When Common Sense Should Prevail

I recently spent a couple of days in the hospital. Nothing serious…just needed a small tune-up. One of the things I’ve really focused on in recent years is the simple act of observation. Not so much on observing things and beautiful scenery, although I do try to do that, but on observing people.

So as I tuned and turned the volume up on my listening rod those couple of days, I observed that many patients had not figured out one simple hospital fact: Be VERY nice to the nurses and techs! Don’t worry so much about the doctors who come around sporadically. They are important, but the nurses and techs are the ones who do the heavy lifting with patient care and service 24/7. They are often the unrecognized heroines and heros  of our society!!! Show and tell them you genuinely appreciate everything they do, and the great care they give. Three interesting things happen when you do: THEY feel better, you get even BETTER service from them, and YOU feel better when you’ve made THEM feel better! It’s definitely WIN, WIN, WIN.

How does this apply to banking? Well, even more than your board and senior management group, your staff, from the newest to the most veteran contact and non-contact staffers all across your bank, is the group that is really your nurses and tech group. They take care of easy customer situations, difficult customer situations, winey customer situations, appreciative and unappreciative customer situations, happy and unhappy customers, and on and on. They provide your customers with the service they want and need to remain customers, and as a result of doing that, they put food on your table, and a roof over your head. What a group! Are they special? Absolutely! Should you show and tell them you appreciate them? At every opportunity, and minus an opportunity, create one! They’ll be happier, your customers will get the service they want to be happy, and you’ll be happier too! It’s WIN, WIN, WIN for sure!

e-Statements: Why are people reluctant to switch to them?

It is very easy for bankers, and we folks working with bankers, to get caught up in technological developments and assume that everyone else will be excited too. In my personal banking career before I formed Early & Company, our bank introduced many new services that I just KNEW everyone would immediately get excited about. Occasionally they did, often they didn’t.

But e-Statements are so good, why wouldn’t everyone jump on board?

Well, there are several reasons, and I’ll address three of them here. At the top of the list for slow acceptance of this service, and acceptance for any other new service being introduced, is that people don’t like change! You can bring up all the logical reasons to people that you want, and you’ll be effective with some, but many will be reluctant to change. Should that discourage you from working hard to achieve new service and product acceptance? Only if you are willing to accept the status quo, and never achieve the services acceptance and bank earnings results you could have achieved!

A second reason is that people are concerned that their e-Statements won’t stay on line long enough. Research shows us that e-statements really should be available for a mimimum of 12 months, and preferably for 18 months. Even after 18 months, many customers want to know they will be sent a paper statement if they want one for their taxes, or for any other reason.

And, thirdly, customers want to know…and they often doubt this…that their on line statements will be as thorough as the ones they receive in the mail. Add to this the common perception that e-Statements are hard to read, and you see a best case scenario that bank e-Statements would be a PDF exact copy of the actual paper statement.

Well, that’s enough excitement for today! There are other reasons, and suggestions for ways to improve your e-Statements acceptance. Do your diligence and research, and contact us to talk further.