first direct - possibly the most innovative amongst UK banks, known as the first telephone only bank, open 24/7/365, plain talking and user-centred in it's approach, is an exemplar of good customer service. It's been around since 1989 and is the only bank within the HSBC roster to retain it's own identity, Oh and 1 in 3 people who join the bank do so through personal recommendation.
I like this ad for which talks about the right people.
"Technology is responsible for some pretty amazing things. The internet. Mobile Phones. Karaoke machines. And we love that. But there some things technology just can't do. Like talk to people, for instance.
That's why we have real people answering your calls. We don't want to waste your time by making you punch digit after digit into your handset. We don't read from a script either. We know that every one of our customers is an individual and they deserve to be treated that way.
That's also why we hire people who are naturally approachable, engaging and friendly and train them to be bankers, rather than hire bankers and train them to be approachable, engaging and friendly, which can be a much more difficult prospect.
Give us a call. We're looking forward to talking to you."
The portion that resonates with me most is the 'we hire people who are naturally approachable, engaging and friendly and train them to be bankers, rather than hire bankers and train them to be approachable, engaging and friendly' bit.
In designing a service, we typically around People, Places and Things (pretty much everything then). All these three are vital, if one element not right the whole house of cards falls down.
For a bank, even a 'virtual one' (first direct has no physical branches) people are traditionally at the very sharp end of delivering the service; but to explicitly hire folks who are not bankers is actually very clever.
In a world where we're increasing seeking to design-in service differentiation, people are a prime way of delivering just that - typically through an emotional even empathic understanding of the customer; as the ad puts it 'approachable, engaging and friendly'.
In a physical retail space, the sales assistant can see you and assess physical signs; where you're looking, what you look like, body language etc. but for services delivered with no face to face interaction, that's not possible. This is where super empathic and emotional detective skills are more important in a co-worker over and above content skills, especially if the latter can be taught - as clearly they can be at first direct.
So where else are these emotional skills more important than content skills? What other content skills are easily taught?
Or is this merely an update on the traditional sales skill - where this sales skill is the indispensable ingredient in staff given you can more easily give them the product training.
What do you think?
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