The Real Cost of Poor Customer Service

Three days ago, I wrote a blog post called Why Does a Two-Minute Phone Call Now Take Thirty Minutes?

It was prompted by a call to Virgin Money about what I believed was a simple query regarding my credit card.

I had converted a recent purchase into one of their instalment plans, but when I looked at my account it appeared as though the purchase was still sitting on my credit card, as a completed transaction, as well as separately as an instalment. Naturally, my immediate thought was, "Am I paying for this twice?"

When I phoned customer services, I was told not to worry and that my monthly statement would make everything clear. It didn't.

The statement looked the same as the app.

So today I called again.

After another lengthy conversation, I was still no closer to understanding what I was looking at.

The Answer Was Surprisingly Simple

Afterwards, I sat down with my statement, the Virgin Money app and ChatGPT.

Within a few minutes, we worked through the figures together.

The answer turned out to be straightforward.

The original purchase still appears in my transaction history because it remains a record of what I bought. However, it has been removed from my normal purchase balance and transferred into the instalment balance. The two aren't separate debts; they're simply two different ways of displaying the same transaction.

In other words, I wasn't paying twice, which was reassuring.

But it also raised a more important question.

Why Couldn't Anyone Explain It?

Nothing about this required specialist financial knowledge.

It wasn't a disputed transaction, a case of fraud, or a complicated legal question.

It simply needed someone to explain how the figures on the screen related to one another.

The explanation itself took less than a minute.

Yet I'd spent well over an hour across two phone calls trying to obtain it, only to finish no wiser than when I started.

That's the part that concerns me.

The Difference Between Solving and Explaining

Companies often measure customer service by whether a problem has been resolved.

Customers tend to judge it differently.

We judge it by whether we understand what's happened.

In my case, Virgin Money may well have processed the instalment plan correctly from the beginning.

The problem wasn't the accounting. It was the explanation.

Until somebody explains something clearly, the problem isn't really solved from the customer's perspective.

Sometimes Writing Is Better Than Talking

One aspect of this experience surprised me.

After two unsuccessful phone calls, I assumed I could send Virgin Money a secure message or email, setting out my question clearly and unequivocally.

I couldn't.

There was no secure messaging option available. The only alternatives were another phone call or a chatbot that proved unable to understand a query longer than twenty words.

That struck me as odd.

Not every customer query is best handled verbally. Some questions benefit from being written down carefully, allowing both the customer to outline their question clearly and the adviser to read the information, check the details, and respond accurately.

In my case, the question wasn't urgent. It wasn't an emergency. It was a query about how a payment would be allocated and whether making it in a particular way could affect a promotional 0% balance transfer that I'd paid £260.65 to obtain.

That's exactly the sort of question where a written response would have been valuable. It would have created a permanent record that both the customer and the company could refer back to, avoiding repeated explanations and unnecessary phone calls.

Instead, the only option was to queue for another telephone conversation and hope that the next adviser could explain it.

Ironically, by the end of the day I had a clearer explanation after independently working through the statement with the aid of AI than I had received from two separate customer service calls.

The answer itself wasn't complicated. It just hadn't been explained.

It's a reminder that sometimes customers don't need someone to fix a problem, just someone to explain it clearly.

Good Systems Still Need Good Communication

Technology has transformed banking.

I can transfer thousands of pounds in seconds, monitor my accounts in real time and manage almost everything from my phone.

That's remarkable.

But technology only gets us so far.

When a customer asks a question that falls outside the standard script, clear communication becomes every bit as important as the technology itself.

As technology becomes more sophisticated, clear human communication becomes more important, not less. That matters particularly for customers who are less confident using digital services or who simply need a clear explanation of something that isn't immediately obvious. If communication is also difficult, a simple question can quickly become an exhausting experience.

We sometimes assume that if the technology works, the job is done.

It isn't.

Technology can process transactions in seconds, but only people can build confidence by explaining what has happened and why.

Sometimes the best customer service isn't solving a difficult problem.

It's explaining a simple one well.

Time Is Still the Hidden Cost

One of the central ideas behind The GOOD Method is that we shouldn't think only about money.

Time matters too.

Over the past few days, I wasn't charged twice for my washing machine purchase.

But my time was.

Time spent waiting. Time spent repeating myself. Time spent worrying that I'd misunderstood my own account.

None of that appeared on my statement.

It was still a cost.

A Lesson for Every Business

This experience isn't really about Virgin Money.

It's about every organisation that deals with customers.

If your systems are correct but your customers leave confused, your job isn't finished.

People don't just want accurate answers. They want understandable answers. Understanding creates confidence, and confidence helps people make better decisions.

Sometimes the most valuable thing you can give a customer isn't compensation. It's clarity.

Sometimes the best customer service isn't about fixing a mistake; it's taking two minutes to explain why there isn't one.

Businesses often measure customer service by how many calls they answer or how quickly they close a case.

Customers measure it differently.

We measure it by whether we finish the conversation understanding something we didn't understand before.

If that hasn't happened, the call may have ended, but the customer journey hasn't.

Experiences like this shape trust.

We rarely judge a company by how it performs when everything goes to plan. We judge it by how it responds when we need help.