Heads, Marketing Wins; Tails, Customers Lose

You can imagine the conversation.

Marketing Department: “We need to visually demonstrate how many free features come with all of our corporate accounts!”

Voice of Customer Representative (most like an idealistic intern given that title only to make the bank feel more responsive to its customers): “But that’s not really helpful. We need to show how the accounts differ for this visual to be really helpful.”

Marketing: “Customers want to know about all the free features they’ll receive.”

VoC Rep: “No, customers want to be fully informed so they can make the best decisions for their business. Plus, this visual is going to appear on the ‘Account Comparison’ page of our website. Shouldn’t it actually, you know, compare the accounts?”

Marketing: “Fine, since your dad is CEO, we’ll add a ‘Strengths & Benefits’ row that talks about the few ways the accounts differ.



VoC Rep: “Okay, but why don’t we present the features that differ item-by-item instead of clumping them  all under ‘Strengths & Benefits’? This is a mess to read, and we could easily lay it out just like we do with the ‘free’ features.”

Marketing: “We need to emphasize how many free features there are. That’s what marketing does.”

VoC Rep: “Oh. And is marketing going to list the monthly fees, minimum/maximum balance requirements, and other differentiating account features that would actually make this visual useful to the businesses trying to make an informed decision?”

Marketing: “Customers want to know about all the free features they’ll receive. And aren’t you supposed to be getting coffee or something?”

* * * * * * *

Listen to the intern. Listen to your Customer Advocates (if you have any).

Make it easier for companies to work with you, not harder.

Become magnetic.

Goals versus Outcomes

There’s a common misunderstanding between goals and outcomes. Let’s clarify:

                A goal is something you actively DO

                An outcome is the result of things you do

Pay close attention to when people discuss their goals, and you’ll often realize that they’re actually stating outcomes, not goals. For instance:

-A bank will say, “Our goal is to convert more prospects into customers.”

-A coach will say, “Our goal is to win every game.”

-An out-of-shape person will say, “I’m going to lose weight.”

NONE of those are goals. They are outcomes, as those statements do not link to any direct, meaningful actions.

Look at the above “goals” (that are really outcomes) and ask yourself, “What will you actually DO?”

-A bank can declare, “We’re going to convert more prospects into customers,” and that’s great. But that statement won’t change anything, as the assertion doesn’t link to any action.

-A coach can say “We’re going to win every game,” but that doesn’t make it happen; so what will the coach do to cause the team to win?

-And just saying, “I’m going to lose weight,” doesn’t make anything happen. You need to do things to make it happen.

The things that you will actually do to reach your desired outcomes constitute your actual goals.

So if you’re desired outcome is “to lose weight,” your goals might be:

• I will lift weights for 30 minutes every day this month
• I will drink one gallon of water every day this month
• I will eat 5 servings of vegetables and consume 100 grams of protein every day this month

Those are the things you’ll actually do to achieve your desired outcome of losing weight.

Same for banks. If you want to convert more prospects, define the things you’ll do to make this happen:

• We will discuss our bank’s community involvement with every prospect
• We will ask qualifying questions and tailor our sales presentations to every prospect
• We will award monthly bonuses for employees who open the most accounts

* * * * * * *

 Be wary of using additional outcome statements to support original outcome statements.

For instance, a bank with a stated outcome of “converting more prospects” might assert: “We will increase foot traffic in our branches.”

That’s a great outcome. But what are the goals to achieve that increase in foot traffic? Will you create a highly rewarding refer-a-friend program? Will you launch a new advertising campaign?

Once you figure out the goals necessary to achieve your desired outcomes, you can get to work and make great things happen.

So get at it!

A System of Two

My wife and I split household responsibilities. She handles the family’s food preparation, and I handle all of the cleanup.

So after she cooks a great meal, I swoop in and scrub, wipe, and wash everything.  

In essence, we’ve created a system with a division of labor, and it works well for us.

But consider the cheese grater. (A strong candidate for sentence-of-the-day.)

Our kids love cheesy foods, so Jes grates a lot of cheese in her cooking. And because she uses it so often, she requests that the grater always be cleaned and ready for action.

This means a lot of hand-scrubbing of the cheese grater, which I find a very tedious, time-consuming task. (You might even say it grates on me.)

I prefer to clean it in the dishwasher, but this causes delays that interfere with her food prep.

She wants grated cheese. I want easier-to-clean alternatives.

Even our little system of just two people is experiencing friction.

On the occasions when I prepare meals for the kids, I prefer to simply cube or dice the cheese with a knife and cutting board, as this makes for a very easy cleanup.

If Jes were in charge of cleaning the cheese grater a few week, I think she’d come around to my viewpoint and start dicing/cubing instead of grating.

But since we divide the responsibilities, it’s difficult for us to have these shared perspectives without purposeful communication and discussion.

Business Application

So we see friction even in a simple, two-person system where everyone is working for the grater good (okay, that was the last one).

Now consider a bank’s commercial lending department with its byzantine processes and protocols. The work quality of people on the front-end directly impacts the work quality of the people on the back-end, and vice versa.

And everyone has an opinion on how everyone else can do their job better and improve the overall system.

The underwriters are driven nuts by the bankers. The due diligence staff thinks that the loan coordinators are out of their minds. And on and on.

And it’s no different in other industries, from health care to running a restaurant.

With so many people filling so many disparate roles in a very complicated process, friction is inevitable.

Just as with me and Jes, the key is to provide productive feedback loops that allow for shared perspectives and understanding, as this will ultimately improve the overall system and mitigate future build-ups of friction.

If communication channels are not built into the system, those working within the system are sure to experience frustration, tension, and inefficiencies.

(Or I suppose we could just start buying grated cheese.)

Put a face on your survey

Commenting our recent post about The Weather Channel’s inept survey, Duncan Stuart shared a simple, yet ingenious idea:

• “One thing I do with online surveys is post my contact details and email link. Oh yes, I get whacked for this and that - but every criticism helps me hone my craft. In balance I get more thank you emails than I get negatives. But a shame that somebody at Weather Channel didn't put their name and face to the questionnaire. They might have got immediate feedback, fixed their remedial problems and relaunched with much greater success.” –Duncan Stuart

There are several reasons to applaud and emulate his courageous approach.

If you buy into my belief that surveys are another form of customer communication, then what sends a better message to your customers: an anonymous survey with nothing but instructions and questions, or a personalized questionnaire that puts a face and a name to the work while inviting feedback and engagement?

(If you answered “the former,” please surf elsewhere; it’s just not going to work out between us.)

People don’t want to feel like just a number, and they don’t want to feel processed.

Instead, they want to feel a connection to other people, and they want to feel empowered to respond to the intention of the survey as well as its content.

My guess is that respondents who know the creator of the survey –and know that they can offer input on the experience– feel more valued, and that this translates into more serious, lengthy, and thoughtful responses.

And as Duncan mentions, I’m sure that a survey designer who invites comments about her/his instruments will learn far more about how to be an effective survey designer than someone who eschews such contact.

Personal Testimony

I recently created an internal survey for a large bank. But before we fielded it company-wide, we performed some validity testing.

We watched employees take the survey, and had them talk through the questions and answer options with us.

In addition to being incredibly illuminating (the survey we ended up fielding was quite different from the one we had cooked up in the lab, and far more effective, too), it was an amazing opportunity to connect with the employees and really get their insights on the survey-taking experience.

We learned about the unique connotations of certain in-house terms that could skew the results.

We identified questions that could be deemed as diminishing to certain departments.  

And we discovered new topics that needed to be explored.

In the end, we had better flow, better wording, better answer categories, and a superior instrument in every way.

And all of these great things happened because we (the survey creators) sat face-to-face with them (the survey takers) and had wonderful interactions about the entire scope of the project.

In addition to discussing the survey specifically, we covered:

• Why do the employees think the bank is doing this survey, and why now?
• What events and/or tensions are driving the situation?
• What makes an employee really open up and be honest on a survey?

At the end of the day, we learned far more than we ever would have had we just sat behind our desks and remained anonymous.

Sure, we would have had data. But it would have been far less rich than what we ended up with.

Best of all, everyone benefits. We learn more as professionals, the respondents have more appreciation for the survey process, and our clients learn even more great information.

Cheers!

Want New Customers? Assess Your Service

We could fill a CRM date base with stories about businesses gaining new customers by implementing in-store assessment programs.

It’s a terrific way to get people who might never have heard about (or considered using) your company to visit your locations and try your products and service.

Over the years, we’ve seen evaluators purchase mattresses, join health clubs, and even lease cars.

Yesterday, one of our evaluators visited a bank to assess how well the loan officer handles refinancing inquiries. Here’s what she said afterwards:

• “I thought it was a great experience and I am actually considering refinancing my loan here after this experience.”

Best of all, this type of marketing is far more effective than any billboard, commercial, or radio spot will ever be, because the evaluators haven’t just heard what an ad company wants them to hear.

Instead, they’ve had a genuine, in-depth, face-to-face experience with a company. That’s not marketing; it’s evidence.

And that’s what generates interest, builds loyalty, and lands new customers.

Provide relationships, not information

We have several banking clients, and I’m always surprised by the impersonal, robotic service tellers routinely provide before we start working with them.

All too often, tellers simply hand prospective customers a brochure and wish them well. They clearly suffer a misperception that prospective customers are simply looking for information.

So they hand them the brochure about account options, mention a few rates, and feel like they’ve done a great job.

But people aren’t looking for information;

they’re looking for relationships.

When tellers simply hand out brochures, they are missing prime opportunities to really connect with people and develop the trust and loyalty that lands customers.

People don’t want a brochure listing their options. They want someone to...

• Take an interest in them
• Learn about them, and maybe share something about themselves
• Make an informed, personalized recommendation to help guide them through their options

Because if that’s how the teller treats them, they’ll automatically assume that that is how the entire bank will treat them.

Here are two examples that just came up during our monthly in-branch assessments. Tell me which teller sends a better message about their bank, and which teller is more likely to land a new customer.

Example 1 (bad)

• “Cindy showed me a pamphlet and pointed out five different types of accounts. She did not go over the benefits of each account. She said three accounts had no service fee and required no minimum balance, and that to have a checking account you must have a savings account with a minimum of a $50 balance. She gave me the pamphlet and said to take it and look over it.”

Did you get that? “Here, go read this and come back when you’ve made a decision.” That’s the underlying sales strategy this teller is employing.

And for as awful as it sounds, this is typical for the industry. And many tellers think they’ve done a great job after an interaction like this.

It’s not until you show them what they could have done that they realize the power they have to help their bank land new, loyal customers.

Here’s an example of an interaction with a different teller at the same bank.

Example 2 (good!!!)

• “Ray gave me a lot of information before he ever got a pamphlet. He asked me questions, and we talked for a while. When he finally got the written information, he only used it to reiterate points he had already made. Because he touched on so many aspects of the bank verbally, I believed his knowledge was very good. The associate's attention was focused on assisting me and encouraging me to open an account, and he definitely took his time to talk with me.”

Now THAT’S the kind of customer service that lands a new account and that builds trust and loyalty.

How will we train Cindy to be more like Ray? Easy. By showing her direct comparisons of her customer interactions to Ray’s customer interactions, and working with her to identify the differences and find improvements in her presentation skills.

It’s not that Cindy doesn’t care. It’s simply that she’s been trained in banking, not customer service.

And once we show her the kind of service she can be providing, she will. And her bank will be much stronger for it.

Guest Post: “Can you imagine a world…”

[editor’s note: Being in customer service research, we hear many horror stories of surveys gone awry. Here’s one of our favorites, as told by Robyn Davis Sekula, who recently survived a very poorly done satisfaction survey by her bank.]

A few weeks ago, I got a call from my bank. I like my bank. The tellers are friendly and call me by name even before they see my deposit slip. They even called me at home recently to tell me they’re closing the branch I frequent. I have two checking accounts, a savings account, a safe deposit box and one of my children’s college savings accounts with them. I’ve banked with them for almost eight years.

So, when they called to ask me about my experiences with them, I was happy to spend a few minutes filling them in.

First, they asked me about a branch I visit only occasionally. But I thought I’d be nice and play along anyway.

The interviewer would read a statement, and I’d reply with a 1 for ‘strongly disagree’ or a 5 for ‘strongly agree.’ Ok, fine. I did my best. We flew through the questions at a brisk clip. On questions when I had no idea, I’d pick a three or four. Isn’t that what everyone does?

Then we got to one statement that stopped the entire interview.

“I cannot imagine a world without XYZ Bank.”

I sat in silence. “What? Are you serious?” I asked. I started laughing. I cannot imagine a world without my children, my husband, sunshine, and chocolate. But a bank? Really? The surveyor said, “That’s what it says.” So I gave that a two.

How can a bank seriously wonder if it’s one of the most precious things in life?

And what good does this question do, anyway? Why does it serve this bank to know that? If it gets a 3.5 average, what happens? Does the bank call a party planner, play “Celebration” by Kool & the Gang at a party with a balloon drop and give out cake to employees? If they get an average of a 2, do they have long, ponderous meetings with a consultant where they try to figure out how they went wrong? What exactly do they DO with that information?

It doesn’t tell them anything. If I have a relationship with more than one bank, it doesn’t tell them if I like them better – and if so, why. Frankly, the bank I have my mortgage with is a treat to deal with, too, but it also has its flaws. I’d be happy to compare and contrast and tell you something you could actually use. But, my dear bank didn’t ask me that.

We continued to move through the survey, and I was asked if I had ever had a problem with the bank. I said yes, so I was given another statement to either agree or disagree to: The problem was resolved to my satisfaction. In truth, I had never brought the problem to the bank’s attention. I just simply hadn’t taken the time to do it. I told the surveyor the entire problem, and at the end, he said, “So what number would that be?” He had no place on his form to actually write down what the problem was. To the bank’s credit, they did have someone call me to try to help. It still isn’t solved, but that’s because I haven’t had the time to work it out.

Really great customer service surveys provide space and time for surveyors to listen as much as they talk. They let customers really tell them how good they are – or how poor – in comparison to their competition. They might even glean insight into how to move past being an institution to being something they look forward to visiting.

I can imagine a world without my bank. I’d just …. go to another one! Sorry, dear bank. You’re not a spouse. You’re not nearly as fun as my children. You aren’t nearly as tasty as chocolate. You’re necessary. I like you, but yes, I can imagine life without you.

[Robyn is a media and marketing consultant. She spent most of her pre-freelance career as a newspaper reporter, and last worked at Business First. Her clients include Ivy Tech Community College, the Family Investment Center in St. Joseph, Missouri, the Jeffersonville Carnegie Library Foundation and English, Lucas, Priest and Owsley, a law firm in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Robyn writes advertising, brochure and web site copy, and press releases. You can contact her here.]