Last week in my post about coupon clippers I posted a photo of a sign I came across in Georgia. Once more with feeling:
Smile
Call customers by their names
Thank them for their business
We all recoil from cheesy and insincere platitudes, "have a nice day" being king of the hill. But in a recession, we should always be conveying the sentiment behind the above sign – we just have to make sure we execute it right.
I spotted this sign in the restroom of Bank of North Georgia in Peachtree City while on a speaking tour last month.
A few minutes earlier my friend and I walked into the Bank of America to cash a check. A woman in a suit was shepherding people around as they entered.
As my friend transacted at a window, the woman came up behind her and the conversation went something like this ...
Woman: Excuse me, I couldn't help overhearing, you don't have an account with us?
Friend: I don't.
Woman: Who do you bank with?
Friend: Bank of NGA [Bank of North Georgia]
Woman: If it's not a personal question, is that your paycheck?
Friend: No, it's not.
Woman: Do they offer free automatic deposit of your paycheck?
Friend: I don't know, I don't work.
Woman (hands on hips): Well! Of COURSE you work dear! We all know women have families, you work, of course you work at home ...
... and she just kept on talking. My friend is actually single, with no kids and lucky for her, financially secure.
What is wrong with this picture? An earnest attempt at Customer Evangelism, but a poor execution. Unless you're a BAFTA award-winning actor (because no one does angst like the Brits), showing a genuine interest and engaging a person is, unfortunately, a matter of showing a genuine interest and engaging the person. It starts with hiring the right person for the job - someone who listens rather than hears.
As we left, I looked for a restroom.
"Ma'am can we help you?" said the teller curtly over the top of her glasses, in a tone that made me feel like a potential bomber looking for a place to sequester my unmarked package.
"Just looking for the restroom."
"We don't have one."
"Not even for customers?"
"No."
I guarantee that that something so simple as providing customers with a place to ablute, leaves a positive impression reaching beyond the millions spent filling mailboxes with platitudinous fluff. What is it with establishments that don't let you use the bathroom? Is cleaning a small toilet bowl and buying a roll of Scott 1000 so big an investment in ongoing customer relations? I guarantee it's cheaper than a 15 second TV spot - besides, you already have a cleaner doing the job anyway.
"I would never bank somewhere that wouldn't let you use the bathroom," declared my friend as we got in the car. "It's these megabanks, they have no idea how to relate to people." She went on, "with the recession, there's a lot of this new-style customer evangelism going on in banks. My hero Clark Howard hates the giant monster mega-banks: http://clarkhoward.com/shownotes/category/7/18/211/"
Next stop was the local Bank of North Georgia. I asked to use the restroom.
"Certainly, right over there," said a teller cheerfully, ignoring my cut off shorts and flip flops (it's awfully, awfully hot in Hotlanta). I looked around and noticed that the bank was laid out with casual low lounges and low desks scattered in an open arrangement where customers could sit down and talk.
On leaving the restroom, the sign:
Smile
Call customers by their names
Thank them for their business
sounded less like a cliche, and more like an affirmation of my simple, agreeable experience in this establishment, especially in a time of need.
Megabanks: whatever your expensive focus groups tell you, just let me use the restroom and I'm half yours. You'll get the other half when you talk to me, not at me.
Really, what's so hard about all of this?
UPDATE: Just a day later, this article appeared in the WSJ: Banks ramp up Pay Packages to Top Talent. Few would argue with being compensated fairly for a job well done, but smashing one's toys because you may get slightly less than the $100m compensation you got last year says one thing: the rot starts at the top and works itself all way down to the restroom ...
The Galfromdownunder believes that Customer Evangelism is easier done than said – just stand briefly in the flip-flops of the people who enable you to be paid.
Related Stories: | Topics:Leadership, Management, Work/Life, Magazine, customer, Evangelist, megabanking, customer experience, recession marketing, restroom, Bank of North Georgia, Culture and Lifestyle, Evangelicalism, Christianity, Protestantism |
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Recent Comments | 6 Total
July 14, 2009 at 5:54pm by mark hoffmann
Elementary is just that: an essential basic element of something larger.
I have a science degree... elements are crucial. That periodic table
names things that, well, make the world go round. Smiles and thanks
should be on the periodic table in every organization, but sadly - and I
say this a civil servant with 34 yrs in the trenches - they are often
lacking, and the servants are there too often to get, not give, and think
of their own needs, not those of others. But there is no accountability
in many organizations, nor any impetus to change. Kind of like big govt,
too (which of course underwrites so much of the civil service).
July 15, 2009 at 1:33am by Demetrius W
That is really very devastating. I dont like it when they do that to me. They are being paid to do there jobs right so they should really do their job right. I hate when they do that to me. It is as if I have done something wrong which is by the way none. Whenever I am in departmant store, I hate it when they follow me whenever I am looking for something. I hate it because it feels like I am going to get something from them. So they should really treat clients right. If ever I am in that kind of situation in the bank, I will not anymore enter the bank especially if I am applying for personal loan because even if I am qualified for it, they wont approve it.
July 15, 2009 at 9:55pm by B Carlton
In this scenario, the fault for leaving a bad impression at the mega-bank can be placed at both a low level and a high level. The staff person obviously needs more training on how to interface with the public. But, it is management that made the poor judgment of not allowing customers to use their restrooms. That policy may be common in an inter-city high crime neighborhood but NOT in the upper class suburbia where this branch is located. What is management thinking?? Perhaps they need to "re-think" their policy.
July 15, 2009 at 9:55pm by B Carlton
In this scenario, the fault for leaving a bad impression at the mega-bank can be placed at both a low level and a high level. The staff person obviously needs more training on how to interface with the public. But, it is management that made the poor judgment of not allowing customers to use their restrooms. That policy may be common in an inter-city high crime neighborhood but NOT in the upper class suburbia where this branch is located. What is management thinking?? Perhaps they need to "re-think" their policy.
July 15, 2009 at 10:21pm by Eric Chatham
I've never been a fan of BoA and this treatment/attitude reinforces my belief that it is truly the most unfriendly and impersonal bank I have ever dealt with. That woman was downright presumptive and rude. I wonder how much business they manage to lose on a day to day basis?
July 17, 2009 at 12:33am by Rick Langlois
Interesting observations (as usual). The curious thing that I have noticed in my small city is that banks that I have never heard of are popping up on every empty intersection. Our population hasn't grown that much nor has the amount of money everyone has to stash away in the banks so why are they building them all? I smelly something fishy going on. Maybe these mega banks don't really want walk-in business. Maybe they are only there so they can issue credit cards. (?)