Customers are watching and making assumptions
One of our team members had an interesting experience when visiting his community bank the other day. This is what he saw…
When going to the drive-thru of my community bank the other day I noticed a vehicle in each of the three lanes. Hoping to pick the fastest moving of the three lanes, I pulled in behind one of the cars. As I waited for my turn, I noticed that only one employee was at the drive-thru teller window serving all the customers. After about five minutes of waiting, I noticed two tellers staring at me and the other vehicles from their teller area within the lobby. Since there was no one was behind me I figured my quickest option was to park my car and go inside to complete my transaction. With two tellers sitting idly by in the lobby I figured I would be done in no time at all. Thinking how smart I was, I got out of the drive-thru line, parked and proceed to the front door. As I pulled the handle on the door, I suddenly realized that the door was locked. Noticing the sign on the door stating that the lobby closed at 4pm, I glanced at my watch which read 4:10pm. I looked at the sign on the door and it said the lobby closes at 4pm. I looked at my watch and it read 4:10pm. I glanced at the two tellers who just stared back at me as if I were some kind of idiot who should have known better. End of story…
We get it, the tellers inside the lobby couldn’t reopen the doors (or could they?). Maybe their teller drawers were closed and they couldn’t handle drive thru transactions. Maybe there was a bank policy that prohibited them from assisting the tellers at the drive-thru. Regardless of the reasons or excuses, the last thing the customers want to see while waiting in line is tellers sitting around doing nothing and making the assumption that this bank doesn’t care about service or its customers. It makes one wonder what else the customers may be seeing.
Seeing nothing special
Most community banks believe they offer the best service and have the friendliest people. While your employees may be nice enough and offer good service, it’s very likely there’s not much difference between your bank and any other community bank in town and quite possibly not much difference from the larger banks.
When a customer sees “good” she may be satisfied with what she is getting. When a customer sees “remarkable” she will take notice and tell others. Here’s what we see when visiting most community banks.
- Heads down when customers enter the branch or drive-thru – If you’re in the lobby you should look up, smile, and call the customer by name within 3 steps of his entering the branch. At the drive-thru, call him by name before you get his transaction.
- A sad looking coffee area – A Mr. Coffee machine, a few white stylophone cups, and little packets of sugar and creamer don’t cut it anymore. Get a coffee blend from a local coffee shop, nice cups with lids, flavorings, and a few wrapped breakfast items. It’s just one way of rolling out the red carpet for your customers and showing appreciation for their business.
- Employees whispering and laughing – Whether it’s small talk about the weekend or a discussion about the latest and greatest bank product, when customers see employees huddled together laughing and whispering, many will think those employees might be talking about them. Let customers see you working or helping them and others.
- No introductions after opening a new account – Introduce the new business checking customer to others in the bank before he leaves. Same goes for renewing CD customers. You might not see that CD customer again for another year. It always amazes us that many branch managers don’t know half of their jumbo CD customers.
- A poor visual within the branch – Do customers see employees “doing nothing” in the lobby while they wait at a teller line for 5 to 10 minutes? Stop the paperwork and visit with someone while they wait in the lobby. Are customers seeing burnt out lights, sloppy work areas, poorly groomed employees (now more common than ever), and disinterested employees? Clean up the visual within your bank.
- Looking at their mobile phone – This is big problem in many banks. Stop checking and sending text messages throughout the day. Many banks have a policy of no mobile phone usage during banking hours but very few abide by the policy. Even a phone placed near the employee for that “emergency” call becomes a distraction. If there’s an emergency at home, the bank’s land line should be a good number to call.
- A disappointing farewell – “Have a nice day”. When your employees say this, they are no different than Wal-Mart or any other business in town. Personalize the farewell based on what is known about the customer. Can’t do that? Then get to know the customers and try again.
Do you see your advantage?
Community banks should easily beat the big banks with customer service and relationship banking. If a customer were blindfolded and brought into your bank, not knowing whether it was a large, regional or community bank, would they know what type of bank you were, based on their experience? Our guess is that most bankers will emphatically say, YES! Now, picture your ROA, your phone shop results, your cross-sell score, your services per household, your advocate leads/sales, and your net checking account growth. That is the picture of your customer experience. If you’re missing any part of that picture then you’re not seeing the advantage you should have. Get the entire picture and see what they see.
