Customer experience is everything!

When I first called, of course, I was already in an irritated state. I needed help with canceling a debit order. Long story short, there's a company I keep contacting to cancel my cellphone insurance contract with but they keep debiting my account. So I called in the bank to intervene. It was sad to find out that they can't entirely stop it from their side but can try to reverse is at a cost of R45. I hope this issue gets resolved... but that's not why I am here though.

I was assisted by a lady named Ikaneng Ruth( she has the same initials as me, I.R, how sweet?), I was on the call with her and within moments I had forgotten about the complaint at all... as in, I was no longer grumpy at all. To Ikaneng, I probably must have been the 100th person she assisted today, but oh man, she was super friendly and gave me a really great experience.

Customer experience is everything!

It wasn't one of those dull conversation where there's just this corporate feel and no life, just getting straight to the point vibes. I legit had fun talking to her and didn't want the call to end. I got to know a lil more about her in between her assisting me. She told me that they went to a soft skills training recently and she learnt so much about herself and just how to engage with customers,(Look, whatever training that was... she didn't just tick a box by attending, but she was present, and she learnt). We need more trainings like that !

One other thing, she wished me a happy belated birthday, hers is tomorrow by the way. She deserves to be celebrated. I hope Standard bank won't just send her that lovely birthday message and leave it at that. She did mention that she'd be working tpmorrow still,(please relief her off of her duties early, I honestly believe that she deserves it, for reals)

Here's why, I have always banked with Standard bank but didn't have a particular reason why I did. I am pretty ******** when it comes to comparing bank charges or other things that people use to decide who to bank with. Today I found a reason, Ikaneng is now my reason why I bank with Standard bank. Because of the entire experience, I was super irrational. She mentioned bank charges, the transaction would R45...going for another option would R75, she could have even mentioned R500 I probably would have still asked her to initiate the process, that's how good she was, I was enjoying the experience.

She also gave me more info about how to apply for an ID or Passport via the bank, that I first need to send the application to the Department of Home Affairs online, then once the process is complete I can make the collection at either of the selected banks. It's not all banks that offer this, but ey, who wants to wait at that Home affairs line and dealing with systems going offline almost always (no shade though, Eskom is ahead of the game).

Anyways, if it was up to me, I would want Ikaneng to be the one assisting me everytime, if there was a subscription to request to be assisted by a specific person, I would definitely subscribe for her.

Shout out to you Ruth! You are the best! KEEP doing what you're doing! You're doing really great. Good things are surely coming your way. Happy birthday! I hope you make the most of it, above all, I hope you get a raise too man, you deserve it!

I may never get to meet you, but I am super happy about our encounter, if anything (can't believe I am saying this), but this issue I am experiencing with the debit order thing was a blessing in disguise, I wouldn't change it for anything, I hope I will come across more Ikanengs as I go on my journey with this process.

Okay I am done, well almost.... I didn't get to do the review after our call, I think I must have hung up by mistake, but I am here though, that's wassup!

One last thing, THANK YOU FOR GIVING ME SUCH A GREAT EXPERIENCE. YOU ARE MY STANDARD BANK.