Is it the People, Process or Technology That’s Failed Me?

It’s miss­ing the ques­tion mark!

Every phys­i­cal man­i­fes­ta­tion of even a baby-step for­ward is fun. When I saw the pack­age from Chase with my char­i­ta­ble foundation’s checks, I couldn’t help but tear it open.

You’d think it was pretty easy to get a bank account setup. It wasn’t. Laugh with me when as you read the fol­low­ing bit of con­ver­sa­tion I had with Citibank on the phone before I went to Chase.

Citi busi­ness banker (I use that title loosely) “OK, what’s your com­pany name?”

Me: “Where’s Your Heart? Foundation”

Citi: “OK, [clearly typ­ing while repeat­ing it back to me in a for­eign accent] Where Is Your Heart? Foundation”

Me: “No. Not Where IS Your Heart? Where’s Your Heart?.”

Citi: “That’s what I said [talk­ing slower and typ­ing again] Where Is Your Heart? Foundation”

And so on…

So, when I setup the account with Chase, and we go to put the Foun­da­tion name in the appro­pri­ate field on the web-based form, it won’t accept the “?”. Hmmm. But, Yahoo! has an excla­ma­tion mark? Why can’t I have a ques­tion mark? Let’s call sup­port, I suggest.

Sure enough, by ask­ing the right ques­tions (me, not my “banker”) I deter­mine that the appli­ca­tion itself sup­ports the punc­tu­a­tion in the com­pany name, but the form to access the appli­ca­tion does not. So, we setup my account, and my “banker” will fol­lowup with oper­a­tions to get the ques­tion mark in there. It should take about a week.

It took two.

OK, no rush, right? Well, once the ques­tion mark is in the com­pany name, I can order checks and an ATM/Visa card. I’m neu­rotic about stuff (it works for me, trust me), so I’m very clear… I ask very sim­ply: “The checks will have the com­pany name on them, with the ques­tion mark, right?” “Absolutely” my “banker” reas­sures me.

So, which is it? Peo­ple, process or tech­nol­ogy? I’d say all three, as it should be because they’re all related.

At least they’re fail­ing on all cylinders.