An ANZ update… a white knight to the rescue!

Posted on May 18, 2012 by anni

ANZ Twitter

So, after my venting yesterday I determined that the only way to progress things was to connect with a real human being, and be treated as a valuable customer. So I went in to see my wonderful bank manager Gerard Stitt at the ANZ Bank in North Sydney.

With his usual calm and composure he made a couple of calls and resolved an issue which had been dragging on for the best part of 6 weeks. Within half and hour he dealt with my problems which we all had been told it would take yet another week.

And then this morning I get an email from Twitter to say that ANZ is “foll0wing” my tweets… they don’t seem to be doing anything about it, but they are “following” me… whoopee!

So, what to make of this?

Firstly, when it comes to the resolution of issues involving large, bureaucratic institutions one needs a guide and coach to get one though. This is not rocket science, nor a startling revelation, but I am convinced there is a business out there to coach people through life challenges (of which death is a major one) and would love to see someone do this. On a couple of fronts my solicitor told me “now, when you do this next time…” – hopefully there won’t be too many “next times”, but death, as with taxes, are a core element of life.

Secondly, that regardless of how much social media are touted, and the rhetoric of the marketeers about listening and monitoring and all the ROI they can chew, the reality is that my experience tells me that this is not worth much at all. In the end it was a real person whom I approached, I had to go and chase things up, and I was lucky enough to have a good manager who is a credit to his organisation and his profession.

I have a number of social media conferences and presentations coming up over the next six months and I will be using this episode as part of my presentations and teaching. It will be interesting to put it out there for debate and see how others in the room respond. I think it will also flush out the marketeers from the communicators.

When it comes to the “digital brand” – which is, of course, the focus of much of my research – as is so often the case there has been a total misalignment between the rhetoric and reality. What is said and what is done are not the same, and for the many people who don’t have a Mr Stitt to help and guide them, they would be stuck in the whirlpool of the underworld still. It really reinforces the argument about the value of advertising versus just training people in common sense and good manners.

Mr ANZ. If you are listening then perhaps you could utilise this, and the many other examples of this type, to really align how you act with how you work. Whichever bank (or other major institution intimately involved with the lives of its customers) actually “gets” this will be a winner in the end – not on interest and rates and loans conditions, but on sheer humanity.

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Living in my world? I don’t think so ANZ

Posted on May 17, 2012 by anni

ANZ

Death is a stressful and trying time for anyone, and most particularly for those left behind.

I wrote about my mother’s death last year, and, for the last six months most of my waking hours have been spent dealing with the settling of her affairs. I have been supported by a wonderful team of legal, accounting and other people, who have gently guided me through the process, patiently answered my myriad of questions, and coached me through the necessary milestones.

One team that has severely let me down is my bank, the good old ANZ.

My mother and I have banked with the ANZ for literally decades, and my mother had a great team in the North Sydney branch who helped her with her affairs. Unfortunately when it comes to the stressful times – of which death is, apparently, right up there – you can’t deal with the people you know and trust, you have to descend into the corporate underworld to be treated like a rotting corpse who no longer has any value.

Since my mother’s death all I have experienced of the ANZ is their bureaucracy and ineptitude. Not only can you never speak to the same person twice but you are given an impersonal “file number” to refer to, and never treated like a real person, let alone one who is in the state of grief. Every time my legal people have called them they have been given a different answer, different advice, and then when there has been a problem there has been an uninformative letter which has appeared providing little advice, and slowing down the process.

The ANZ states in its advertising that “Barbara lives in bank world, but we live in your world” who have “the most satisfied customers of the big 4 banks”.  If people are satisfied with the type of treatment I’ve been given over the last six months then there is something seriously wrong with society, and the world that we all live in.

Given that banks sit on OUR money and utilise it for THEIR purposes, the nature of the contract should be two-way – it should be supportive and it should be human.

Mr ANZ – if you live in my world, then either I’m in the wrong world, or you are seriously pulling my leg!

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Plato’s cave, twenty first century style

Posted on May 14, 2012 by anni

Plato

Yesterday I had the very great privilege of partaking in the first ever “Poetry in the Cathedral Cave” presented as part of the Sydney Writers’ Festival 2012.  Readings in caves are probably as old as humanity itself, but this was a first for the Festival, and it certainly was quite something.

It began with a fairly challenging trek (at least for some) up the 240 odd stairs to the cave itself, to be greeted by fluted music and the most incredible “natural” architecture.  Once inside the official proceedings began with readings by noted poets David Brooks, David Malouf, Brenda Saunders, Judith Beveridge and Mark Tredinnick, who all recited their work in the Cathedral Cave at Jenolan Caves, Oberon, presented by Varuna, the Writer’s House.

Two things struck me as I sat trying not to wriggle in my seat as people struggled to hear (unfortunately the acoustics were a little challenging).

Firstly, that all those years ago when I was  on the personal staff of Hon. Peter Collins as NSW Arts Minister, little did I think that our work towards supporting the NSW Writer’s Community with both Varuna and the NSW Writers’ Centre in Rozelle, would lead to such a wonderful Festival and celebration of the craft of writing.  It’s funny how things come around.

Secondly, I thought about the allegory of Plato’s Cave (from “The Republic”).  For those who may not know this story here is a simple overview.

Imagine there is a group of people who have been imprisoned in a cave chained to a wall since birth, unable to move except to look at a blank wall in front of them upon which are shadows.  Behind the prisoners is an enormous fire, and between the fire and the prisoners is a raised walkway upon which people walk carrying things on their heads “including figures of men and animals made of wood, stone and other materials”.  The prisoners cannot see the people, they can only hear their sounds and see their shadows, and, knowing nothing else, they believe that these shadows are, in fact, the people themselves.

One of the prisoners is then freed, and allowed to stand up, to see the fire and the people, and eventually allowed to go outside of the cave to see the sun.  After the initial shock his eyes would gradually adjust and he would realise that there is a world of “reality” beyond the darkness of the cave.  He is then allowed to return and wants to explain his adventures to his fellow prisoners, but unfortunately, they cannot imagine the sun, nor can they relate to anything that he tells them, and they may perceive him to have gone insane.  For his part, having been outside his eyes are no longer adjusted to the shadows and he no longer sees them as he did before.  They now live in two worlds.

As I listened to these wonderful poets recite their verse and sat inside the glorious cave around me I thought about how easy it could be to be divorced from reality, and, that perhaps much of the attraction of the online world is a little like being in Plato’s cave.  So much of what we witness within the digital environment is like a reflection of life, either described through social media or gathered though data visualisation, but it is not life itself.  Life itself remains in the physical world, and in the world of sunlight.

Whilst the Allegory of the Cave has many layers of meaning it is also a marvellously simple metaphor for how philosophers – amongst them writers and poets – struggle to reflect back to us some of the stark realities of life, and are often dismissed or ignored.  Having come from a family of poets and writers myself the world of words is something I find both alluring and yet also daunting, and a challenge that continually beckons.

One thing the digital world seems to be doing is to bring back the craft of writing, no matter in what form, and that craft is taking new twists and turns, melding with other forms of expression to enable the written word to be truly liberated.  But the other thing it does is allow people to hide behind those words, and to at times express themselves in ways that are neither appropriate nor respectful.  They can be cowards.

This is something that a poet, or writer, or stage actor or presenter simply cannot do.  As they stand before a group of people who have travelled for miles (and perhaps trekked up into a cave) to hear them, they are exposed and vulnerable.  They bear themselves and their craft and are at the mercy of that audience who perceive that this is reality.  For me this is true bravery, and something I think we need more of in our society.

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