… have you ever tried to redeem Citibank credit card reward points for a specific thing (e.g. annual fee waiver) through their website? Do you think the website is usable?
People design and provide multiple customer interaction channels in order to create a pleasant (and cost effective in a way) customer experience. But sometimes I wonder if they do really design this website with that notion in mind… :p or maybe I’m just simply using a wrong channel. (Phone call looks easier.)
So the story goes like this…
This is the time for my annual fee payment. And of course the time to redeem my reward point for free annual fee. I might try another way – haggling for free fee, but not this time, just too lazy.
Ok, what’s the quickest way? Website. Internet banking. Will be the easiest way, so I thought.
Wrong.
Went to their website. Enter my login ID. Then click on the “Reward Points”… then taken to the reward site. Now the problem began…
It’s a reward catalogue, hundreds of items… how can I find “Free Annual Fee”?
- Is it under “adventure”, “charity”, “time”, “culture”, “memories”, “well-being”, … , “mileage”, “new items”, “voucher”, “special offer”? Huh?
- Ok, maybe search will help… “annual” – “membership” gave nothing; “fee” gave me coffee
; “citibank” resulted in citibank bags and other merchandises. Hmm? - Last try, history. Aha, there’s the code for last year redemption. But why not, “Purchase this Item Again” link? Hmm… let’s use the code in the search box… no luck.
Why I can’t do this simple task over the reward website? I suppose it’s a mundane task that will take like 5 minutes. But instead taking me 30+ minutes, and another 30 minutes for this blog.
Time to pick up the phone. And wait in the line. (You know, contact centers).
I think annual membership is among the top 10 items that people will exchange their reward points for. So why not make it simple? :0
