The Wave of Indifference

It seems that every company wants to focus their marketing message on providing, "outstanding service."

Yet most places we go, we're met with a tidal wave of indifference.

Seriously, it's when you're helped by someone with a personality that the service really stands out. That's a bit sad.

Shop

Take a day and shop your competitive branches. Trust me, it'll be eye opening. Besides, the weather is beautiful this time of year and it'll give you a reason to get out of your office.

Simply ask the first employee you see about checking accounts and see how they handle it. Do they ask you leading questions that will help them make a recommendation:

• Where do you bank now?
• What do you like about your account?
• Why do you want to change?
• What kind of balances do you carry?
• Etc, etc, etc

Or do they simply hand you a brochure and say, "If you have any questions come back and see us."

You'll quickly find out which banks or credit unions will be climbing the market share ladder and which will be sucked under the wave of indifference.

Training

When I speak on this topic, I love to use a Disney example and you can too.

Last summer I took our family to Disney. My 5 year old daughter wanted to see Sleeping Beauty. That's all she had talked about for months and we finally were there. We drove for two days to get there in a van who's A/C broke as soon as we hit the Florida border. We were at the park on the hottest day on Disney record ... 115 degrees - no exaggeration. We paid a king's ransom for the privilege of baking in the "Happiest (frickin') place on earth." By lunch, my 7 year old son was actually crying, "Don't make me go back out to Disney." But we hadn't seen Sleeping Beauty yet. When it was her scheduled time, we waited in line for about an hour and a half and finally came the moment of truth...

Now, imagine if Disney staffed their parks with the same employees that ride the wave of indifference. And how upset my daughter would have been and how I might have actually strangled someone.

The reality is that Sleeping Beauty and all of the other princesses, in heavy gowns and full make-up during the hottest day of the year, where exceptional! They all were on stage and they all brought their "A" game. It made the entire experience worth while and the rest of day quickly became MUCH better - especially when it cooled down.

The point? All of your employees are on stage. And there is no way of telling what trials our customers had to face to get to our branch on a given day. We need to jump off the wave of indifference and drown our customers in positive feelings. Smiles, sincerity, and an honest attempt to help. It's really not that hard, but it's also few and far between.

Do you want to differentiate your bank or CU? Spend less time worrying about checking rewards and focus on the faces and voices that customers deal with everyday.

Happy Friday,

Eric