FC NOW: The Fast Company Weblog
December 21, 2005
The 10-minute solution to a customer-service nightmare
Linda's story about being rebuffed at the chocolate shop, reminds of a policy I discovered while writing about Commerce Bank, which practices customer service as if it were a retailer. Its ten-minute rule addresses the exact scenario that Linda described - a customer arriving moments after the doors close for business. At Commerce, the branches officially close on the hour, but the managers will open the door for customers who arrive within the next ten minutes. They don't advertise this, so customers are bowled over when someone lets them in after hours. They feel as though the bank is making an exception for them. It's a classic wow moment that fosters loyalty if not outright evangelism. Why ten minutes? The bank figures that's a reasonable amount of leeway.
Posted by Chuck Salter at December 21, 2005 12:24 PM | Category: |
8 Comments
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when we get great service, we are amazed by it!
now, if retailers (and banks) would just open
unofficially ten minutes early. talk about
competitive advantage!
I've always had a beef with bank hours in general. Seems like their hours are specifically designed to avoid the working class and are only suitable for senior citizens and welfare recipients. IMHO, any leeway from their official hours is a great thing.
Isn't it wonderful when companies exceed our expectations?
That's probably because so many companies don't even meet our expectations. That's upsetting.
What's more distrubing is that underneath it all, we're all people - they really aren't any companies. The companies don't fail people - the people fail people. Companies just provide the facade that allows us to think that treating people badly is OK, even good, and even expected.
What if we did what we thought we should? That would be great. Think of how profitable that be, especially in an environment like what we have. You'd be miles ahead of everybody else if you just did what you should.
I think what this bank decided to do is really a great idea. I too think that banks seem to only have hours that are for those that don't work during regular business hours. Those that do work regular business hours can't make it to the bank unless they are actually open on Saturdays (good luck!).
Yes, most bank branches close at 5ish. There are often smaller branches in grocery stores that stay open till later hours. My branch will stay open till 8 if it is needed.
Now that's a good business decision. I missed a bank door by maybe a minute or two. They told me to come back tomorrow morning. I went to another bank.
The notion of opening up ten minutes after they close is such a big idea...I love it. I spend my working life working with all different sized companies coming up with simple ways like this that will make their customers / clients go WOW. I bet the 'ten minute idea' met with the odd raised eye brow internally when first suggested...However, I take my hat off to the bank for persisting with it.
Exceeding expectations is such a great strategy and I use this question constantly in my workshops as a way to get people thinking about how to do things better. Another great questions to ask is "What are we currently doing that is making it difficult for our customers to do business with us? And what can we do about changing these things?"
Cheers for now...TIM The Ideas Guy.
www.theideasguy.com.au
That may be the policy of Commerce Bank, but it is not in fact practiced by employees at local branches. While I believe the upper management of Commerce is trying to instill good customer service, the reality of how employees act in local branches in New York City is a different story. I left the bank after several bad experiences with tellers and branch supervisors with out of control attitudes. Commerce also advertises numerous services that they do not in fact provide, such as free temporary checks. Local Manhattan branches do not in fact offer temporary checks at all. Still, see what comes up when you do a search for "temporary checks" at www.commerceonline.com. The customer service reps at the 888 number are always polite, but my local branch staff were awful.