The Line from the Line

“We are not without accomplishment. We have managed to
distribute poverty equally.”
– Nguyen Co Thatch, Vietnamese Foreign Minister

I started my banking career in a branch. And whenever I work with a bank, I make it a point to spend a good part of my time out in branches and loan offices, sitting shoulder to shoulder with new account representatives, teller and lenders, watching, listening and learning. No administrative staff and no senior management allowed – just the people on the line, talking about what they do, what they need and what they see happening with customers.

These things always strike me about them:

• They are absolute pragmatists. For example, they don’t talk too much about the strategic value of a new product, initiative or service. They talk a lot, though, about how they are going to make it work and how it will affect their customer relationships.
  
• I may be in a minority in this opinion, but I don’t think, for the most part, they are resistant to change. What they are resistant to is being changed, particularly if they aren’t told why or if the reason given doesn’t make sense to them. And, frankly, they can be stubborn about it.
  
• They are absolutely honest and blunt and are generally the least political people in the bank (sidebar – this alone makes me love them).
  

It struck me the other day, in one of my branch visits, how these attributes affect the way they look at systems, planning, sales, reengineering and other bank issues, particularly in comparison to administrative employees and managers. Let me give you some examples of what management typically says about things compared to what branches and loan offices say:

LENDING

• Management talks about:
• Making deals more profitable
• Credit quality
• Exceptions

The line talks about:

• Getting higher (or any) lending authority
  Direct access to credit scoring and bypassing central processing for simple deals
  Faster decisions and closing

SALES

Management says:

• We have a sales culture problem.
• We need better sales leadership.
• We need to hire sales-oriented people.
• We need to change behavior.

The line says:

• We have a product and/or pricing problem.
• We need a killer lead product.
• We need better salary ranges and incentive plans.
• Turnover is killing us.

CRM

Management talks about:

• Systems that integrate customer information from all systems
• Proactively selling the next best product using that information
• Customer profitability information integrated into the delivery systems

The line talks about:

• A really good contact management system
• Getting outside e-mail so they can communicate better with customers

THE NEW ACCOUNT PROCESS

Management talks about:

• Predictive sales support tools
• Prompting for the cross-sell
• Using systems to capture previously lost sales opportunities
• Paying for the right behavior

The line talks about:

• Automating all document preparation
• Automating check ordering, credit checks and other processes
• Only having to input customer information once to open a checking account and a consumer loan
• Not having to spend hours manually filling out multiple three-part sales tracking forms

CENTRALIZATION

Admin talks about:

• Taking mundane tasks out of the branch to free up more time for sales
• How centralization has improved work quality
• How centralization has improved efficiency

The line talks about:

• Why they can’t change an address while the customer is sitting there anyway
• How it takes as much time to tell somebody in Admin what to do (via form, e-mail, or some other way) than it would take to just do it in the first place
• How centralization has hurt customer service

SYSTEMS

Admin worries about:

• Cost
• Vendor support
• Software bugs
• Upgrades
• Regulatory compliance

The line worries about:

• System reliability
• Getting more training

AND AT THE WATER COOLER:

Admin talks about:

• Their latest flame, or
• Their kids, or
• Their grandkids, and
• Why the bank hires so many damn consultants

The line talks about:

• …Well, actually, that’s what the line talks about, too.

Now, this is not an issue of there being a right or wrong to either perspective. These are two groups that just have a yin and yang way of looking at things. And I understand that front-line people sound tactical sometimes because they can’t really see the big picture.

But that doesn’t change my point, which is this: your front line has the people to whom you have entrusted your customers. They’re out there pushing every day. Any what they are saying isn’t trivial. They have some valid points. Make sure you listen.

After all, what’s a plan for branch and loan growth without a little yin and yang? –tr