Banking Moments of Truth

In banking, we deal with all sorts of regulations, policies, procedures, and systems. Some of these we can manage and control, others we cannot. Dealing with complex banking challenges tends to make us overlook simple things we can more easily control that are very important. In these brief comments, I’ll overview a subject, and in subsequent comments, I’ll develop it with specifics.

What are “Moments of Truth?” They are things which may seem small, but things which influence big decisions. To illustrate, I’ll start with an example away from banking. Several months ago after a Sunday morning church service, my wife and I went to a nice local restaurant for lunch. When we went inside, the hostess, with an expression on her face that said we were interrupting, looked up and said, “We don’t open for lunch for ten minutes.” We sat down in the waiting area, but we didn’t feel as welcome as we should have felt.

Perhaps the hostess felt bad. Or was rushed. Or whatever. But whatever her problem was, it should have been put aside when we came in. How much more welcome would we have felt if she had said something like, “Thanks for coming in. We open for lunch in about 10 minutes, but if you’ll have a seat in our waiting area, we’ll seat you as quickly as possible.” She might even have offered us a cup of coffee. It was a “ Moment of Truth “ opportunity that should have been handled better.

Banking “Moments of Truth.” We’ll be covering them in the next few messages.