People with people skills - now there's an idea. Good service in today's world is so important, but often hard to come by. Have you walked into a retail store lately and had anyone greet you and ask you how they can help? Or gone to a restaurant and been really impressed with the attention you were given? If you answered yes - I'd be willing to bet you told someone about that experience.
A great service experience is worth talking about because it has become the exception, not the rule. It's easier to teach banking skills than it is to teach customer service - so I say, hire the friendly, welcoming, engaging people. You can educate and train the rest. Having people with people skills on your front line in your community bank or credit union will make you stand out from the competition, and word will spread.
With transaction counts declining, now is the time to think differently about how you serve your customers. (Actually, the right time was yesterday, but better late than never.) Who and how you hire is an extremely important strategy for you to rethink and leverage as a differentiator in your bank or credit union.
HomeTown Bank, one of our go-to success stories, has succeeded in putting this practice in to place. Out of 12 or 13 new hires, only four had banking experience. The rest were hired because of their experience serving people; Mike Orth, HomeTown Bank Regional President, knew the service they would provide to customers and visitors would be a powerful force in growing the bank. This experience, combined with the non-customer traffic brought in via their co-branded space, is a perfect set up for growth.
Yeah, we design banks and credit unions. But our process looks far behind the design of your building and explores how you can improve efficiencies, increase traffic, streamline operations, and grow your bottom line. We'll encourage you to think differently; then we'll design your space to function to achieve your goals. For more ideas to do banking differently:
Pflipsen, out.