Gauging Sales and Service: There is Help out There
By Larry Doran, Director, Product Communications/Support Services
Question: I'm considering evaluating my bank's sales and service performance. Beyond mystery shoppers, what should I evaluate, and is there help out there?
Answer: Not all bankers realize the valuable information they can obtain from a sales performance evaluation. As you know, the success of a financial institution depends on the quality of your sales and service.
One common mistake banks make is doing simple mystery shops that look only at limited aspects of the whole process. In order to effectively evaluate the performance of your bank, you need to analyze every point of customer contact using a model of performance based on best practices. This means you should evaluate your individual branches, call center, ATMs, supermarket locations (if you have any), telephone banking system, loan production offices and even your web banking system using a consistent approach.
Don't just concentrate on the negative. Make sure to identify your institution's underlying strengths, as well as weaknesses, trends and improvement opportunities. This will help you create a plan to improve sales and service performance.
You should also evaluate your competition. Know what they are doing differently and what works or doesn't.
While mystery shops can be done by untrained employees or local companies that offer shopping as a sideline, I recommend you contract with a national company that specializes in this area. This also means that the evaluation will represent a broader base of experience and expertise.
There are few companies that offer this type of service. One example is Pinnacle Financial Strategies' sales and service analysis known as Fulcrum by Pinnacle. Our staff works only in the financial industry and they have been trained to recognize and asses specific sales and service skills and behaviors that are found in top-performing institutions. We compare your institution's performance to a proven model of successful sales and service, not simply to what other banks do.
The Fulcrum by Pinnacle process combines years of industry experience with state-of-the art research methods to provide our customers detailed quantitative and qualitative data about their institution. We also provide our clients with recommendations on how to improve their performance, and we work with them to develop strategies to become a top-performing institution.
Simple mystery shopping can often intimidate staff, produce questionable data and waste money. A thorough sales and service performance analysis can yield the data management needs to improve bottom line results: the only real measure of success in the banking industry.
Pinnacle Financial Strategies, headquartered in Houston, Texas, is the premier provider of products and services that strengthen customer loyalty, enhance performance and manage risk for companies in the financial services industry. Pinnacle's "total solution" approach ensures timely, cost effective products and services that deliver increased value and expand capabilities and improve profitability for its clients. For more information, visit www.pinnaclefinancialstrategies.com.
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