I got a call from my bank today that my card may have been skimmed in the UK. They advised me to have it blocked. “For free, obviously, ” the helpful lady added.

But.

I’ll have to visit my branch to do that.

Hello?

When was the last time you had to go to a bank?

Are they making me go there because they really, really cannot block my card over the phone, or because they noticed I haven’t been there in 2.5 years and they figured, what the hell, this guy is ripe for some old-fashioned cross-selling?

Maybe. Perhaps they just haven’t connected the dots yet. When your processes aren’t driven by the customer but by your organization’s needs, this will inevitably happen: inconveniencing the customer just because “the systems” (IT powers to be) don’t support a particular action, or because you’ve got a hundred-years old internal directive saying a customer can only block his card in person.

There’s always a reason not to do something. When that something could mightily add to your customer’s satisfaction, however, you better make damn sure to eliminate them all.

Or else.