HSBC suprised me!

Last week, I wrote about a "bad profit" experience (for the full note: I went to the Lobby)...Guess what I was rewarded with a better experience, the same day! Not yet a "good profit" experience, but who knows, soon maybe (some of you may actually contribute to this, if you are a customer of HSBC, the bank).

Here is the story.

As I was walking towards the train station, my attention got caught by the new HSBC advertising campaign (below is a shot I took showing one of the posters they use).

The tag line says something like:

"to be open to the world is to understand people's different point of views"

The reasons the ad did get my attention:

1) it really tries to be people oriented through the words and the visual combination, implying that we are all different,

2) I fully relate to the "half empty/half full glass" visual, as I use this metaphor a lot when I explain how words are so important to truly get the message across: the same idea or message may be expressed differently and still mean the same thing, only the words used will make a message more or less impactful and persuasive (this is specifically important for WOM messaging and for advertising and communication in general although in my experience, the advertising testing industry does a pretty bad job at highlighting and measuring this).

The visual (for me), really speaks to HSBC point: "understanding people's different point of views" .

I then checked online to find out more, and I was really nicely surpised to see that HSBC was trying to expand the experience I got offline with a mini site:

YourPointofView.com

The site provides an ability to start the dialogue through a first set of questions about my point of views, and others' point of views on many topics (sports, food, etc.) . Upon registration, and after answering very short questions, you are then invited to freely comment further on a blog about the topic of interest (they state that they will not use my personal info for business purposes, I will let you know if they do, trust me!).

So, I am not a customer of HSBC, but:

• am positively inclined towards the brand thanks to its willingness to connect with me: they really made a difference in my mind!
• now, I am looking to get more info about HSBC and the way they treat customers, but guess what, not from HSBC itself, but from customers of HSBC, evangelists of HSBC.
• I will ask these HSBC customers two simple questions: 1) "How likely would you recommend me banking with HSBC?" (sounds like Net Promoter Score no?), and 2) "how true and real is HSBC campaign about making a difference with its customers (vs other branks you know)?"

I welcome any answers/insights to the above questions to either positively "close the loop" with my first initial impressions, and push me to try HSBC, or simply confirm indeed that, as Seth Godin states, "All Marketers Are Liars".

Please help me....:)

tags technorati : hsbc yourpointofview.com wom customer evangelist advertising branding listening customer listening all marketers are liars

Comments

[Bob]

I am not a fan of HSBC! I've had one of their credit cards for about 1 year. I've always paid the balance in full. HSBC cut my line of credit by 92% for "business reasons". No other explanation.
I then had the representative cancel the account for my own business reasons. Then in a matter of hours, I was solicited for an HSBC credit card with the "opportunity" for a line of credit greater than my original!
They're a bit messed up.

[hsbcsucks]

HSBC is real incompetent bank with rude and unprofessional staff hiding behind bigness.

This bank is going to see end in many sectors.

read the scams and scandals in HSBC from last two years.

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/428/RipOff0428924.htm

[hsbcsucks]

hsbc has many reports on ripoffreport, this is one of their latest scam.

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/428/RipOff0428924.htm

[ifhuhusd]

HSBC is great. People who complain are 99.99% of the time the ones who screwed up and blame the bank for their errors. If you cant pay your bills dont live on credit!

[IM]

I'm glad to know other people have bad experiences with HSBC too. So it wasn't just me. Their CS are terrible. They are not mean but definitely not friendly and difficult to understand. I used to get people from India. I signed up with an online saving a couple years ago when it ranked with one of the highest APY rates, then a Plus checking later. They offered me a $50 for Direct Deposit by May in the mail. Called the CS to verify if it does matter whether the DD should go to Checking or Saving. He said no. I started the deposit in Apr and still did not see the $50 three months later. They said it'll be credited by Aug. Oct came and still no credits. They then told me in Nov that the DD should be deposited in Checking. I banked about $50k at the time with them and they refused to honor a $50 credit due to a mistake from their own CS! Another silly thing was when i accidentally did a transfer twice between my saving and checking that caused a sufficient fund in my checking for one day. I had about $30k in my saving. I called and it took a long wasteful time to ask the CS to reverse the insufficient fund until i asked to speak to the supervisor. She said the supervisor would say the same thing. I insisted. She put me on hold for 3 SECONDS, then came back and said OK. Speaking of being a valued customer for banking $30 with them. I've just closed my accounts since it's not worth it to invest with them.

[ag]

ive worked for hsbc for 15 years .. yes its not all great i probabley will be losing my job by the end of the year . it will be going over seas. Im a collector and i dont get extra money buy charging fee's or pay by phones. i do feel some of the employees in the company do mislead customers. It angers me. but the majority dont. If customers took ten minutes of there time to listen to us, we could help them out. I think the majority of the customers are afraid that no one can help them .. then there's the majority of the people who dont care and they blame there problems on the world and dont want to listen to reason or progams that will help them out. Im not writing this to defend a company who is going to take my job away and send it over seas.. Just listen to the collectors you would be suprised most of us are in the same boat as yourselves and we realy do want to help you

[Devendra Gehlot]

Greetings to all, I devendra gehlot, Indore made an excellent track records with HSBC (they offered me 2 times pre approved PL due to my good transaction habit). And what a beautiful rewards i got from HSBC, for 6 months I am getting recovery follow up for the transaction which done by an unknown person. After expiry of my credit card HSBC Bank sent my renewal card to my old address and delivered to unknown person without checking identity. I mailed each and every details as and when require by HSBC to sort out the issue. I mailed more that 50 mails to customer desk, nodal officer and BO. Still no result.

[Arshad]

Take my advice.Unless you have a lot of money in their accounts don't expect to be treated very well.Think twice before going to them for getting any NRI housing loan.They have no idea on how the accounting system and the tax departments work in other countries(my experience is Canada) .They don't even trust the assesment orders .If you have something like $400k with them then you will feel that they are the best in the world

[Mykel Horn]

I've been an excellent customer, utilizing the HSBC credit card and always staying within my limit. Recently, I accidentally paid more than i owed on the card. My reward was as follows: They raised my APR to 19.99% and cash APR to 29.99%. When I called to inquire why, they told me it was an "across the board" business decision affecting all customers. They then refused to send me my accumulated reward points because it had not yet reached a "threshold worthy of responce". They refused to do anything except keep my reward points and close my account. I wouldn't recommend HSBC credit cards to anyone. Their idea of customer service is to take, take, take.

[Partha]

World's worst Bank to Bank with

It all started with a cheap HSBC agent standing outside our Office campus requesting to enroll for a HSBC credit card with free lifetime membership and quick document processing. Somehow I got in to a serious conversation with the gentleman and agreed to submit a copy of my primary credit card statement. During the first yr of membership, I remember to have used the allotted card for few of my normal transactions. However as I remember after an yr or so when I got the statement with an annual renewal changes debited to me, I immediately paid of the current outstanding and send a request for cancellation of the card with immediate effect. I believe this was sometime between 2007-2008. In early 2009, all of a sudden I started receiving monthly card statement with annual renewal changes debited to me. Since I was travelling extensively during that time, I couldn’t really take out time to inquire about it and over a period of time I forgot about it as I was out of the country for a while. Once I came back in mid 2009, I came to know that my family members in my permanent address receive regular calls asking about my contact details. I got in touch with them and came to know that my case has been forwarded to some credit risk collection agent. I told them that I have closed the account long back and according to me there is no outstanding due to the bank against the above account and all outstanding reflecting against the account are pertains to the annual renewal charges and subsequent nonpayment service charges. They were asking me to provide proof of cancellation and I told them that I hold almost 20-25 cards including various promotional and loyalty membership cards and you can’t expect me to maintain document of all communication for past several years. These high pitch conversation continued for several months with various threatening calls to me and my family members and also expressing that my credit rating will go for a toss and it will have adverse impact on my credit worth and so on. Even after all this I refused to pay not because I can’t afford the outstanding due, I guess around 3-4K INR but because it was against my basic principles. Anyway finally these guys came up with a business proposition and said we will write-off outstanding if you pay a token money of Rs 500/- to settle the account. I thought life is already so busy and eventful, if by paying 500 bucks, I can gain some peace for me and my family, it’s worth it and agreed to settle the account. Finally the day came on Sept 17th 2009 when these guys send a representative to collect the cheque against an acknowledge receipt and a letter with the above reference no. The letter was written in a manner which will benefit nobody else except HSBC as if we (customer) don’t understand plain English and its implications. Anyway the consolation for me was that it says “Needless to state that hereafter the Credit Card Account relationship shall cease”. I thought this is the end of a worst relationship I had ever with any bank. However, the story didn’t end here. After almost a month or two, my parents started complaining to me that they are receiving threatening calls 5-6 times in a day from some HSBC agency asking for my contact details even though they should logically have my contact details in their record as they were directly communicating with me on my cell no during the last transactions. I don’t stay in my permanent address as my work location is different and I was helpless to see my father taking unnecessary tensions because of me who is 75+ and doctor has advised him not to take any exertion. I believe that calls were coming from phone no +91 011-45541741 and after several no response on the number I finally got someone responding to my call. When I spoke to them I was surprised beyond wit that they are still showing an outstanding against the account of now even bigger amount of around 5K and asking me to pay the amount immediately or face consequences. They even confirmed that they have received the last payment of Rs. 500/- however they have no record of the mutual settlement that we executed just two months back. I really don’t know which department approached me for settlement and which is this department who is asking me to pay the balance outstanding. These goes to proof that they have extremely poor internal processes and impact of such failed processes are bear by customer like us. Anyway I don’t know if this is the end of the story or not however I have shared the reference # of the settlement letter for them to update their own record. I plan to laminate this settlement letter and keep it along with my educational certificates. You never know, we may expect the unexpected from WORST BANK in the world.

[James Thiele]

I had several HSBC accounts and everyone of them I had problems from lies of interest rates to working out payments. I can't believe that HSBC is one of the worlds largest banks.This bank is truly run by MR. Scrooge. If you delt with them then you can understand where I and many others are coming from. One of my experience is when I bought a Kawasaki Motorcyle and financed it with Kawasaki which they use HSBC Retail Finance. BIG MISTAKE. My interest rate is the same but my finance charge is greater each month. To get any help on this problem or any problem will make you go crazy. Do not and I mean DO NOT Finance it with them. Find another bank that you can trust. If we can stop doing business with all HSBC divisions then maybe we can take down, put out of business a bank that is a large contributor to our economy problems. "Best Buy" is another user of HSBC. Before you sign any papers make sure that the bank is a bank that you can trust. I learned the hard way and I hope that I can help others from making the same mistake. This is not a Republican or a democrat issue. This is simply a greedy issue that HSBC is taking avantage of the consumer.

[topcat]

jadavon really does not understand the truth on how banks work. I have learned so much the hard way.I can only explain so much in a blog but basically Banks work on security where the average consumer works on survival. This is a making of a big disaster as we all know it. The bank is going to do everything to make sure that they make a big profit were the consumer struggles to survive. Banks make money when the consumers are in debt on high interest rates. The banks have the right to discriminate on the income and how much money one may have. Now, I am not saying to grant a low income individual a Million dollar mansion but to grant them the equal opportunity of finance charge on a less value home. Ask yourself why would a bank approve a loan at high interest rate knowing that individual is a very high risk? Again the bank works on security. They make money from insurance and government stimulus programs. They truly do not care about the consumer. I done my share of business with HSBC and I will FYI anyone to everyone on how horrible this bank is. One more thing. There is no need to curse your views. This just makes you look like an idiot with no education and professionalism and no one will really listen to you..