Roberta received a form with information filled in by the company after her conversation with the account rep.  Roberta just needed to review the information, fill in some of the blanks, sign it, and resend it in order to set up a new account.

She noticed that the effective date was listed on 2 different pages, and the dates were different.  On page 2, it was noted that no deposit was required, but on the page asking for a credit card or bank number, it had a deposit figure listed.  The location to send any correspondence to was listed, but she was aware that the company had moved its offices two weeks ago to a different location.  However, “the straw that broke the camel’s back” was that her name was spelled wrong in the form.

Roberta thought that she still wanted to go with this company, but she lost some confidence.  She began to question whether a company that was this sloppy in signing up a new client would be just as sloppy in other aspects of the experience.

Luckily for Roberta, she caught all the issues before she signed anything.  Unfortunately for Roberta, the company had turned her into their quality assurance department.  They hadn’t taken appropriate efforts to ensure that what she was being provided was complete, accurate, and consistent with what she was told, so now she doesn’t trust the company.

When a company and its employees don’t take the time to thoroughly review information before it’s provided to the customer, when they haven’t thought through the content from the customer’s perspective before sending it, then they are putting the responsibility on the customer to identify issues, to initiate a corrective action process, and to proof updated forms.

Thoroughly review information before sharing it with the customer so that the company doesn’t lose credibility.  Find ways to make your information, your requests, and your advice clear and high quality.

Don’t turn the customer into the QA Department.

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