It’s Service, Not Sales

The other day, a co-worker and I were discussing our opinions on the shifting focus onto sales in the banking industry. We both felt that the industry seems to care less and less about servicing the customer. My co-worker, who is a trainer for branch staff, gave me an example from one of her training sessions.

A trainee was lamenting about how annuities sucked. She said they were very difficult to sell because very few customers had that much in an account. The chances of a customer having $10,000 available to open one were miniscule.

My trainer friend asked her what was the first car she got at 16. The trainee looked confused, but answered with something like a late model Honda Civic. My friend then said, asking your typical customer to open an annuity is like you being able to go out and buy a BMW 700 series at age 16.

She went on to say that you can’t expect a DDA customer to pull $10,000 out of thin air. You have to take the time to build a financial relationship with your customers. You always hear that you have to sell sticky products to your customers. Typically, this is direct deposit, online banking, bill pay and e-statements.

After listening to my friend, I no longer feel that these are sticky products. If all you have is a DDA relationship, the customer could easily go across the street to a competitor. Believe me; it’s really not that hard to change your direct deposit and online banking information. If your new bank uses the same bill payer as your current bank, they may even be able to transfer your information over.

My friend told me that her old branch is reaping the rewards from her work years ago. When she sat down with a new customer, she opened the checking account and setup the other “sticky” services. Also, she would talk to them about opening a savings account, even if they didn’t have the minimum amount.

She explained that yes, they would get a $4 monthly fee, but she’d set it up so that each pay period, $25-$100 (whatever the customer was comfortable with) would be deposited into their account. This way, after a couple of months, they would have the minimum balance and begin building an emergency fund.

After 6 months to a year, she would sit down with them again and suggest moving some of the money to a CD so that they could get a better rate. They would still have some money for emergencies, but also be building more wealth. Within a couple of years, she’d refer them to our investment group. During all this, she’d be building a personal relationship with all her customers, plus getting more referrals as they told their friends.

After our conversation, it hit me that a savings account is the stickiest product that we have. It’s also the foundation for building a relationship with our customers. It all starts with servicing the customer and having their best financial interest in mind. As my friend said, it’s a lot easier to sell that $10,000 annuity when you service the customer and help them save that amount to being with.