Below are some of the comments made by Commonwealth Bank Customer Service Centre (CSC) staff from Sydney, Melbourne, Newcastle, Brisbane, Launceston and Hobart regarding the Customer Experience Survey (CES).

The CES is a survey conducted by an outside telemarketing company which calls two bank customers per CSC team each week. They ask a series of questions about their experience with the CBA CSC.

If 80% of customers do not give an overall rating of 9 or 10 out of 10 the team fails, ie they miss out on access to bonuses and are marked down on their key performance indicators. It's a system which could result in CSC staff losing their job for not reaching the minimum expectations.

As you'll see in the comments below this is grossly unfair, because:

- less than 0.5% of customers are surveyed.

- CSC teams are held accountable for things beyond their control such as bank policies, inadequate staffing levels, angry customers or the performance of a colleague.

- even happy customers are unlikely to give a bank a rating of 9 out of 10.

Here's what CSC staff have to say about the CES. 

1. The system makes it very hard to feel appreciated for all the hard work we do. It does not make sense.

   
   Measures are taken to make it difficult to achieve all areas of targets as one is dependent upon other employees to deliver same level of service.
   
   Grossly Unfair, Grossly Unfair
   
   It feels like being treated with contempt after 20 years service.
   
   Why should I be penalized because others don't work to standard I try to achieve.
   
   There's too many inexperienced staff in training.
   
   Each staff member should be responsible for their own actions
   
   TOFU - take ownership follow up - not team ownership
   
   Should be score for each person
   
   I find it hard to accept that I will need to exceed current benchmarks to ensure that I meet overall team based assessment.
   
   It's good to get feedback from customers but I don't think it's fair that bonuses should be calculated from it.
   
   There's a possibility that not one of your calls will be monitored.
   
   No matter how hard you work if someone else in the team is having a bad call or is not giving 100% you miss out.
   
   A team expectation shouldn't be able to reflect on a personal achievement level.
   
   I fail to see how a 8/10 is a 50% mark in CES.
   
   It's hard to see how I can make targets and get rewards as a lot of people think that 8 is a decent mark for a good call experience.
   
   Doesn't give a true indication on an individual basis. If 9 or 10 is meeting expectations, how do we exceed?
   
   It's inherently flawed. Most people think 8 is good service.
   
   Only two calls are monitored each week.
   
   25% of my rating is based on around about 6 calls.
   
   A pay rise is needed to keep CBA employees in line with other financial institutions.
   
   The CES is absolutely disgusting.
   
   It's an invasion of privacy and security on accounts.
   
   We work hard and get treated like this! Abused on the phone and then treated like a number.
   
   We are reliant on callbacks and follow ups from other areas which are out of our control. Our complaints are from different areas of the bank that clients have called.
   
   Most of our interactions are resolving existing complaints about existing issues with people in other areas of the bank.
   
   Often we are judged on the customers existing complaint - not on our interaction with the client.
   
   These reports are based on the person who last accessed the customers profile, which means that some of the surveys are not related to the team but other areas of the bank when the call has been transferred. - which means that the scores don't always relate to the team that gets the score.
   
   Individual effort is not recognized. A change is needed.
   
   I'm a part-time employee. All part-time employees sales stats have been changed and we are now required to get the same amount of sales as a full time employee although we do not work as many hours. This will make it hard to achieve a bonus.
   
   The sales targets for my team are also unachievable. My team takes about 10% of the customer calls of a CSR yet I am expected to achieve 33% of their target in sales.
   
   Our team could be rated a 0 due to bank policy regardless of how helpful we are.
   
   The CES system is causing high stress amongst staff.
   
   Staff are overwhelmed with sales targets and fluffy warm voice tone expectations whilst we are being abused repeatedly by a majority of callers.
   
   I feel very overwhelmed with all the expectations and know that the majority of staff do too.
   
   Comments made about waiting in a queue or the line being engaged should not reflect on the performance of a staff member. Why should we be penalized for system shortcomings?
   
   It's not fair that the whole team gets punished for one persons mistake or the customer gives a low score to a general question about the bank.
   
   The operators will never receive a bonus with the CES.
   
   8 out of 10 is a standard score for a happy client, many will not score higher.
   
   We are being judged on clients opinions.
   
   Clients who may not understand our policies and have unreasonable expectations will be unhappy eg; new keycard in two days.
   
   Our team got a rating of 10 and 8 in a week, but this then only gives an overall rating of 50% for that week because 8 is not a high enough score to be counted.
   
   Customers will never give a fair rating even if we do nothing wrong. We may not be able to help them and they will not be happy.
   
   This new target has caused lack of morale within the team.
   
   A high level of stress and anxiety is felt by myself and other team members.
   
   CES is causing stress and lack of morale.
   
   CES is not a fair system.
   
   Results are affected by the IVR, Commsec issues as well as other calls to the bank the customer has made. None of these reflect on my CSR staff or team.
   
   Two calls from a teams total of approximately 5,000 calls per week is far too small a sample to be even close to an accurate indication of service.
   
   PFR should be based on an individual performance - not a team result. It's very unfair being penalized for other people's behaviour.
   
   The questions asked of client are general and if they have been declined a loan etc, they are not going to be happy to rate us highly.
   
   We have already had an instance where a customer said they would never give a 9 or 10 because nothing is ever perfect - but we have been told that we must achieve a 9 or 10 rating!
   
   The CES is weighed in favour of the employer.
   
   The banks targets are geared so that staff get the smallest amount of performance payment possible and staff don't meet target.
   
   It's hard getting OTR to work if we cant track tenders as the info on Bid and directory has not been updated.
   
   The CBA team Managers lack motivation and have been in their current role for too long. They have no idea.
   
   This is unfair as many scores are marked down due to the ATS. We cannot be held accountable for long waits due to insufficient staffing levels.
   
   I understand it being part of the KPI but I don't believe it should be a "gate opener" for PRP.
   
   It's a smart way to reduce paying benefits to staff.
   
   Pulling up team members affects team morale.