We should be eating humble pie as well!

By Tim McAlpine

The current post on Open Source CU is entitled Humble Pie from Credit Unions of BC. It is about Credit Union Central of BC's marketing website www.creditunionsofbc.com and how Paula, who has a personal blog, was put through a major run-around by following the ATM map directions that this site served up.

The class that was displayed by Alanna Malanchuk at Credit Union Central of BC was awesome. She promptly responded professionally by e-mail and then went a step further and sent a pie to Paula from the Acme Humble Pie Company. I am not surprised, as we deal with Alanna as a client and she, and her boss Martin Reid, from CUCBC are first-class folks.

Well, what hasn't come to light is that this was our fault. We built the site with our technology partners at K1 and used Google's original API that allows mapping to be integrated directly into websites.

What we didn't realize at the time was that some of the ATM locations in this vast nationwide network were inaccurate. Since all of this has come to light, Andrew at K1 has updated the code and reimported the Exchange ATM database. The new API code now plots locations based on address, postal code and GPS coordinates and should be much better now.

Communication on the social web is such a dynamic, ever-changing animal and this experience proves that everyone has a voice and is using it these days. It also proves that your organization's true worth is proven with how well you recover in tough situations.

Comments

1) Paula @ Aug 09, 2007
http://mummymusings.wordpress.com

Great job on fixing the website - I tried it again last week and it worked perfectly!

I was really impressed with the pie, but even more so that my concern was taken so seriously and so quickly. Not everyone would take the necessary steps to resolve their customers' concerns with such flair or speed.

Just goes to show that it's important to speak up when you encounter something like this.

2) Tony Mannor @ Aug 09, 2007
http://www.cuhype.com

Tim,

I just posted on how todays social media really shows us the best and worst in customer service. I dig how CUCBC handled this (I think I posted something at OpenSource to that effect).

But really this whole thing just continues to show how important it is to "Handle your business" when it comes to customer service. While this was a story with a happy ending, I have 2 examples of "what not to do" in my latest post.

I think the internet has become the best tool in assuring customer service. The repercussions of bad service are staggering.

3) Trey Reeme @ Aug 16, 2007
http://www.opensourcecu.com

Wow - one of the unintended consequences of Paula's post is that the entire system for the ATM search has gotten better. No telling how many times that someone's noticed the error, but didn't take the time to tell their story about it existing.

Gotta love the social web, and great job responding to all involved - I had no idea you built the site!

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