Jennifer A. Kingson's investigative report in the July 8 issue of American Banker, headlined "
For those of you who missed it, the newspaper teamed with a consultant to conduct what are called "mystery shop" visits - pretending to be business owners seeking to open a small-business account - to 10 Manhattan branches of banks including Citigroup, J.P. Morgan Chase, Bank of New York, and FleetBoston. The results were disturbing.
Most surprising was that just one banker out of all the 10 branches asked for the mystery shopper's name and business card for a follow-up. If that is these banks' standard practice, they are wasting good opportunities.
And the finding that so few platform employees knew what services their banks offered is also a sad commentary.
Now that I recall some of my experiences, maybe I shouldn't have been so surprised by the mystery-shop's findings. Once I went to the bank where I had a checking account, planning to take it up on a mortgage offer advertised in the local newspaper. I asked a platform officer about a mortgage and he replied, "Banks don't make mortgages. Go to a savings bank." My opinion of the entire operation was sullied by this employee's ignorance of the bank's product line.
Perhaps worse than the ignorance was the indifference the American Banker team found. Asked about her bank's offerings, one customer service agent replied: "What difference does it make? All banks are the same."
This attitude is a problem at a lot of companies, not just banks. Many employees have no sense of pride or mission, no feeling that what they are doing is important to their customers and their community.
Employee pride is key to any company's success. In the only arguments I have had with colleagues in about a half century of teaching, my beef was that they badmouthed Rutgers in public. My feeling is that no matter what I think in private, in public I must be a standard-bearer in the eyes of our students - and bankers and other professionals should feel the same way about their employers.
I remember when the old Bank of America was known to pay branch managers a lot less than their peers at competing banks were making. But it had a knack for making employees feel good about their work and the company they worked for.
How do you instill this pride?
First, you have to stick to the goals set when the bank was chartered. Hold meetings regularly to remind staff members what the company is about and what it is trying to accomplish. It is not enough just to open the doors and try to get through the day without any major or minor glitches.
Next, employees need to be given the authority to make decisions.
In sports, winning teams usually exude a "We are the best" attitude. Banks should try to do the same. Because, really, all banks are not alike.
