Case Study: Customer Experience and Banking Issues at American Express

This report provides an analysis of customer experience and banking issues at American Express. It identifies key issues such as excessive fees, poor customer service, and data protection concerns based on customer complaints. The report also discusses job-related complaints from employees, highlighting rigid policies and lack of employee support. Furthermore, it contrasts online and traditional banking methods, addresses the gap between customer service expectations and delivery, and categorizes different types of customers. The report concludes by examining common complaint types, including mismanagement, deposit/withdrawal problems, and delayed payments, emphasizing the need for improved complaint resolution and customer satisfaction strategies. This document is available on Desklib, a platform providing a wide array of study resources for students.

Running head: Customer Experience 0
Banking Issues and customer experience
American Express

Customer Experience 1
Table of Contents
Answer to question no. 1......................................................................................................................2
American Express Company..............................................................................................................2
Answer to question no. 2-.....................................................................................................................2
Customer Complaint..............................................................................................................................2
Answer to question no. 3-.....................................................................................................................3
Job compliant regarding Bank-..........................................................................................................3
Answer to question no. 4-.....................................................................................................................4
Differences between online and traditional banking for customers-................................................4
Answer to question no. 5-.....................................................................................................................4
The gap between customer services.................................................................................................4
Answer to question number 6-..............................................................................................................5
Answer to question no. 7-.....................................................................................................................6
References.............................................................................................................................................7

Customer Experience 2
Answer to question no. 1
American Express Company
With the changes in economic factors, each and every bank needs to analysis all the internal
and external factors before implementing strategic business plans. In this report, American
Express bank has been selected for the analysis. It also provides several services that help
core business with a broad range of innovative products that target customer base and meet
their borrowing needs. The American express company, also known as Amex, founded in
March, 1850 in New York and established in 1965 as a New York corporation. American
express is headquartered in New York and US. American express provides financial,
banking, travel and insurance services. The company is best known for its services- charge
cards, traveller`s cheque, credit card as well as corporate banking. American express who
provide services globally and provides access to products to customers results in enriching
lives and build business success. American express offers two major account possibilities:
Certificates of deposit (CDs) and high yielding saving account (Allen and William 2015).
The saving account is operated electronically. The bank do not changes any additional
monthly cost and also allows transfers to and from the account at no additional charge.
American Express online saving account provides a platform where the account holders can
look at their transaction history and also allows electronic fund transfer. The products and
services of American express are sold to various groups including, small businesses, large
corporation, consumers and middle sized organisations. The true attributes- security, trust are
key assets. It focuses on investing in marketing, protecting the brand and managing through
proper delivering the products and services. American express has not experienced seasonal
fluctuations in its banking services.
Answer to question no. 2-
Customer Complaint
American Express has been facing civil problems from the customers some of them are given
below-
 Excessive fees- The customers felt even generous for giving one star review to American
Express for dispute charges. Trusted customers American Express contacted first time for
dispute occurred due to irresponsibility committed by the organisation. The customer

Customer Experience 3
produced a slip that says the organisation charged customer`s card without any indication for
what the charge is (Laura Yeow 2018).
 Bad customer services- Sometimes the customers are suffered from the automatic payments
appearing on the wrong dates. Otherwise the bank charges some unauthorised charges
without giving any information to the customers. The most frustrating part of the bad service
is bank employees don’t know how to rectify one`s problem, the employees don’t know how
to handle the problem (Ben Todd 2017).
 Privacy, Data protection and cyber security- Data protection information and cyber security
related policies are very important to ensure the customers and Safeguarding the personal
information and account access (American Express Company 2016). American express
unauthorised the client`s card breaking the policy of data protection and security.
Most expensive debits charged- Most of the banks charge overdraft fees on
authorisations, even the amount has not been captured by the merchant. To avoid the
deduction of amount caused due to inadequate amount of money in account. One should
maintain a decent amount of extra money in account (Garcia and Cristian Escobar 2017).
Answer to question no. 3-
Job compliant regarding Bank-
Employees are the backbone of the organisation. They are asset to the organisation. American
express has very rigid rules and regulations for the employees working in it. The rigid
policies creates barriers to the freedom to the employees. These rigid policies do not enable
the employees to take their independent decisions (Senawirathna 2017). The bank also do not
provide security concerns for the employees. There is a lack of proper employee provident
fund and health facilities. The concern for the health issues is must but the bank asks
employees to message in a very formal way before 7 days even in case he/she falls sick in a
minimum time. The rigid working conditions do not allow employees to take any decisions
through which the organisations lacks innovation on the part of the employees. The
possibility of growth reduces as the employees just work as the monotonous way they work
regularly. The recognition is only for the manager or senior level managers because there is
no healthy competition to everyone who performs well. The job security is at risk in private
sector. It depends on the market situation, as soon as the market becomes deficient the

Customer Experience 4
organisation starts kicking out the employees to save their situation so that, they can swim
and sustain (Weerasinghe 2017).
Answer to question no. 4-
Differences between online and traditional banking for customers-
Traditional banking takes a lot of time because customers have to visit and allows the banks
to carry out their transactions- checking bank balance, transferring money from one account
to other account. Whereas, customers in online banking mandatorily have to visit banks to
check their balances and transferring cash. Customer can get informed about the account
information from anywhere with an internet access (Money Matters 2018).
Customers in traditional banking can visit banks only during the working hours. Online
banking is available every time and also it provides 24 hours access to bank services.
Customers who often have foreign tours are unable to pay much attention and control their
finance. Whereas, in the online banking Customers who travel foreign can have a check on
their accounts even seating so far and also can control finances (Chernykh, Lucy, and Sergey
Mityakov 2017).
The banks who follow traditional way generally incurs a huge amount of fixed costs and
operating costs. Such costs are eliminated when banks operates online (Bugeja and Sharon
2017).
In traditional banks, the employees and the staff of the bank can attend only a bench of
customers at a time. In online banking, the customers need not have to stand in queues so that
they can carry out their transactions.
Customers have direct face to face contact in traditional banking. But in the online banking,
customers do have only electronic contacts.
Answer to question no. 5-
The gap between customer services.
Sometimes, the innovation gap is common barrier. Service quality has been identified as a
critical part of success for the organisations especially banks. American Express has
delivered bad results, driven by written down to values of the business. It was completely
unacceptable for HSBC. The increasing pressure to cut cost and possibly sell off

Customer Experience 5
underperforming regions like In India it closed various branches in several cities (Naheem
and Mohammed Ahmad 287). It is completely unfair that some people are paying their taxes
and others don’t (Arnold, Martin and Barrett 2015). The bank`s chief executive said that the
problems have aroused from series of acquisition since 1990. This also seems that on the part
of the bank, income inequality and technological change are challenges faced by the
customers (Garcia and Cristian Escobar 2017). HSBC raised interest charges to increase the
revenue so that they can fulfil the tax remaining. Mr Gulliver launched the strategy to
withdraw the underperforming assets and reinvesting it to other business prospects (Yost
2012). HSBC has apologised its customers suffering from online banking. HSBC should take
steps to cure the working of the online system which has created problem with personal
online banking (Bugeja and Sharon 2017). HSBC tried to restore its services (Allen and
William A 2015).
Answer to question number 6-
The two types of customer’s are- the customers who start off polite but then turns angry.
These customers see things only in black and white.
Black and white customers- black and white customers have set some benchmarks on what is
right or wrong. Sometimes bank may have difficulty in persuading them to compromise in
negotiation. These customers keep everyone into good or evil buckets, it is very hard to
change that designated standing with them.
Potential customers- bank can capitalise on the customer’s interest by clearly showing the
benefits of the product and service bank is offering. Bank can resource the customer in form
of beneficial services.
New customer- These are fresh customers who have just availed a small service from a bank.
Even though the services is rendered but bank cannot leave them. They have to solve the
queries even if they have not found much success by serving them.
Answer to question no. 7-
Types of most complaints. Addressing the issues as per the profile of

Customer Experience 6
customers.
Complaint mismanagement The bank may be performing
underperforming in their compliant
management. Bank seeks best practise to
create high level of customer satisfaction.
Newer customers should be served well as
the can stop getting served.
Deposit and withdrawal problems Issue with deposits and withdrawals, bank
may struggle due to lack of integration
between channels. Keeping the account safe
and secure and also inform the customers
every single time of deposit and withdrawal.
Banks are financial institutions to serve the
customers well. The potential customers
may understand after they become the
regular customer.
Delayed payments The transaction occurred are delayed due to
non-availability of enough amount. Bank
should maintain its CRR (cash reserve
ratio). Bank may lose its current account
customers.
Improper service delivering All the banks should constitute customer
redressal service committee. Employees
should be trained, polite and honest
operating to handle the complaints.
(American express company 2016).
References

Customer Experience 7
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Bugeja, Sharon. The expansion of a bank’s client base through the introduction of
bancassurance in the local scenario and the benefits this introduction has had on the
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Košak, Marko, et al. "Quality of bank capital and bank lending behavior during the global
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Money, Chasing Criminal. "Tax, Money Laundering and Offshore: the HSBC Suisse Affair."
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laundering implications." Journal of Financial Regulation and Compliance 23.3
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Weerasinghe. “Factors Affecting to Job Satisfaction of Banking Employees in Sri Lanka.”
Business and Management Horizons 5.1 (2017).
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