My beloved and very supportive wife called this site recently “your whining blog”, and I guess it was for a good reason. I usually talk about the bad experience rather than the good experience. So for a change, this post is full with good words about people we usually complain about…
A few weeks ago I filed a claim to National Insurance Institute (Social security, ביטוח לאומי). I was surprised to find out I do not have to wait in line, I don’t have to meet any clerk. Just fill the forms and put the forms in a box outside the office (they even put a mail box on the sidewalk close to the road, so you do not have to look for parking. Well done NII – first time.
I waited a few days, assuming I will get some written confirmation that the forms are accepted, but I got nothing for 3 weeks. Tuesday morning I found an envelope in my mailbox. The envelope was sent from my last working place, with three letters sent from the NII inside. From some reason, the NII sent the mail to an old and wrong address (This is a topic for a separate post, but simplify put – the ministry of interior affairs changed my address in their records by mistake to the place I worked in. This mistake was fixed 8 months ago).
So I was happy to get these letters (the claim was approved, and the phrasing in the letter was very cheerful…), but was concerned about the address issue, so I decided to call them and ask.
Now, as we all know, NII is a governmental organization – one would expect them to answer phone calls in very limited hours, and the calls are always answered by impolite, impatient and incompetent people. Well – I WAS WRONG.
The letters included a phone number I can call, stating the answering times are 8:00-17:00 Sunday to Thursday. Do you get it ? I can practically call any time ! Second “Well done” to NII.
Pessimistic Arie… I called and after hearing some recorded messages with some privacy warnings, the voice said “you should have a PIN Code in order to get service”. Fearful that I will have to go physically to the offices to get a PIN Code, I waited on the line and in less than a minute (including all recordings) – a friendly female voice answered. I explained the problem and she asked “do you have a PIN Code?”. I said “no”, waiting to be asked not to call again. She answered ” ok – I will ask you a few questions to verify you are who you claim you are, and I will send you by mail a PIN Code for the next calls” . What’s going on here ? She understands that she can simplify the treatment for the next calls, so she walks the extra mile to send me a new PIN Code. Third and fourth “Well Done” to NII.
Then she checks the address and it seems they have the correct address (very odd), so she says “This is odd, but I will send you a form for address change, and you can fax it to us. I will write you the fax number on the page”. I bet this is the first time she faces this situation, but she was resourceful and provided a painless and simple solution for me. Fifth “Well Done” to NII.
The National Insurance Institute is a governmental organization, they do not have (almost) any business incentive to improve their service and the customer experience. They do not have competition, people do not have any other alternative. And yet – they provide an excellent service (also an excellent web site).
I suspect that besides the fact the change was driven by people who care about NII image in the eyes of the public, the people who are managing the institute understand that by providing good service, they actually reduce costs – simplify processes, minimize the number of clerks who are serving customers face to face – turning the NII into more efficient organization.
Well done NII! Can’t wait to need you again !
By the way, in the past months I had some other interactions with governmental organizations – the Ministry of Interior, Firearms licensing, the Rabbinate etc. – and surprisingly these were very positive interactions.
On the other hand, I got very bad service and attitude from IKEA call center on the same day.
Maybe we live in an upside down world – commercial companies do not give a damn about their customers, but the government does ?
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