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Technology and "Touch" (for bankers)
by: Adele B. Lynn PDF Format
E-mail, voice mail, faxes, Internet banking, automatic fax retrieval systems, web pages, and all the other point and click, select a number followed by the pound sign, digitized data communication inventions have changed our world. And that's great! But can these tools of the digital age lessen our human relationships and our effectiveness as bankers?
Some will argue that high tech tools, make high touch more difficult. People are removed from the process of communication while machines take over. After all, it is now possible to do essentially all of your banking without ever seeing a banker. You could check on balances, apply for loans, and open a CD without one single human connection in any of the transactions. However, anyone who has ever been frustrated by a digital encounter also knows the potential human risks of high tech.
However, these great conveniences for our customers and for us, need not dehumanize our encounters. Creative bankers can use high tech in new ways to ensure high touch is also delivered.
Ultimately, if the customer can receive the level of service expected and in the time frame expected, most customers do not care about the medium in which it is delivered. What they care about is the “tone” of the service they receive regardless of the medium.
Some tips to add high touch to high tech:
• Always provide an option to speak to a person. Endless menus with NO option to speak to a person provoke even the most convivial techie.
• ALWAYS pay close attention to the tone of your messages. If a customer receives your voice mail, make sure you sound friendly and eager to assist. If you leave a voice mail message for a customer, let that customer know that you care about his or her problem and that you want very much to provide assistance. The only way to communicate this is through your tone of voice.
• Voice mail messages must receive fanatically follow up. You should be on that message like “a dog on a pork chop.” Don't let it go without responding.
• Use e mail in a friendlier way. Again, tone is critical. If you're doing business via e mail, be sure to use friendly words.
• Use e mail in a strategic way to build relationships. Send out e mails to your Internet Banking customers occasionally that say, “Hi, my name is Jane, we know that you do much of your banking though our Internet site, but we just wanted you to know that if you need anything, we'd be happy to assist you.” Some banks only send out e mails to announce products or to sell something.
• Get personal. E mail can be used to send birthday greetings or other personal messages to your customers that build strong customer bonds.
• Team up with a business and send out a free coupon via e mail as a way to say “Thanks for being our customer. Even though we don't see you, we appreciate your business.”
• Send bounce back thank you's via e mail occasionally to your Internet customers.
• For convenience during tax season, you could have a fax-on -demand system set up with common tax forms or you could have links to the IRS on your Web site.
• You can also use fax on demand for any number of reference materials about banking for research papers, homework assignments, or other educational needs. Promote in via e mail, or on your Internet site.
• Set up a web page specifically with help for finance and interest rate calculations for the aspiring young banker
• Use your web page to make your employees “real.” Interview employees regarding their interests or families
• You could also use the telephone just to say hello
By attending to the heart as well as the budget, great bankers know the magic of both technology and touch. Technology CAN makes touch more easily available. Use your imagination, be creative,
Today, technology just offers more options for the skilled leader to “touch.” It's not a matter of high tech or high touch, instead, it's using technology to deliver high touch that can distinguish the truly great leaders.
• It is the service or the message and what the message conveys that is timely customer responsiveness and convenience
Great leaders know that it isn't the medium in which the message is delivered that's relevant, it's what the message conveys.
The new technologies make it easier for the boss who really wants to “touch” employees. However, before you can find the right touch, electronic or otherwise, you must know who your employees are. Some examples of creative high tech bosses who have used technology to “touch” include the following:
• One boss sends via e-mail a thought for the day to every company employee. He encourages employees to send him their thoughts for the day as well.
• Another uses e-mail to send personal birthday greetings to employees and customers.
• One manager used voice mail to communicate her gratitude and delight for a job well done by the building department. The manager of the building department then played the voice mail for the entire department congratulating them for their efforts.
• A sales manager uses voice mail to encourage sales persons who are on the road and checking in for their messages frequently. He lets his staff know that he is aware that they have a tough meeting or a big prospect.
• A leader of a manufacturing firm uses e-mail to acknowledge good work. She then copies her boss and others in the firm to spread the good news.
• Another caring leader kept in touch with an employee at a remote location through e-mail when he learned that the employee's daughter was terminally ill. Every few days, he would send a simple message expressing caring and concern.
Technology and touch however, isn't limited to building relationships between boss and employees. The companies who are in the forefront of customer service have devised ways to use their technology to add to their touch efforts. The companies most successful in this arena were companies who had strong customer focused vision statements and who had Information Technology (IT) departments strategically linked to their vision. The IT department's role was to find ways to improve the end point customer service, not to improve the system. Too often, IT thinks of ways to improve its operating systems without full regard for the customer.
Forbes magazine recently named American Express, First Union Bank, and Charles Schwab as leaders in technology in the financial services industry. Why? Because their systems allow them to better serve their customers. For example, First Union Bank generates regular call lists complete with birthdays, number of account relationships, customer preferences, e-mail addresses and other data that could assist the caller.
So get imaginative and use that technology to touch the customer. Some examples might be:
• For customers with e-mail, why not use e-mail for special bank services or promotions
• E-mail could also work for keeping in touch with business clients and asking about special needs
• You can also use e-mail just to keep in touch with customers who have important relationships with your bank
• For convenience during tax season, you could have a fax-on -demand system set up with common tax forms or you could have links to the IRS
• You can also use fax on demand for any number of reference materials about banking for research papers, homework assignments, or other educational needs
• Set up a web page specifically with help for finance and interest rate calculations for the aspiring young banker
• Use your web page to make your employees “real.” Interview employees regarding their interests or families
• You could also use the telephone just to say hello
Today, technology just offers more options for the skilled leader to “touch.” It's not a matter of high tech or high touch, instead, it's using technology to deliver high touch that can distinguish the truly great leaders.
By attending to the heart as well as the budget, these leaders know the magic of both technology and touch.
© 2000. Adele B. Lynn. All rights reserved.
