The Decline of Customer Service

It seems like Citibank has been in the news quite a lot lately with their rounds of lay-offs and downsizing around the world.  I had a Citi credit card.  I had paid off a balance I held on it and decided to cancel my credit card.  I dialed the number on the back of the card and followed the annoying automated voice prompts.  I described that I wanted to close my account.  I assumed that upon selecting this option that I would be routed to a human in a customer service capacity who would then inquire as to why I wanted to cancel the card and make a last ditch effort to keep my business.

But no.  I was switched to another automated menu where I had to confirm that I wanted to cancel the account.  I confirmed and the automated voice told me my account was closed.  End of phone call.

Then two days later, I received a form letter email from Citi saying thanks for my business and how they'd like to continue to have my business, so feel free to reapply and if they deem me worthy they'll re-open my account.  OK I may have taken some paraphrasing liberties there.  But you get the general gist of it all.

For a company that is undergoing lay-offs and downsizing to counteract losses in revenue, I was really surprised that at no point in my cancellation process did Citi inquire why I was canceling my account.  And at not point did I interact with an actual human.  The only attempt to try to keep my business was a form letter email.

Perhaps if Citi would take a little extra time re-thinking their customer service strategy versus planning their next round of layoffs, perhaps they could increase their revenues and keep some customers.

Just my 2 cents ...