Just This Once...Please?

How many times during the day do you hear from customers and/or fellow employees-"Couldn't you make an exception-just this once...please?"

And you do make exceptions. Not just once, but time and time again. At the very least you are at the same time bending (if not breaking) policies, procedures, and sometimes laws.

There are few hard and fast rules in the customer service area of the banking industry. Even rules about endorsements and overdrafts are broken daily in dozens of transactions in each banking location. It is almost impossible to serve our customers to the best of our ability without sometimes looking the other way on rules and regulations.

It's hard to say "No" to people when we are hired to serve them. It's even harder to say "No" to those we care for and would like to do favors for when we can.

The trick is to know when you can safely bend or break and take the smallest risk possible. And the way that magical procedure is accomplished is through knowledge.

If you know the worst possible consequence for your action, you are in a better position to make a wise decision. And you'll learn from your mistakes.

A personnel manager gave in to her soft nature once and advanced an unearned week's vacation to an employee who said her father was very ill. The day the employee was due to come back to work, she quit. There was no ill father. She had used the week to find another job.

The personnel manager probably won't make that exception again during her career. Does that make her less understanding?

The teller felt so sorry for the pregnant woman with a small child with her that he made an exception and cashed an out-of-state check for her that she had second endorsed, even though there was not enough money in her account to cover it. When the check came back, marked "Account Closed", he was unable to make recovery. He's never seen her again.

From that day on, he probably looks past the circumstances surrounding the transaction, and bases his decision on the actual negotiation of the check. Does that indicate he is mean and unfeeling?

When you are asked to "...make an exception...just this once", think for just an instant what the worst possible result of that exception may be. And make your decision accordingly.

Copyright © 1990 Bankers' Hotline. Originally appeared in Bankers' Hotline, Vol. 1, No. 10, 9/90