Today is a pretty big day in the life of our country — we pause to reflect and remember the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and we celebrate the second inauguration of Barack Obama as our President. I think it’s quite fitting that today fulfilled something Dr. King “had a dream” about years ago. Very cool.
The holiday also means that many businesses, including banks, are closed.
Normally bank holidays don’t make much of a blip on my radar, however this time around I was in a bit of pinch.
Here’s why…
On Friday I deposited some checks from some clients. Yes, checks… being a freelancer oftentimes means you get paid the old-fashioned way. I deposited the checks into my account on Friday afternoon. My bank, Chase, does allow you an advance amount on checks deposited before they are cleared, which is great. The only problem was that over the weekend I paid some bills, ran some errands, and in the end came up a bit short from the available amount [I know I need to read a Dave Ramsey book ASAP].
No problem, I figured … on Monday everything would be clear.
Well, then I woke up this morning and realized that it was a holiday… Uh oh. I quickly hopped online to see that indeed Chase was closed for the holiday. That meant it would be another day before all of the funds would be available in my account.
UGGGGGH!
I freaked out a bit and decided to take to social media to vent my frustration to Chase Bank over this minor fiasco. I Googled “Chase Bank Twitter” to get their Twitter ID and saw that they had @ChaseSupport, the official customer service Twitter handle for Chase. Sure enough it was legit and they were posting replies to customers.
No way.
The banks are closed but their customer service is still working AND on Twitter? This can’t be!
So I shot them a quick message:
They replied back within minutes:
Not wanting to expose the entire Twittersphere to the state of my finances, I followed them and they followed me, and we then went to a Direct Message conversation where I explained the situation. [Note that I didn't give them any personal information about myself... I didn't give them my account number, any security info... all they literally knew was my Twitter ID and that I was in Chicago, based on my bio.]
Mentally, I’m thinking… will this really work? For real?!
Within minutes they DM’d me back saying:
Seriously?!
I quickly logged in and checked my account — everything had been fixed!
THIS IS WHAT SOCIAL MEDIA IS ALL ABOUT!!!!!!!
Even when the actual branches were closed for a public holiday, Chase had their social media team working for their customers. They were there to listen, answer questions, and help!
I was completely blow away by this experience, am an even more loyal customer to Chase than I was before! Even though I would have normally had to wait another day to get my situation straightened out, I didn’t have to!
And what’s crazy is that this all began when I had initially set out to do what people tend to do best on social media: complain. By being proactive and having people ready to listen and to help, Chase made me a very happy customer.
That’s a lesson we need to file away — and one I’ve definitely learned from. Even though a business may have set hours, social media doesn’t sleep. Your presence on social media, regardless of your industry, needs to always be present, willing, and able to help your customers… even on public holidays.
Great work, @ChaseSupport team!
