An Interesting Encounter in the bank

One day this week I happened to be in one of our leading financial institutions where I was paying my credit card and as usual the line was long.  I ended up in a conversation with a woman who turned out to be someone who worked in a bank in the United States.  This chance meeting revealed the attitudes that prevail in their financial sector.

The first point raised by the young woman was that the customers in the bank where she worked would never tolerate such an inefficient service.  They would make a lot of noise and would complain to the manager.  As a matter of fact if they were unhappy about something they would often call the head office who would then take up the issue with the branch.  To be fair, she did express the concern that dealing with these customers is very difficult as many of them are unreasonable and exhibit little patience.

Another point raised is that businesses in the USA who deal with the bank are required to declare that they are a business and have to utilize the service of the night deposit box with the counting of cash done under video surveillance.  In addition the bank is open half an hour earlier to its business clientele so that they can bring in their transactions for processing.  This also includes large cash deposits which are counted under the eye of the camera. 

Additionally she noted that if a customer came to a customer account representative (CAR), (they are no longer called tellers), and the person had many transactions or was doing a complicated one, that person would be referred to a customer service representative (CSR).  This frees up the CAR to deal with the next person and in fact if the CSRs notice a long line they will come over and provide assistance.  She also stated that it is not unusual for the branch managers and other admin staff to help out on the front line if needed.  One of the major points emphasised in their training programme is cross desk training.  All persons in the branch, including managers, are required to know how to do any transaction in the branch and are expected to fill in where necessary.

Finally she stated that all of this was necessary because of the level of competition that existed.  All banks have the same products, more or less and that the only way to distinguish yourself from the others is in the service that you provide.  She observed that it is extremely rare to see a line of more than five persons in her branch.

I do not know this young lady neither did I influence her but I do not think that she knew that she was preaching to one of the converted.  I trust that this encounter has given you a little food for thought.

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2 Responses to “An Interesting Encounter in the bank”

  1. Linda Browne says:

    As an American who has been coming to Jamaica for more than 30 years and investing in the island’s economy, waiting in the bank lines drives me crazy! Unless I am able to be at the bank when it opens, I know I am in for a 30-45 minute wait to get to a teller. If I need to see customer service, that wait is an hour or more, sometimes to do something as simple as order new checks! At my bank in the US, if I park my car and walk in, it is rare that I have to wait even 45 seconds to visit the teller! The drive-up window wait is perhaps 5-10 minutes. This is in a country where the cost of labor is much higher, yet the banks have adequate personnel and are customer-oriented. Since the banks in Jamaica make such a huge profit, I suggest they take a portion of those profits to hire and train more people, helping create jobs instead of frustration!

  2. C Ferguson says:

    As one teller said to the next when the customer rebelled verbally threatening to move his account, “meck we see how far im can move im overdraft nuh” (followed by laughter)
    The point is that they do not care and a lot actually hate their jobs. Essentially, the institutions more or less offer the same products and unfortunately, offering unconditional customer service to a certain demographic will only affect their bottom line negatively hence there is no incentive. However,if even one institution had to step up, all the others would have to follow suit so, the question is do they really want to put the customers first or just to create the illusion.
    I am not for bashing any free market enterprise but customers ought not to sit around waiting for change. Perhaps, we should spend more time understanding the animals we’re dealing with, why the systems are designed the way they are and in tern make personal adjustments so we can cope psychologically and otherwise reaping the rewards of a longer stress free life.

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admin Posted by: admin August 5, 2011 at 2:44 pm