Whether you attended my relationship management sessions at the Jack Henry Associates PEC conference or not (thanks to those of you who did), this follow up will provide some insight for resolving challenges to developing a banking relationship management culture that many of you shared after my sessions, at the round table discussions and talking to attendees at the Synapsys tables. Some of these issues include:
- Lack of senior management buy-in to using Synapsys to its fullest
- Managers not holding direct reports accountable for using the system
- Managers not making time to observe staff in customer or member interactions and coach staff on effective customer or member profiling
- Staff more focused on reaching monthly goals through transactional selling than connecting with customers on a deeper level
- There’s no “heart” behind the initiative – no “here’s why we’re doing this”
Of all the challenges, we feel most of them stem from the first one: lack of senior management buy-in. Fix this one and the other issues will be much easier to resolve. Here are some insights and ideas on how to address this challenge.
Some Reasons This Issue Exists – One reason for senior management’s lack of buy-in is many of them don’t get what a banking relationship culture is all about or what’s required to have a successful one (it doesn’t matter whether we’re talking bank or credit union – this post is aimed at both). They’re also unaware of what valuable information CRM software can give them to achieve their strategic objectives so they don’t pay much attention to it. One very sharp bank marketing officer we spoke to at the conference said “My management team asks me, ‘What’s the next thing we should be doing with Synapsys?’ They should be telling me what their strategic initiatives are and then I can tell them how Synapsys can help”.
Many management teams seem to think that you install the software and customer or member relationships naturally start to develop. They don’t understand what was stated very well by Steve Sherman, Synapsys Software and Services Director at Symitar: “Installation and training is only 10% of the effort. The other 90% depends on the bank’s culture. Management needs to set a vision for customer relations”. For example, does the bank want to rely simply on transactional sales to the walk-in or call-in customers? Or would they like staff to reach out to high potential customers or members who don’t frequent the branches, build profiles on them in Synapsys and generate revenue by expanding relationships?
Once the power of Synapsys and relationship management as a revenue generating duo is understood and embraced by senior management, the issues we stated above tend to get resolved more easily.
Solution – OK, here’s the solution in its simplest form: Educate senior management! Following are two things you can do to make this happen.
- White Paper – First, get them to read the JHA white paper, Are You Ready to Take the CRM Plunge? We’ve provided a link at the bottom of this email for you to get the free download along with other complimentary tools and resources. This paper addresses reasons for launching a CRM initiative and how to prepare a bank for taking full advantage of a CRM system. This includes revitalizing your current effort. The fact is that some banks have had Synapsys for years but have to re-launch it once or twice because they never got the culture part right.
- Management Retreat – A second, more comprehensive action you can take is for management to attend an off-site management retreat that focuses on their vision for customer relationship management (remember Steve Sherman’s recommendation above). A retreat will enable you to walk away with priorities for getting your highest ROI from Synapsys (or any CRM system for that matter) and more buy-in for building your banking relationship management culture. To request more information on just such a retreat, click on the link below.
Complimentary Resources and Tools
For those of you who attended my sessions at the PEC conference, I offered the complimentary resources and tools. If you did not attend my sessions or you haven’t yet downloaded them, click here to access those complimentary tools.
We at High Definition People® are dedicated to helping you grow your bank using Synapsys to development a banking relationship management culture.
Agree or disagree? Do let us know what you think by scrolling down and commenting below.
**************
Rate Your Organization on Banking Relationship Management Basics
If you’d like a preview of the 12 areas we’ll be covering that impact building banking customer relationships or member relationships or you would like to rate your bank or credit union on 12 key areas to build customer and member relationships and trust, create loyal advocates and increase referrals and business. Just click here.
Read How To Increase Revenue and Profitability Through Relationship Building and Creating Advocates: Get Our Complimentary White Paper
Leave a Reply