Most organizations are trying to improve the customer experience, and many are looking to automate key processes. However, unless done properly, the end result can undermine the customer relationship, not strengthen it. For example, I recently moved and called my financial brokerage firm to inform them of my address change. Three weeks later, an official "address change confirmation" letter arrived addressed to my old address asking me to confirm my new address. Luckily, I am still paying for my mail to be redirected (mail addressed to me at my old address is diverted to my new address). If I wasn't, I would not have received this letter. This brokerage company is responsible for looking after my hard-earned investments, and getting something as basic as this wrong scares me. If the brains behind its customer process design create workflows that send letters to addresses they know you are no longer living at, then what on earth are they doing with more-serious and complex subjects, like security/identity confirmation and share transactions?

OK, this process error isn't critical, and that's the reason why it slipped through the net, but it has impacted my perception of the firm's brand and professionalism. Are you sure all your customer processes are having their desired effect? Or, have you had or seen similar moments of madness that you'd like to share?

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Jim, Sorry to hear about your woes. As you state, 'it has impacted my perception of the firm's brand and professionalism', which is actually a big risk to the brokerage firm in question.

This post describes the regulatory issue that they face as well, and the more widespread brand damage that could occur if ignored: http://improving-nao.blogsp...

Feel free to link to this, or any other posts in this blog, and I'll be keen to incorporate some more of your CRM items soon.

Jim - Excuse my copy and paste error! Here is the correct link to the post I referred to:

http://improving-nao.blogsp...

could it be that they did it as a precaution? anyone could have phoned them and asked them to change the forwarding address- thisi s one good way to confirm that you have changed the address: through positive response or addressee unknown response.
This would not excuse the three week delay in responding though.