Rules of Engagement

By Bill Stoneman

Branch greeters can help improve customer service, but only if deployed to best advantage.

Do bank customers really need a "greeter" when they walk into a branch? Lots of institutions, both large and small, are in the process of finding out. Programs differ in some details, but most involve stationing an employee at a desk or kiosk near the branch entrance to welcome customers when they walk in the door and then direct them to the appropriate service area.

The effort stems from a realization that service needs to be upgraded. The branch greeter "is responsible for creating the first impression, that magic moment," says James Jackson, Bank of America Corp.'s consumer banking executive for South Florida.

With greeters turning up in banks as diverse as Wachovia Corp., Bank of America, Citigroup Inc., PNC Financial Services Group, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Washington Mutual Inc., and Umpqua Holdings Corp. in Portland, Ore., the concept clearly has legs.

It sounds good — who wouldn't want a friendlier branch environment? But while the costs of such a program are clear, banks that deploy greeters concede it's difficult to show a direct link to institutional revenues and profitability.

Still, banks report a boost in customer satisfaction scores with such programs, affirming that greeters do register positively with customers. "There is some anecdotal evidence to suggest it is working," says Jerry Silva, a senior analyst with TowerGroup in Needham, Mass. An effective greeter, he adds, can improve the odds of capitalizing on walk-in opportunities for banks endeavoring to sell investments and insurance products.

If you accept the premise that some greeter activity is better than none, the next issue involves staffing. What kind of employees should be assigned to this task? Junior staff members, for example, may offer a friendly smile, but are unlikely to solve major problems. Senior officers can achieve more for customers, but have other demands on their time.

Complicating matters is the fact that most branch customers still come in for routine transactions, for example, to cash a check or make a deposit. Transactors don't need help finding the teller line, so the greeter can't contribute much more to them than a welcoming ambience. Even so, many institutions have opted for the senior employee, since they are the ones who can do the most for customers; Wachovia Corp. even has its branch managers working the front kiosk.

These considerations underscore the point that solid planning is needed to make the most of the greeter concept — it's a combined marketing and service position that needs to mesh with a variety of other activities within the branch.

Wal-Mart or Nordstrom?

By deploying greeters in their "stores," bankers are consciously emulating some well-known national retailers.

Banks that emphasize the friendliness aspect, such as Bank of America, might be described as following the "Wal-Mart model," since that company is famous for hiring senior citizens to welcome people entering its stores. The goal here is to create a positive impression. "It's almost like having people come to our home," Jackson says, "where we open the door and greet people and walk with them to whatever area is appropriate."

The "Nordstrom model," on the other hand, might more aptly describe banks that are focused on lobby traffic management, or efficiently steering customers to the appropriate service area. Nordstrom department stores are known for the lengths to which their salespeople will go in order to please customers.

Morgan Chase, for one, is following Nordstrom's example. "First and foremost," says branch administrative executive John Spencer, greeters are there "to convey that when I walk into a Chase branch, I'm not going to have to look around for things."

Spencer elaborates by comparing Payless Shoe Source, where a customer expects to search through rows and rows of merchandise, to the typical Nordstrom, where a store employee will measure the customer's foot, bring boxes of shoes and even tie laces. "If clients don't have a good experience, you will not generate any additional business from them," Spencer says.

So instead of simply welcoming customers, Morgan Chase greeters are trained to observe the behavior of customers in the branch, Spencer says. If they spot someone looking at mortgage brochures, for example, they might ask, "Did you know that we have a mortgage specialist here?"

At other times, greeters will show customers how to look up balances and transfer funds from one account to another, either online or over the phone. Or they may take a request for new checks so that a customer doesn't have to wait in a long line.

Regardless of how much traffic management is involved in the greeter's job, banks do need to decide what level of employee to commit to the position. Should junior-level or more senior officers be used? Should someone be designated for just for this role, or should the task be shared by many people in a branch? And how much authority should the greeter have to solve problems?

Point of Contact

On the question of skill level, Morgan Chase decided that higher is better. The New York-based bank originally launched a program in 2000 that scheduled lower-level customer service reps to rotate as greeters a few hours at a time. The idea, says Spencer, was that these CSRs would stay on the lobby floor until their shift ended, or until a customer wanted to explore a product or service the CSR was qualified to discuss. The rep would then bring the customer to his or her desk.

"In theory," Spencer says, "someone else was supposed to pop up from their desk and replace the greeter while he was spending time with one particular customer. In reality, it seldom worked."

As a result, the bank last fall introduced "rules of engagement" that require virtually everyone to get out onto the lobby floor every chance they get, while not specifying exactly which one will be right at the door at any given time. "If you're not serving a client or preparing to serve a client," Spencer says, "then you should have your head up and be alert to what's happening in your branch and be out there actively engaging your customers as they come in."

Pittsburgh-based PNC has used relatively senior people since it began what it calls "lobby management" in 2000, giving the job to specific individuals who, depending on the size of the branch, usually possess skill and experience equivalent to either a branch manager or assistant manager, says Carl J. Lisman, an executive vice president and the top retail officer for central and eastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and Delaware.

This lobby manager will show customers how to retrieve basic information electronically, or talk briefly about the relative merits of different kinds of savings and investment vehicles. Beyond that, however, lobby managers are expected to introduce customers to other staff as appropriate, Lisman says.

While the referral process is critical to making greeter programs work, there is some debate as to whether banks are handling this well. Charlene Stern, a senior vice president with NewGround, a bank construction and consulting firm based in Chicago, specializes in "mystery shopping" surveys, where she'll pose as a customer to test an institution's service response.

At numerous institutions, Stern has watched greeters go from banker to banker trying to find someone who is unencumbered and available to help, since they can't tackle the situation themselves. "The authority greeters have is limited to welcoming you, hearing your needs, and inviting you to be seated while they scout for somebody to take care of you."

Stern says it's also not uncommon to find greeter stations that have been left empty, with the designated greeter presumably employed elsewhere in the branch, thus undermining a bank's own effort. "It's kind of insulting to be greeted by a dozen easel cards and some brochures." In Stern's view, the problem lies in organizational cultures that view sales and service as separate functions. Unless "sales" people subscribe to the idea that service drives sales, they'll avoid taking their turns at the greeter station or responding helpfully when greeters try to bring customers to them, she says.

It was to correct problems such as this that Charlotte-based Wachovia revamped a greeter program introduced in 1996 by predecessor organization First Union Corp. In the First Union version, the employee posted near the door tended to be a relatively junior officer who couldn't do a whole lot more than point customers toward different services in the branch.

"Did the customer feel welcomed? Yes. Did the customer perceive that person as someone who could really address their problem? Probably not," says retail service manager Jodi C. Blackwood, who also is located in Charlotte.

Wachovia overhauled this program two years ago by moving the top person in each branch out of an office and onto the lobby floor. These "financial center managers" are no longer expected to call on neighborhood businesses or originate loans. Instead, they keep an eye on all aspects of customer service while working the door and greeting people as they come in. "We want them, if at all possible, to be the first point of contact," says Blackwood.

Since their time is valuable, financial center managers are not expected to spend too much time with individual customers. Instead, they hand customers off to someone else in the office after a quick determination of who is most appropriate for a particular issue. But having a person of authority do the hand-off helps make sure there's adequate follow-up.

As the Wachovia example demonstrates, the greeter program is simple in concept but difficult to execute well. Yet the larger perspective is not so much about selecting individuals and refining processes, but rather developing an organizational commitment to proactive relationship management as soon as customers cross the threshold.

Mr. Stoneman is a freelance writer based in Albany, N.Y.

Copyright © 2004 by Banking Strategies, published by BAI.

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