The definition of our brand, when boiled down to its simplest form, is what our customers and prospective customers think and feel about our service and our organizations.  We all have a brand.  The question is, did we choose it, or did we let others choose it for us?

Our Brand Promises a Certain Customer Experience

We communicate our brand through every customer touch point, including through our websites, promotional materials and our written proposals for example. Our brand promises a certain customer experience.  The delivery of our brand promise comes through the interaction between our field service team and our customers.  It is critical that our field team acts and communicates in a way that is consistent with our brand and its promise because those interactions are our customer’s reality.

Here are six steps you can take to ensure that your field service representatives deliver your brand promise.

1. Define – Define your brand

By clearly articulating your brand and your brand promise, you can set the foundation to guide your technicians’ actions so that they are consistent with your brand promise.  Start by answering these three questions:

• How do you want others to think about you?
• How do you want others to feel about you?
• What do you want others to say about you?

For example, a service organization that wishes to build their brand promise around the proactive efforts of their field service team may define their brand as follows:

• How we want others to think about us: “Our service provider does more than simply keeping our equipment/facilities/processes running well, they take steps to help us achieve our business goals.”
• How we want others to feel about us: “We feel assured / We are in good hands”
• What we want other to say about us: “We are better off for having engaged our service provider.”

2. Translate – Translate the brand into actions

Having a brand promise is not enough.  We must translate that promise into action.  What specifically do we expect our field service team to do to?  How do we want our team to conduct themselves in order to communicate and reinforce our brand?

In our example above, one of the actions we would define for our field service technicians are what steps to take to identify and recommend opportunities that will help the customer. One large waste management firm who positions itself as an integral part of the community which they serve, teaches their drivers to be courteous and helpful to their “neighbours” as they go about their routes.  They also train their drivers to look for and report any suspicious activity they see along their routes in an effort to prevent crime.

3. Train – Ensure your team has the skills to execute on the brand

F. Fournes, in his book Coaching for Improving Work Performance noted that the most significant reasons why employees don’t do what they are supposed to do are because they don’t know what to do or they don’t know how to do it. Once we have clearly defined the actions, it is important that we ensure that our team has the knowledge and the skills to execute them.

4. Leverage – Use technology and processes to support your brand

We need to evaluate the technology, tools and processes that we have at our disposal to determine how we can utilize them to support the efforts of our field service team.  For example, how can the hand-held devices be used to help keep the field professional focused on delivering on the brand?  What processes need to be modified to facilitate our field service professionals’ actions.

5. Model – Model the behaviour you would like to see

What we say and how we act are important indicators of how serious we are about the initiative.  We must take care that our words and deeds are consistent with the brand promise.  Our team will pick up on our behaviours and match them accordingly.

6. Measure – Measure

If we don’t measure how well we are delivering on our brand promise, how can we possibly know if we are successful, let alone have the information to allow us to continually improve?  This measurement is more than simply asking if the customer is satisfied or if they would recommend us to others, but delves into how well we have met the promise that we made through our brand.  For example, you might ask, “How well did we … [insert brand promise here]?”

As always, I welcome your comments and questions. You can connect with me via telephone or email or leave a comment right here on the site. And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim Baston

“Be the change that you want to see in the world.”

– M. Ghandi

The post 6 Steps to Delivering Your Brand Promise Through Your Field Service Team appeared first on jimbaston.com.

When I managed a service business several years ago, we introduced a new initiative where we wanted to stress the importance that we in management had in ensuring the success of the project and we adopted the motto “If it is to be, it’s up to me.”  We challenged ourselves to measure our performance through the lens of that motto and, if performance was not up to plan, ask ourselves as managers what we can personally do to get things on track.  Especially in the way of supporting our technicians when it came to making beneficial recommendations to our customers.

I have the good fortune to work with businesses that have embarked on a strategy of engaging their field service teams in promoting their products and services and, through this work, I am reminded of that motto. Even though it is the proactive actions of the technicians that actually generate the opportunities, it is squarely the responsibility of those that manage them to ensure that they act as expected and that they act well.

With that in mind, here are six steps that you can take to encourage and support your team to ensure they perform at their best when identifying and presenting opportunities to help their customers.

1. Teach your technicians how to do what you want them to do. For some of your technicians, speaking to the customer seems to come naturally but for the majority it is uncomfortable and feels “foreign”.  Conversations such as these however are a skill and, like any skill, can be learned.  Our job as manager is to teach our technicians what to do so that they have a studied approach they can apply when the next opportunity arises.
2. Let them practice. If you learned to drive on a manual transmission vehicle, you may recall how uncomfortable and perhaps terrifying it was when you first started.  Everything seemed so complicated, particularly since you had to do so many things at once while still keeping your attention on what was going on around you.  With practice, you soon became more comfortable – to the point that now, you probably don’t even think about the individual steps you are taking to drive smoothly through traffic.  This is the same for engaging in customer conversations about recommended products and services.  Practice allows your technicians to learn the skills more quickly and in a “safe” environment.  More practice leads to higher comfort with the approach and when they do find an opportunity to help a customer, they will be much more likely to take the initiative to make beneficial recommendations.
3. Recognize efforts from the customers’ perspective. Technician recommendations that can help your customers operate more effectively are a valuable service – as important a service as fixing or maintaining the equipment itself.  Instead of recognizing the technicians efforts solely from your bottom line, acknowledge how their efforts have contributed to the overall success of the customer.
4. Share customer satisfaction results. If you solicit customer feedback about your services, I encourage you to add a question or two to measure the customer satisfaction about the technicians’ proactive efforts.  For example, you could ask something like, “How satisfied were you with our technician’s ability to make recommendations that can help you run your business more effectively?”  As these scores trend upward, it will reinforce the value of your technicians’ efforts and help them realize that the customer really does see value in their proactive recommendations.
5. Seek and act on feedback from your technicians. Ask your technicians how they feel about their efforts in executing the strategy and what they feel would be helpful to keep them focused and on-track.  Through an open channel you will get great insight into what is working and what is potentially holding your team back.  Whenever possible, act on their feedback quickly to demonstrate the value of their insight and the importance that you place on their initiative.
6. Join your technicians in the field. If practical, set aside some time to ride along with your techs to meet key customers and observe them in action.  This provides a wonderful opportunity to provide on-site coaching for the technician about their proactive efforts in real time.  It also allows you to meet the customer and reinforce why your technicians are asked to make recommendations and the added value it provides for your customers.

Technicians who make proactive recommendations of products and services that will help the customer be better off are providing an exceptional service.  As managers, our role is to take the steps that will help them execute this plan as effectively as possible.

As always, I welcome your comments and questions. You can connect with me via telephone or email or leave a comment right here on the site. And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim Baston

“If it is to be, it is up to me.”

– William H. Johnsen

The post 6 Steps to Support Your Technicians in Making Beneficial Recommendations to Customers appeared first on jimbaston.com.

I don’t need to tell you that field service is a competitive business and getting more so with each passing day. Customers are more knowledgeable and demanding, competitors are innovative and tough, and the great things you do for your customers are often overlooked. It’s time to bring BYOB service to your customers and gain the competitive edge. BYOB stands for “Bring Your Own Brains” and the service company that offers this service encourages their technicians to bring their heads as well as their hands when providing a service for a customer.

In today’s competitive environment, the best way to stand out from the crowd and to take market share is to demonstrate to your customers that they are better off for having hired you. Not only is their equipment running in tip-top condition, which is what they would expect by engaging a professional and competent company like yours, but they can say that your efforts have made a contribution to their business that was beyond the scope of the work you were contracted to perform. Maybe because of their relationship with you they are operating more efficiently or safely. Perhaps your recommendations have helped them extend asset life or achieve some sort of important recognition or goal. Regardless, they can look to your relationship as bringing much more value than simply keeping the equipment running and they will reward you by renewing their contract and telling their friends and colleagues.

Of course, the only way to help your customers to be better off is to recognize what is important to them and identify and communicate those actions that the customer can take that will help them make improvements. Our field team plays a critical role here because they are the ones in the best position to gain an understanding of the customer’s challenges and goals and recognize steps that can be taken to address them.

This is where BYOB Service comes in. This helps technicians recognize that a critical part of the service that they provide is looking for ways they can help that customer achieve their goals and helping the customer recognize the value in taking action. BYOB Service providers show their field personnel that proactive conversations with their customers about their recommendations is not selling, but rather an integral part of the service that they provide. BYOB Service companies nourish and build upon the brains of their technicians through training, coaching and practice.

How about your service offering? Do you provide BYOB Service for your customers? Do your technicians recognize that their job is more than fixing things and keeping the equipment running efficiently? Do you and your management team nourish the proactive efforts of your technicians through ongoing training and constant coaching and support? Do your customers recognize your efforts and can they say they are measurably better off for having engaged you?

As always, I welcome your comments and questions. You can connect with me via telephone or email or leave a comment right here on the site. And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim Baston

“I not only use all the brains that I have, but all that I can borrow.”

– Woodrow Wilson

The post BYOB Service – The Competitive Edge appeared first on jimbaston.com.

It happened to me recently on a flight from San Diego to Toronto.  I was running late for my 11:30 am flight – the only one of the day by that airline.  I ran up to the ticket counter.  I had checked in on-line and all I needed to do was drop my bag.  As I jogged up to the counter, I was relieved to see that there was only one person in front of me – a family checking in bags presumably for the same flight.

As I stood at the front of the line puffing, but otherwise quietly waiting my turn, the ticket agent looked up from her work and asked over the shoulders of the family she was serving, “Going to Toronto?”  “Yes, thanks,” I replied.  “If you’re checking that bag, you will have to go without it.  You’re six minutes past the cut-off time.”

My facial expression must have communicated the question that was formulating in my head because before I could say another word, she explained that the people she was currently checking through had arrived at the desk on time so she was able to process their bags even though it was past the arbitrary cut-off.

So, here I was in an airport, hoping to go home on the only flight that airline had that day, but unable to check my bag because of an arbitrary cut-off time.  And, to add insult to injury, the ticket agent was processing bags for the same flight, right before my eyes.  Apparently, the only reason she would not process me was not because she couldn’t, but that I was six minutes past the cut-off time.

By now the agent had finished processing the family and was able to dedicate full time to “helping” me.  “Is there nothing you can do for me?”  She shook her head.  “So what do I do?”  “Well, you can get rid of the bag and get on this flight or take the next one,” she replied.  “When is the next one?”  “Tomorrow, same time,” she replied.  I am sure she exhibited a small grin.  I was stuck and she knew it.

The next 20 minutes was a wild frenzy as I arranged to have my bag taken care of.  Fortunately, I had a business acquaintance who was staying an extra day at the conference and he willingly agreed to bring my bag back to Toronto.  I put my bag on a taxi bound for the hotel and headed back to the ticket counter.  As I reached the counter, the ticket agent greeted me with a smile and the same question she had for me 20 minutes earlier – “Going to Toronto?”

Argggh!  I understand that there are guidelines and that I was outside of them.  The agent was simply doing her job.  What annoyed me was her lack of the three critical components of dealing with a sticky situation.

Empathy – I had no feeling that the ticket agent had any concern for my welfare at all.  In fact, I think she enjoyed being in the position to be able to say “no”.

Creativity – She made no effort whatsoever to see if she could help me.  I am still convinced that she could have assisted me if she wanted to.  She could have made a quick phone call to see if they could make an exception in this case.  Even if the answer was still “no”, at least I would have felt she tried.

Common Sense – It is common sense not to inflame an already charged situation.  Pointing out that I was six minutes late, making off-hand comments about having to leave my bag behind and later asking me the second time if I was going to Toronto were not helpful and certainly did not endear me to the agent or the company she represented.

But I have to thank her.  There is a valuable lesson here.  This agent probably does a pretty good job of processing people through the airport when things are as they should be.  However, when things go out of the norm, she obviously does not have the skills or the knowledge to handle those exceptions effectively.

How about your customer facing staff?  Are they prepared to handle difficult situations?  Do they show empathy and use creativity and common sense to try to diffuse and ultimately correct the situation?  Or, do they act in a manner that sends your customers packing?

I’d love your feedback! And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim

“Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude.”

– Zig Ziglar

The post When the Customer Service person says “I Can’t Help” appeared first on jimbaston.com.

During our Proactive Service® workshops, we ask technicians if they have ever proposed an idea to a customer where the customer has never gotten back to them and where they do not know what the customer has decided to do.  Almost everyone’s hand goes up.  We then ask, “Why do you think that is the case?”  Responses range from, “They decided not to do it” to “They got someone else to do it.”  Occasionally someone will say something like, “Maybe they forgot about it” and if they don’t, then we suggest it.  We then relate the story that I told in my last blog about the technician that passed on a lead from the field that was never followed up by the salesperson.  In that situation, the recommended action was to prevent a failure and a few months later, the failure indeed occurred.  Of course, the customer was angry and the technician was put in an uncomfortable position because of inaction on the part of the salesperson, but the problem would have been avoided altogether if the technician just took a moment to inquire with the customer whether they had given any more thought to the matter.

Usually there are one or two techs in the room who share with the rest of the class that they make it a point to follow up.  When they volunteer this, I ask them “What does the customer say when you remind them of something important that they may have forgotten about?”.  “They thank me” is the usual reply.

If we truly want to deliver a more valuable (and valued) level of service, we must do more than simply bring opportunities to the customer.  We must inquire about them when the customer has not taken action to ensure that the customer does not lose sight of those important recommendations and save them grief and aggravation down the road.

I’d love your feedback! And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”

– Thomas A. Edison

The post Step 5 of a Proactive Service® Culture – Follow Up on Opportunities appeared first on jimbaston.com.

Nothing will stop a technician from making recommendations to a customer more quickly than poor or inconsistent follow-up by the rest of the company’s staff.  A technician that makes a recommendation that requires follow-up by others (salesperson or manager for example) and which is not followed up, is unlikely to continue to do so.  But worse than that, lack of follow-up can have serious consequences.

I worked with one service firm that did not have a formal process for handling opportunities from the field.  I interviewed one of their technicians and he related a story that highlights the problems that can occur.  The technician had found a problem with a key piece of equipment and recommended to the customer that it be replaced as soon as possible.  The customer asked the technician to have someone get in touch with him with pricing and installation information for the replacement.  The technician reported the opportunity on the work order along with the request for a follow-up call by the salesperson responsible for the account.  Unknown to the service tech, the information did not get to the salesperson and no one followed up.  About a month later, the customer called in a panic because the equipment failed, just as foretold.  Rather than praising the technician for his ability to predict the failure, the customer was furious that there was no follow-up on the part of the firm.  The service technician took the brunt of the customer’s anger and felt let down by his colleagues.  Needless to say, by the time we spoke to the technician, he was reluctant to identify opportunities in the future.

Even when a process for opportunity management is in place, it may not include an important step.  One of the most common complaints we hear from technicians is that, even when there is follow-up, the technician is not kept in the loop.  The lack of a communication loop to keep the technician informed causes more than hard feelings.  It also can cause a customer service failure.  Let’s assume that the technician has spoken to the customer and they are interested in pursuing an idea that she brought forward that may reduce energy consumption.  The salesperson or manager is duly informed and goes out to visit the customer.  If there is no communication back to the technician, the salesperson may develop a solution that is beyond what the technician had in mind and far exceeds the customer’s expectations.  A simple discussion with the technician would have prevented this from happening and the technician would have an opportunity to share her ideas with the salesperson that could be incorporated into the ultimate solution.  In addition, by keeping the technician in the loop, the technician will have an informed response if the customer asks about the progress on the opportunity development the next time she is in their facility.

A key step therefore, to ensure that you create a successful and lasting Proactive Service® culture is to ensure that you have a clear, concise and consistent process for identifying and following-up on recommendations from the field.  Not only will this improve your service delivery, but it will let your technicians (and customers) know that these recommendations are important and that they play a key role in your firm’s the overall service delivery.

I’d love your feedback! And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim

“Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.”

– Peter Drucker

The post Step 4 of a Proactive Service® Culture – A Clear Opportunity Process appeared first on jimbaston.com.

Without knowing the goals of the customer, how can our technicians make valuable recommendations?  A solution that works for one company might be contrary to the needs of another.  There is a wonderful story circulating around the Internet that illustrates the danger of solving problems without understanding the business goals.  Perhaps you have read it.  It goes something like this.

An employee of a large company was working late one evening.  She sees the CEO of the company standing in front of the shredding machine with a piece of paper in his hand.  He looks completely at a loss of what to do.  He asks the employee to help him make it work, explaining that his executive assistant has left for the day.  The employee is delighted to help and takes the paper, turns on the shredder and feeds the document into the machine.  As the paper disappears into the shredder, the CEO says “Thank you.  That is an extremely important document.  I only need one copy.”  Oops!!!

Understanding the customer’s business goals adds a critical piece of information to help the technician solve the puzzle of what they can do to help.  Knowing this will ensure the recommendations address the right problem, or as in the story above, prevent the creation of a new one.

How can a technician understand the business goals and challenges of the customer?  There are several ways, including doing Internet research, reading annual reports and catching up on the trade press for example.  But perhaps the best and easiest way is simply to ask.  This does not have to be a sophisticated discussion, but merely a conversation with the customer.  For example, the tech might ask about the most challenging aspects of building maintenance or what problems that, if eliminated, would make life much easier for the customer.  Or inquire about the most common complaints raised by tenants.  They may ask about their interest in LEED certification for existing buildings.  They may even ask about long-term plans for the building or process.  As managers, we can identify the best questions for our customer base and provide these for the technician.

An informed technician who can make recommendations that can directly contribute to their customer’s goals, is a valuable business partner.  They do more than fix things – they make things better.

I’d love your feedback! And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim

“If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.”

Yogi Berra

The post Step 2 in Creating Proactive Service® – Knowing Customers’ Business Goals appeared first on jimbaston.com.

Technicians who seem naturally gifted at selling their company’s products or services do not see their efforts as selling at all – they recognize their recommendations as the valuable service that they are.  To them it is a service activity.

Many service managers, however, treat business development efforts as a selling activity and this subtly undermines their efforts in three ways.

1. It puts the focus on what more the service company can “get” out of their customers.  We may look at the opportunity in terms of “… let’s leverage our customer relationships to win more business.”  There is nothing inherently wrong with this and of course, it is the objective of every business development activity.  However, this is a short term, tactical approach, which can obscure the much larger opportunities to build a differentiated service offering.
2. It positions the technician as a salesperson.  I don’t know about you, but I have not met many service technicians who appreciate being called a salesperson.  In fact, most are insulted by the title.  To be successful we need our technicians engaged and enthusiastic and this is pretty hard to do when the technician doesn’t see it as his or her job and is insulted by the expectation.
3. It adversely impacts the relationship with the customer.  If the technicians do take the “selling” role to heart, we risk alienating our customers.  The harder the technician tries to sell to the customer, the less effective they will be in building new business.  The reason is that, the moment the service tech starts to “sell”, he/she transcends that bond of trust that has been forged with the customer.  Regardless of how genuine the service technician is, the very reason the customer trusted the tech in the first place – the fact that they aren’t out to sell them anything – is suddenly no longer the basis of the relationship.

The preferred approach is to treat business development as a service.  Like the technicians on our team who seem to create an endless stream of opportunities, we need to get all of our technicians to recognize that identifying ways for the customer to run their facilities more effectively is a critical and valued service and not a sale.  There is a subtle difference here, but an important one.  When the technician understands that using their heads as well as their hands to help the customer is a service, they will approach the role with more enthusiasm and focus.  And customers, when they see that the technician is providing valuable suggestions aimed at helping them operate more effectively, will recognize and welcome this as the valuable service it is.  Certainly some technicians will be uncomfortable in engaging the customer in conversation so may have some difficulty in executing the plan as effectively as we might like, but that can be overcome by skills development like our Proactive Service® workshops, mentoring and support systems.

Maintain focus on this approach to business development by using every opportunity to repeat the mantra to the techs that identifying opportunities and bringing them to the attention of the customer is a valuable service.  Let them know that if they don’t think it is “right” for the customer, then they should not have the conversation.  Make it clear that you are not interested in sales for sales sake but simply want to ensure that each customer receives the benefit of having someone of their caliber in their facility.  Take this approach and the sales will take care of themselves.

I’d love your feedback! And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim

“Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.”

– Muhammad Ali

The post 1st Step in Creating Proactive Service® – Focus on Service, Not Selling appeared first on jimbaston.com.

Almost every service company can point to one or more of their techs who are naturally gifted to promote their services. They are always making recommendations to customers and promoting new services – and their customers love them. In our experience, these technicians are successful because they don’t see their recommendations as selling, but rather as an enhancement of their service.  If you have one or two techs on your team that fit this description, then you know the potential of getting everyone on your team to act in the same way.

In this series of blogs we are going to examine six steps that you implement to create a Proactive Service® focus from all of your service team members.  This will greatly enhance your efforts of developing a distinctive and sustainable competitive advantage and result in higher revenues and delighted customers.  I also contend that it will make your business a more desirable place to work.

The six steps we will explore are:

1. Focus on the service, not the sale
2. Encourage your techs to get to know your customer’s business goals
3. Provide continuous educational opportunities on your products and services
4. Develop a clear opportunity response process with feedback loops to the technician
5. Create a follow up process for quoted work
6. Provide ongoing coaching and support

Next time we will consider how we position our efforts as a service to ensure we get engagement from our techs and our customers.

What kind of service culture does your organization have today? I’d love your feedback! And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim

“Do today what others won’t, so tomorrow, you can do what others can’t.”

 – Unknown

The post Creating a Proactive Service Culture Throughout Your Service Team appeared first on jimbaston.com.

As it turned out, my branch was closed by the time I arrived.  Fortunately, another bank on the other side of the plaza was open.  By coincidence, I used to have all of my accounts with the open bank until about three years ago and I still had a Visa card with their name on it.

I waited my turn for the lone teller.  When I got to the wicket, I explained that I would like to purchase some pounds sterling.

“Certainly sir, how much would you like?” came the very pleasant reply.

“£200 should do it, thanks.”

“No problem, just put your bank card in the slot.” she directed.

“I don’t have a bank card.” I explained.

“Don’t you have an account with us sir?”

“Not any more, no.”

“Then I am sorry, I cannot give you your sterling.”

“No problem, I can give you the cash equivalent.” I suggested.

“No, I am sorry, but I cannot accept cash.”

Now this was getting interesting.  I was dealing with a bank after all.  Wasn’t “cash” a day-to-day transaction in a bank? I asked “Why not?”

“Because you don’t have an account and we cannot be sure about the source of the cash.”

“Pardon?” I asked, hoping for some reasonable clarification.  Perhaps I heard wrong.  She repeated her explanation.  I was becoming quite incredulous.  “If you are concerned about the source of the cash, then why don’t you accompany me to your bank machine over there (there was a bank machine just inside the doors) and you can look over my shoulder as I remove the necessary amount to cover the transaction”.

By this time the teller’s manager joined in the conversation and moved me along the counter so that the line-up, which was steadily growing behind me, could be served.

“I am terribly sorry sir, but you must have a bank account with us if you want to buy foreign currency.  There is a place in the mall that sells currency.  Why don’t you go there?” (The “mall” that the manager referred to was at least a 20-minute drive away).

“I have a Visa from your bank.  Can I use this?” I asked, brandishing the card.

“I am sorry sir, you must have a bank account with our bank.”

My options were decidedly limited.  “Okay, sign me up for an account.”

The manager tried to be helpful.  “It would probably be easier to just go to the mall.”

“No, you convinced me.  I will open an account”.

I was shunted over to a chair to wait. In just a few minutes another courteous and friendly bank employee met me and guided me to a small office.  She started to ask the necessary questions to open an account – name, address, etc.  Suddenly she exclaimed, “But you do have an account with us!  You have a line of credit.”

Apparently when I cancelled my accounts with the bank, the line of credit remained in place and, although I had not used it for years, it was still available to me.

“Does that mean I can buy the sterling?”

“I think so.  Let me check.”  She went to speak to the manager and returned with a big grin.  “Yes sir. No problem”.

So I went back to the line and waited my turn.  By this time the teller was informed of the happy news and was able to make the transaction in just a few short moments.  She gave me the money and a receipt for the amount borrowed from my line of credit and I went directly to the bank machine in the lobby and took out the equivalent amount in Canadian dollars.  I returned to the teller and gave her the cash to clear my line of credit.

As I walked out of the bank it dawned on me that the transaction involved three people (four including me) and took about 30 minutes of time – some of that time holding up other customers and negatively impacting their experience.  The cost to the bank would far outweigh the commissions made on the transaction and they did, in a convoluted way, end up doing exactly what I asked for in the beginning – giving me the foreign currency in exchange for cash.  The only difference was it was cleared through my line of credit.

The bank employees were constrained by a bank policy that prevented them from delivering the quality of service they were capable of.  Despite the fact that the bank staff was polite and professional, the experience was frustrating and time wasting and completely unnecessary.  Now, there may be a good reason for this particular policy, but the branch employees were unable to explain it.

What about your policies?  Do they help your employees deliver an exceptional service experience or do they force them down a path that causes frustration for your customers and ultimately cost you money?  Have a close look.  You might be surprised with what you find.

I’d love your feedback! And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim

“When I go into a bank I get rattled. The clerks rattle me;
the wickets rattle me; the sight of the money rattles me;? everything rattles me.”

– Stephen Leacock, “My Financial Career”.

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