Pop the Hood: A Customer Service Checklist

By Bill Etmund

Your car seems to be running just fine. No menacing dashboard lights are blinking at you. But since you’re a wise car owner, you occasionally drive your vehicle in for a maintenance checkup. You have the brakes checked, the cooling system examined, etc. You depend on your car, and you know that the consequences of neglect can be profound. An ounce of prevention really is worth a pound of cure.

An ounce of prevention really is worth a pound of cure.

This same wisdom also holds true for the customer service system at your financial institution.

You have processes and procedures in place to deliver exceptional experiences to your customers and to make it easy for them to do business with you. If these processes and procedures aren’t operating as they were designed to, your customers and your institution pay a price. That said, we think it’s a great idea for you to regularly gather your team, pop the hood and assess whether all the parts of your customer service engine are running smoothly.

Here’s a quick checklist to help you conduct a “customer service assessment” on your financial institution:

1. Is your marketing message consistent? Do potential customers see the same message on your website, on the exterior of your facilities, in your lobbies, on your employees?
2. Do your employees enthusiastically greet strangers who are responding to your marketing? Do your employees routinely greet potential customers by smiling, standing, shaking hands, introducing themselves and asking the customer’s name?
3. Does each of your branch employees know how to efficiently and confidently recommend the best accounts?
4. Are there unnecessary procedural hurdles when opening an account? These could include excessive requirements or computer inefficiencies.
5. Is it easy to establish complementary products like direct deposit, debit cards, online banking, bill pay and mobile banking?
6. Do you consistently follow up with new customers at the two-day, two-week, and two-month marks?

We hope your assessment reveals that you and your team are operating at peak performance. If not, perhaps this ounce of prevention will help you continue to build long-term, highly engaged relationships with your new and existing checking customers.

If you need some help getting started, review our solutions or reach out to us for help acing your next customer service assessment.