The Customer Service Personality Test: So You Say You’re Integrated?

“Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.” –Bill Gates

Everybody gives great service, right? And everybody says that one of the ways they will beat the competition is superior service. It’s in every strategic plan document I’ve seen of late. One of the keys to superior service is integrated delivery – common sales, information and service systems that allow every employee in the bank to see the transaction and contact history of any customer from any delivery point.

So, how do you know how you’re doing with your integrated delivery technology? Where is the bar set? Customer satisfaction surveys and responses are one option, but everybody understands that they only give part of the picture. Industry data on systems deployment is non-existent. So, what is a bank to do?

In the spirit of adding value in the banking arena, the Gonzo team has prepared a self-assessment “how do you rate” test to see how your integrated customer delivery strategies rank. Self-assessment tools are very helpful. I have learned from taking them myself that I am intelligent, sensitive, a wonderful romantic partner, financially savvy, and capable of coaching an NFL football team. How insightful, huh?

So, answer the 12 questions below and see how you rate. A scoring table follows the questions.

Question #1:
A customer calls a call center representative, who does an inquiry on the person’s name. What appears on the first screen when that customer’s profile is shown?

Give yourself:

• 5 points if the rep can see all accounts serviced by the core system (deposits, loans) and any accounts serviced on other systems (investments, credit cards, etc.)
• 3 points if only the accounts services on the core system show but there is at least an indicator that other relationships exist elsewhere
• 1 point if the only thing that shows is relationships serviced on the core system
• Zero points if multiple screens are required to see the relationships serviced on the core system

Question #2:
A customer comes into a branch and opens a joint checking account with his spouse, gets a debit card, orders checks, and agrees to apply for a HELOC. By the time the new account representative is done completing the new account/loan application process, how many times has he/she typed the customer’s name?

Give yourself:

• 5 points if the answer is 1
• 3 points if the answer is 2
• 1 point if the answer is more than two
• Zero points if your answer is, “You don’t write it?”

Question #3:
A commercial deposit customer who also has loan relationships is at the teller window and says she has a question about her loan and wants to talk to a loan officer.

Give yourself:

• 5 points if the name of the loan officer that manages the customer’s account displayed on the first screen the teller saw when accessing deposit account information
• 3 points if the loan officer’s name didn’t show on the first screen but can be accesses via an account inquiry
• 1 point if the teller has to call to find out who the loan officer is
• Zero points if the teller wouldn’t even make the connection that a depositor might also be a borrower
• Add 1 bonus point if the system can show the name of the loan assistant to call if the officer is unavailable or if the loan officer’s phone number was shown with his/her name

Question #4:
A branch new accounts representative has talked a customer into meeting with a trust or wealth management officer. It’s now time to set the appointment.

Give yourself:

• 5 points if the referral is done on line and the employee will get information regarding the outcome of the meeting via the same system
• 3 points if the referral is done on line but the follow-up report back to the referring employee isn’t
• 1 point if the referral is paper-based but tracked by the referring employee on line
• Zero points if the referral is paper-based and the form has two parts or more
• Add 1 bonus point if the system also sends the referral information to the person responsible for paying the referral fee automatically

Question #5:
The marketing department created a campaign to sell HELOCs to high net worth customers that already have first mortgages. Letters are sent out with a special 30-day, no-fee offer. One of the customers goes into a branch and sits down at a new accounts desk to renew a CD.

Give yourself:

• 5 points if the new accounts rep, upon accessing the customer’s record, would see that they were offered the HELOC and could see the terms of the deal
• 3 points if the new account rep could at least see that this customer was in a campaign, but had to look at another system for details
• 1 point if the rep could not see it on the system, but was at least told about the campaign via e-mail or another vehicle
• Zero points if the new accounts rep would be altogether clueless about the campaign
• 1 bonus point if the new accounts rep could access the campaign management system and record how the follow-up conversation went

Question #6:
A customer had a problem on his account that was the result of a bank error. There were some heated calls, some research, but it was finally solved. Two weeks later, that customer contacts the bank again.

Give yourself:

• 5 points if any employee who is next contacted by that customer, no matter what department or branch they are in, will be able to see all of the details about that incident, including images of any correspondence that occurred, and would be able to intelligently discuss it if the customer mentions it
• 3 points if any employee could see that a problem occurred and what the resolution was, but can’t see supporting documentation
• 2 points if only some employees could see what happened, e.g. branches could but a commercial lender couldn’t
• 1 point if the best you can do is put something in the “notes” section of the core system deposit or loan account record
• Zero points if you have no solution at all

Question #7:
Terence has accounts with you. So does Robin, his wife, and Corina, his daughter.

Give yourself:

• 3 points if the system would indicate to a front line employee that Corina is Terence’s daughter
• 1 point if the system doesn’t show that link but every employee at Terence’s branch knows that Corina is his daughter
• Zero points if neither is true

Question #8:
A checking customer has disputed a debit transaction that went through the Visa network. The customer walks into a branch and wants to know the status of the dispute.

Give yourself:

• 5 points if the branch employee could see the dispute and resolution on line (inquiry rights only, to be sure)
• 3 points if the branch employee can’t see the status on line, but could call and get an answer within two minutes
• 1 point if the branch employee hands the customer a phone number to call
• Zero points if the branch employee would stare like a deer in the headlights and try to figure out what manual might explain what to do
• Subtract one point if your first reaction was that branches don’t need to see this information at all

Question #9:
You have decided to assign personal bankers to key high balance customers. It’s time to get personal banker information on the system.

Give yourself:

• 5 points if you can assign a team of employees to the customer at the customer/CIF level – they can have a lender, a branch rep, an investment rep, and some other kind of rep
• 3 points if you can do the same thing, but it has to be done at the account level, so there might be multiple entries to execute and maintain
• 1 point if you can have only one employee assigned at the account level
• Zero points if you couldn’t enter any employee information

Question #10:
A commercial deposit customer who also has personal accounts and is hugely profitable to the bank wants to use personal deposits to offset soft charges in your monthly account analysis. Assume the bank’s policy allows this.

Give yourself:

• 3 points if your account analysis system has this capability
• 1 point if it’s not automatic, but some workaround could be figured out
• Zero points if there’s no workaround or if you didn’t know that this is getting to be pretty commonplace

Question #11:
The business lending group funds a business loan. On the application, the borrower listed a fat personal deposit account and/or a personal Visa with some serious revolving balances. In other words, some serious cross-sell opportunities exist here.

Give yourself:

• 5 points if a branch, call center, or Visa department employee would be notified of this via automated systems and would be expected to follow up and report on results (equal points if the business lending group gets these relationships without any referrals)
• 3 points if the same people consistently get a call or email talking about the opportunity
• 1 point if any of this may happen sometimes depending on the business loan employee but is not guaranteed
• Zero points if there’s nothing going on
• Subtract one point if your first response was, “Wow, that’s not a bad idea!”

Question #12:
The mortgage servicing group gets a payoff demand for a mortgage that is 33 months old – clearly a refi possibility.

Give yourself:

• 5 points if a branch, call center, or loan employee gets a “to do” item in whatever system they use that charges them with calling the borrower to see if an internal refi is an opportunity
• 3 points if somebody is expected to do this, but there is no system support
• 1 point if anything happening at all depends on the employee that gets the payoff demand
• Zero points if this never occurred to you

Your score:

50-58	You’re delusional. Nobody is this far along yet. Go back to talking to those lizards on the walls of your office. They have some really interesting ideas about delivery.
40-49	You’re ahead of the game. You have probably made some commitments to systems, standards and process that are getting some traction. A Gonzo thumbs-up.
27-39	You are about typical of the industry. Some progress has been made, but plenty of opportunity exists. You may not have made the hard system and standards decisions yet, and they loom as a difficult job. Keep focused.
15-26	You’re behind. You need to get a bank team together and build a vision of what integrated delivery needs to look like.
Under 15	There’s some good news. Word is you were the life of the party at last year’s abacus convention and the rest of the group can’t wait for you to show up again.

Vendor scores:
You are welcome to rate your system on whether or not it allows these things to happen. However, subtract 50% of your score on any question where you don’t know for a fact that at least half your users have implemented the capability and are getting the business benefit.

Special Offer:
A GonzoBanker T-shirt to the first three people that can show a believable score of over 30.
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