Employee Behaviors Are Key to Retaining Relationships

Lana J. Chandler
November 3, 2009 | COMMENTS

At the core of any account relationship is client service and a human connection to a service industry. That's why employees' behaviors significantly influence client retention and loyalty, according to Tom Hershberger, president of Cross Financial Group in Lincoln, Nebraska. “Even with the introduction of electronic delivery systems, the true power of a financial institution's relationship with a client is people, promises, and expertise to support the client,” he says.

Each employee is unique to your organization and that's the great thing about employees, the service they provide, and the relationships they build. “Services and delivery systems can be duplicated, people cannot. This provides a distinct edge to organizations that coach and mentor employees to adopt the behaviors that solidify lasting relationships,” Hershberger continues. “Once you concede that financial services are simply a commodity, you've lost the advantage of being in the relationship business. Employees make the difference in a relationship structure.”

Defining “Behavior”

Behaviors are different from skills, habits, and talents. “Behavior represents the things employees do—their physical activities. It might relate to always smiling when helping clients or using empathy to connect more effectively with a client,” explains Hershberger. “Skills on the other hand are learned and practiced activities that help produce outcomes and results desired to meet the performance expectations for a position. A skill that is used occasionally is an opportunity for growth. A skill applied successfully on a consistent basis could be labeled a habit.”

A behavior is something the employee can influence and control. Examples are:

• Meeting client service performance standards
• Arriving for work on time
• Showing empathy when clients express concerns

Behavior can also include undesirable activities such as tardiness, being curt with clients, and poor manners.

Identify Desired Behaviors

“While desired behaviors will vary by institution, they should be the same throughout the organization,” emphasizes Hershberger. Example: An institution is working to develop, reinforce, and manage a brand based on high-quality service. One of their standards for success would be defining the desired client experience. They would then use the dimensions of that client experience to manage the organization for consistent delivery at all locations, departments, and client contact points. Although individual employees will impart their own style into the client experience, the performance standards that shape it would be the same at all contact points.

Documenting client service standards establishes a formal set of desired behaviors and serves as a guide for employee interactions with clients. But even if your institution documents service standards, the individual preferences of each client will require employees to modify their behaviors to fit each interaction. Because each client is unique, employees will also need to modify or expand the institution's service standards to meet the expectations of individual clients.

“Your client service standards become informal guidelines that might be unique to just one client or household. Informal behaviors become a discretionary part of relationship building with some clients,” explains Hershberger.

Measure for Accountability

Measurements enable managers to generate accountability. “Reducing relationship management and client service standards to behaviors makes it possible to introduce measurements,” says Hershberger. Example: It's difficult to measure an employee's attitude. However, if you reduce elements of a good attitude to behaviors like smiling, positive conversations with coworkers, eye contact with clients, and other behaviors, you will generate a behavior the employee can understand and control. It also allows you to develop measurements and introduce accountability tied to the employee's performance.

Simple standards such as standing to greet clients, smiling, offering assistance, and asking questions to understand needs can all be used to establish minimum performance standards for employees. “The most important part of measuring staff behaviors tied to performance is to keep it simple,” Hershberger says. “Make sure employees understand the standard and have a picture of how the standard translates to behaviors they can control.”

Example: Each client is to be greeted with a smile and a greeting within 5 seconds of entering the branch. Make sure employees know how they can contribute to the success of the standard and how performance will be measured to ensure the standard is being implemented.

Build the Right Behaviors

“Managers need to proactively catch employees ‘doing things right.' Use positive reinforcement to acknowledge the correct behavior and invite repeat performances,” says Hershberger. If you have a new or inexperienced employee attempting to meet performance standards, it may be necessary to demonstrate the behavior in a familiar setting.

“Never assume that discussing a behavior is adequate to ensure comprehension. Most employees learn more quickly through demonstrations accompanied by hands-on experience,” Hershberger says. “New employees should be actively coached and evaluated during attempts to adopt a new behavior or practice meeting a performance standard.”

To foster the right behaviors, Hershberger advises:

• Identify desired outcomes and performance expectations.
• Identify behaviors that contribute favorably to anticipated performance.
• Clarify the behaviors with your team. Make sure everyone understands your expectations, so as to avoid confusion when accountabilities are applied.
• Measure performance and share results regularly.

Reward, Recognize, and Reinforce

As the saying goes, rewarded behavior gets repeated. “Properly defining the reward is the crucial ingredient,” Hershberger says. “Many organizations move immediately to monetary rewards with the expectation that all employees are interested in more money. Behavioral changes occur in response to a variety of rewards.”

Only the rewards with significant value to the recipient can be counted on to produce results. For some employees, their manager will provide the most intense motivation. For others, it might be peer recognition. The key is developing rewards that are flexible and discretionary so managers can tailor the reward to each employee. “Reward programs that work from the premise that one size fits all will produce mediocre results,” says Hershberger.

The best behaviors are the ones you desire most from your employees. While many individual behaviors may ultimately contribute to an employee's success, clearly some behaviors possess a higher priority when generating results for the institution. Those behaviors, known as the best behaviors, should be accompanied by appropriate feedback, rewards and recognition—as a manager, leveraging those resources enables you to produce positive outcomes.

“Before you jump into rewards that include cash payments, gift cards, time off, and pizza parties remember that positive reinforcement is almost free. “The cost can be valued in manager time, but it carries little additional expense,” Hershberger says. “Appreciation for a job well done is one of the top three motivators for employees, so why not take advantage of that opportunity?”

Celebrate Success!

“Take time to celebrate success. Even small victories and accomplishments can contribute to staff confidence,” Hershberger says. “Whether the employee is successful or not, acknowledge their attempt to use a relationship building behavior with an existing client.” He suggests:

• Introduce a “Celebrate Success” time in weekly sales meetings to highlight important individual and team achievements from the prior week.
• Reward new behaviors with local coffee house gift cards in small denominations.
• Set short-term sales or relationship goals that are tracked on break room posters.
• Distribute tokens for desired behaviors that can be redeemed for time off. Time off is consistently in the top three desired rewards when employees are asked about acceptable rewards.

This story appeared in Branch Manager's Letter at www.branchmanagersletter.com and is reprinted with permission. Contact publisher Lana J. Chandler at 304-343-0206 or Lana@BranchManagersLetter.com.