Do You Know Your Customers' Names?

Isolated experiences matter. One bad date can put the kibosh on a relationship. One bad interview can ruin one’s chances of getting a job.

For major companies, a customer’s one bad experience with one employee at one single location can destroy his opinion of the entire organization.

That reality puts immense pressure on those tasked with driving the customer experience. Customers, inherently inclined to overvalue their individual experiences, will not necessarily be comforted by the knowledge that the company’s service is usually great. They will not necessarily care that most employees are not like that one who was rude and dismissive.

Controlling for every specific facet of the customer experience, quite simply, is daunting.

But in classic glass half-full fashion, customers’ amplification of their experiences can also create an enormous benefit—if they have a positive experience, even in a low-level engagement with a single staff member, they will extend their loyalty to the entire organization.

This phenomenon is particularly relevant for banks, which remain very sensitive to customer satisfaction levels. According to a survey conducted by Zogby 463, customer service at a single banking location impacts perception of the overall institution for 76% of customers. An engagement at a single branch, in more than three-quarters of cases, can either justify or undermine the entire organization’s commitment to the customer experience.

Again, the glass half-full/glass half-empty debate comes into play. Some may fear the fact that if a single teller at a single branch forgot his coffee one day and operated inefficiently, the customers he served will more likely than not leave the branch with a negative impression of the entire banking institution.

The more optimistic crowd will, instead, relish the fact that something as minute as a friendly interaction between a teller and customer can create customer loyalty for the entire organization.

And the survey supports that notion. For 69% of banking customers, their loyalty is positively affected if the teller recognizes them by name when they walk into the bank.

Though that seems remarkably easy (yet beneficial ) on the surface, it would not be unfathomable for banking executives to be annoyed by that fact’s simplicity. They spend countless hours crafting clever promotional messages, fighting tooth-and-nail to keep fees low and interest rates high and developing online tools that are powerful and easy to use. And after all that work, something as simple as name recognition is one of the clearest pathways to customer loyalty?

But unlike so many ultra-clever, "groundbreaking" developments in customer service, the idea of a teller recognizing a customer by name resonates with the truest definition of a quality customer experience—viewing every customer as the most important customer and acting on that viewpoint.

Some banks sort ofunderstand this notion. Direct banking institution Ally Bank recently launched its "People Sense" marketing campaign, touting the customers-first philosophy that has driven exceptional customer satisfaction scores. Citibank, meanwhile, announced that it has simplified its fee structure in response to customer demand, using at least five variations of the "we did this because our customers demanded it" line in the press release.

Both tout a commitment to acting on the voice of the customer rather than on the ideas generated in an adderall-enhanced boardroom. But for as valuable and effective as the messages may be, they still move a step away from the simplicity of what the aforementioned survey reveals customers want.

Customers are loyal to those organizations who they believe are acting in their best interest. Quality service and innovative ideas can be indicative of a commitment to improving the customer experience, but recognizing a customer by name confirms the importance the organization places on that customer.

By creating this sense of "importance," the teller instantly positions the brand to build customer loyalty. If, following the name recognition, the engagement goes well, the customer will not only think the banking institution is efficient but that they actually want to do right by customers. If the engagement goes wrong, the customer’s disappointment will be tapered since he believes the bank is upset they let him down and committed to righting that experience down the road.

Assuring tellers (and cashiers, waiters, drivers, and so on) operate in accordance with the organization’s best practices is a must for any company. But the real customer loyalty opportunity will often come from an "x factor," such as name recognition, since it solidifies a proper perspective on why the best practices matter.

After all, should a teller be delivering quality customer service because his boss instructed him to follow a certain protocol? Or, should it be because he, like the rest of the company, cares about giving customers the best possible experience?

As a customer management leader for a bank or financial institution, you face a host of unique customer service challenges—ones which can be "make or break" for the success of your company? The IQPC Call Center for Financial Services summit gives you the know-how to retool your customer experience and emerge as a true leader in the space. Details here!