Perceptions in Customer Service

I recently had the occasion to do some business with First Hawaiian Bank.  At the end of a business meeting, I was given the business card of the customer service representative I had been meeting with.  The title on the business card was "Customer Service Representative III".

What on earth was the bank thinking about when they developed that kind of title on a customer service business card?  Who wants to deal with a Class III representative?  Why don't I get a Class II or a Class I?  The cards obviously reflect the internal structure of the bank, but the customer doesn't need to know about that.  The "class III" title communicates that I am dealing with someone low down in the organization.

When I ran a business, the titles on the business cards (except for very senior management) didn't communicate rank at all.  For our account executives, cards indicated their title as "account service" rather than "senior account executive," "assistant account executive" or other indicators of rank.  Similarly, the media folks had cards that said "media service" instead of identifying their rank.

A non-hierarchical title on a business card gives the client the information needed without damaging the psyche of the employee ... or causing the client to think that they are getting something less than quality service.