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.