Having slagged the BNZ (I’m allowed to given I am a customer) I now find myself sprinkling a little praise. In this world we need to both give and take so back slaps where back slaps are due. The bank hasn’t surrendered its childish pigs yet but something profound is taking place right where it matters. I went into one of their branches several weeks ago and stood in the cattle race with a bunch of others during the lunch hour rush when bank tellers obviously desert the counters to also have lunch. But here is where the classic bank paradigm changed.
As I stood patiently in line I observed a bank employee emerge from an office and head straight for the woman standing in front of me. He asked her a question (I didn’t hear what was said) and took a keen interest in the wad of papers in the lady’s hand. They both headed off for his office and disappeared.
Now I was left pondering because there is little else to do in a bank queue. Did the banker know this woman, why had he picked her out of the cattle race, if she was here to see him why had she lined up with all the rest of us plebs?
As these thoughts raced around in my head I spotted another man emerge from another office but this character was making a bee line for me.
"Is that a cheque you are depositing sir?”, he asked me with a smile. I admitted it was. “Then I can sort that for you”, he said as he took the cheque from my hand and headed back to his office.
Now I know this isn’t exactly Mohammad going to the mountain but culling me out of a queue is a significant step forward and one that I think deserves a mention.
What is even more impressive about this ‘customer interface improvement’ is that the BNZ haven’t advertised it. My advice is don’t. It is better we discover this great service than hear you skite about it and then not deliver.
In fact lose the pork guys and beef up your customer service; we might just get some real competition in the banking industry.
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This is a "best practice" for bank queue management. It requires that you design your branches in a way that the sit-down staff (typically "service reps" who handle loans and new accounts) can see when a queue develops. As long as customers don't need cash back, most service reps can process transactions at their desk with their computer. It seems so stupidly obvious, you'd think more banks would use this technique. After all, as an employer, I'm paying employees to be productive. If you're just sitting there watching your co-workers in the teller queue slog it out, you're not doing a good job."
Great point Jeffry. Why have so many banks missed it???
Why have so many banks not done this? Tradition, mostly. Banks are really only comfortable doing two kinds of things: (1) things they've done before, and (2) things that 1,000 of their peers have already done, so they know it's safe.
The right way to design a branch is to have the queue wrap in front of- and along the sit-down desks. It's better to have a long single line than a queue that coils like a snake. With a single line, you can parade customers in front of more sit-down desks as folks shuffle their way down the line. If you do it right, the sit-down staff don't even have to get up. "If anyone has a deposit and doesn't need cash back, I can help you right here."
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