Making Fees Irrelevant – I think of Vernon Hill as the Steve Jobs of the banking
Attitude versus Aptitude – Commerce Bank also wanted to be world-class in customer engagement. However, the bank found out that hiring employees who have high technical aptitude and an outstanding attitude was not cost effective. So the bank chose attitude. Commerce set out to have the most cheerful, engaging front-line employees. They focused almost exclusively on hiring enthusiasm and interpersonal skills. These friendly recruits quickly blew the doors off the industry’s poor reputation for service. Not only were employees nice, they were happy and empathetic! They greeted customers at the door with newspapers and walked them to their cars in bad weather.
Simplicity – Since it hired attitude over aptitude, Commerce decided to keep things really simple. The bank’s service offerings were the least in the entire banking industry. But the customer’s got what they wanted: the friendliest interactions and they didn’t mind paying a premium for it (or receiving a lower rate).
But how where the results? – Commerce did things radically different from other banks: they offered the worst rates in the industry, little diversification in services, and made very few acquisitions, which was the conventional model for growth in the banking industry. Yet Commerce Bank operated its banks like a hospitality company, with friendly engaging employees. The results? The bank enjoyed a 2,000 percent stock price increase during the 1990’s!
Roy Bivens, Cultural Change Guru. Roy is the Managing Partner for Orion Advisory, one
|
John R. DiJulius III best-selling author, consultant, and keynote speaker, is the President of The DiJulius Group, the leading customer experience consulting firm in the nation. He blogs on customer experience trends and best practices. Learn more about The DiJulius Group or The Secret Service Summit, America’s #1 Customer Service Conference.