electronic copies of the things that matter to you most - from wills and trusts to insurance policies and immunization records." Ok, you got my attention. Then you start to lose my attention when you remind me "For certain kinds of signed paper documents - such as wills, deeds, trusts, stock certificates, passports and powers of attorney, for example - an electronic copy often does not have the same legal effect as the paper original.". You also have physical safes to offer - how about something innovative which scans, take pictures, and otherwise digitizes what I put into the safety box and then store those digits in the vSafe.

If not, tell me why exactly, I would pay you $ 4.95 a gb a month when a number of cloud providers offer storage at 25c a gb a month, and services like Google at zero cost? Oh, for the 256 bit encryption?

Rebates: Ruining an almost perfect experience

Rebates are a major angioplasty candidate as I have written before here and here

So, I thought AT&T Wireless had it nailed. I mailed in a rebate form on Feb 5. They SMS me confirmation of receipt on Feb 22.  On Mar 18, they text me again saying it had been mailed. I still do not have the rebate. So I go to their site and it is well documented and even has an internal tracking number. It is rare to see a rebate workflow so digitized and so transparent.

Here's where the process breaks down. I enter a form to initiate a query. They already have the trail documented but the form makes you enter all the gory details again including the 15 digit IMEI serial number. Strikingly, no place for their tracking number. And when you press enter - "We are unable to process your request at this time. Please try again later." 3 times over an hour get the same error.

So I try the toll free number. Voice confirms details and tells me payment mailed, and hangs up. No human being to talk to to say the payment has not been received.

So, I try the 611 - customer service on my PDA...call centers are all closed! I have nothing against Sunday closures like Chick-fil-a does for spiritual reasons. But AT&T is happy to sell you stuff in their stores on Sundays - but with over 60 million customers, it is mind-boggling they do not have a single customer service rep available today.

Then I happen to check with my wife if she got two rebates last Fall and had used them. No clue what I am talking about. I go check on those and the AT&T site shows mailed in August and September.

AT&T usually sends out debit cards as its rebates. So there should be an electronic trail if they were abused. 3 rebates supposedly mailed but not received.

What a way to ruin what looked like - finally - a streamlined rebate process.

Update: 4/21 - after 4 handoffs over an hour, I finally got to a supervisor in their rebate processing center in Milwaukee. They are going to reissue 2 out of the 3 cards and assured me there were no mailing issues at their end. We will see in a couple of weeks.

Update 4/22 - Guess what? The query form I entered on-line must have gone through, not rejected as the error message said. This morning I get an email back - it has yet another tracking number and is even signed by a Katherine. Sadly, all it does is tell me to call the toll free number which I did yesterday.

Process Angioplasty - Medication Error

Medication error is awfully high - as high as 1 in 10 patients, often with fatal consequences.

Readers may find interesting how an old concept from accounts payable - three way matching, along with new technology is helping reduce errors in healthcare

- on the New Florence blog

Weekend stuff: Utilities and payment UI

Funny that Jeff Nolan experienced problems this afternoon trying to set up credit card auto-pay on his PG&E account. I did with Verizon.

The legacy GTE part of Verizon which provides local phone service, till 6 months ago, did not allow credit card payments on-line. You had to go into one of their stores to pay by card. Then they only allowed you to pay one month on-line at a time. Today, I notice they allow recurring pays. So 3 tries later I finally get in and it takes about 6 screens (including your agreement to forego paper bills) to get to the card set up. Finally it takes, but message reads - may take up 60 days, so keep paying as usual. The email confirmation contradicts that and says it may take 30-45 days. This is a technology company?

In meantime, my electric utility Tampa Electric, wants you to pay $ 4.95 each time you use a credit card.

You think with their bulk, they could negotiate their credit card fees down to be cheaper than the paper and labor and real estate cost of receiving checks in mail or at a payment location. And when they do start accepting cards on-line, there is a whole ecosystem of charge processors and payment software and SaaS they could leverage. So the user experience could be better.

Can you imagine how much worse it likely is, when they have to pay you?

Update on Rebates Processing

So I get a text message from AT&T Wireless acknowledging they have received my rebate request.  And I go - progress!  I wrote earlier about Rebate processing as an angioplasty opportunity. Good to see rebate processing become more automated. More retail stores are printing the rebate forms at point-of-sale. Buy.com links your on-line receipt to a PDF copy of the rebate form to facilitate the printing.  Many manufacturers also acknowledge receipt of your rebate form by email.

But the back-end process is still way too manual. Too many rebates are rejected because supposedly there is no proof-of-purchase, there is insufficient personal information on the rebate form, or they are not received in the narrow rebate time frame.  Once that happens, the chances of a buyer winning an appeal are pretty slim.

Then there is processing time. The AT&T text message above says the rebate will take 8 weeks to process. 8 weeks to do what?

Finally, rebate checks have all kinds of poorly spelled names and addresses. So even if the rebate arrives, the bank may balk at cashing a check addressed to someone who kinda, sorta sounds like you. Others are sending rebate debit cards, which you have to  call in to validate. Another potential point of failure.

Overall, some progress, but still a process with plenty of plaque.

Process Angioplasty - Southwest Airlines

I am a loyal (and very frequent) SW customer, an investor and a big fan on this blog - see here, here, here and more.

But in December after a series of one after another irritating incidents, I sent Colleen Barrett, COO a note describing the incidents and with a comment I feared the "experiences..make me dread, it is not just holiday fatigue for your employees, but the sign of a new, less enjoyable airline."

So, I get a card in the mail...."Thank you for your recent correspondence. Because Southwest Airlines receives a large amount of mail, we have assigned an internal tracking number to your file....it may take as long as six weeks before you hear from us"

And it has already been 4 weeks.

Perhaps they are inundated with letters about their new boarding process...their blog received over 250 comments on it.

Or may be the IT team which developed that boarding functionality also delivered a bonus - a customer comment boarding process -)

Sure enough my tracking number starts with C...the last group...

Update: March 5 - I received a well researched 3 page letter from a SW rep J.P. Feller. While it did not completely please me I appreciate the time and effort.

Process Angioplasty - Warranties

As we become more and more dependent on our electronics, it is a bit surprising how warranties and repair do not appear to have evolved much in the last few years.

Take laptop or PC repairs. If our family's experience is any indication, if you have to take an item in to an authorized dealer, it is at least a week you are without it. If it is a warranty to support at your business or home, it often takes even longer to schedule the visit, and quite often the technician does not have the appropriate part. With all our remote diagnostics capabilities, the practice of supporting corporate clients with buffer "loaner" units, you think the spare part and technician supply chain could be much more streamlined.

I recently had an unpleasant warranty experience with a store called BuyGPSNow.com. I had a back up Bluetooth GPS receiver in my wife's car, and one day lost while driving it I tried to turn it on. Dead as a dodo. Under warranty, it took a few emails with the store. They authorized a return, at my expense, and sent me another unit. Elapsed time from first contact - 4 weeks. It arrived on December 24 while we were away for holidays, and when we came back the original warranty was almost finished. You can guess what's coming.

I tried the new unit, 3 days after the original warranty expired and could not make it work. I contacted them and they go now its off warranty, but since it's only a few days past they offered to go through another exchange process. I tell them I have lost faith in this particular product/manufacturer. Can I please get a partial credit towards something else in their store? Nope.  "No exchange or refund after 30-day. This policy cannot be changed and we cannot grant you any exception." Yes, let's go through this endless cycle of trying, returning when I would happily have tried something new at the store.

In contrast, I had a similar exchange with overstock.com and they agreed a unlocked mobile phone which was not picking up a signal in many locations was only a few days past the warranty date and sent me a prepaid UPS return label and credited the amount back.

One of the more pleasant experiences when it comes to warranties is with an Amex feature called Buyer's Assurance. They extend your original warranty and either repair the item or credit the original amount to your card. I have used them 3 times now  - and recently got an AT&T Tilt paid for as a result of my 8125 not working past the original warranty.

But even with Amex the repair or return process does takes weeks. We should be able to do better as an industry.