megavideolinks
Joined: 19 Nov 2011
Posts: 86
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 Posted: Thu Nov 24, 2011 12:31 pm Post subject: The Attempt to Make Tellers “Sales People” |
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The story of changes in job content becomes more complicated when tellers, now called
Customer Service Representatives, are considered. GlobalBank’s stated goal is to free tellers
from the traditional monotonous tasks of check cashing, deposits, and money counting and to
involve them more significantly in the bank’s selling process. The characterization of this shift,
used by managers and workers, and emphasized by trainers, is that of tellers changing from
“order-takers” into “sales people.” The extent to which this has occurred is another matter.
Tellers continue to perform basic transactions, albeit more quickly and efficiently, due to
technology. The bank’s centralized computer system consolidates all account information and
history, generates applications automatically, transfers money electronically without paperwork,
and does the end-of-the-day balancing (an extremely time-consuming process in the past).20
Technology has given tellers new tasks: generating ATM cards and pin numbers (which now can
be done on the spot), processing ATM envelopes, and arranging for electronic payments and
transfers. Tellers can now also make account changes, such as adding a savings account to a preexisting checking account. Upgrades and improvements to the technology are a near constant,
but are by all accounts easy to learn.
Tellers have become responsible for helping customers understand the different vehicles
they can use to access their money, such as ATMs, and telephone and on-line banking. Assisting
them in this goal is a new flexible and service-oriented position, the Customer Relations
Manager, who has the main task of managing traffic flow. The CRM greets, screens and directs
customers to different branch zones, gently steering customers toward ATMs and away from
tellers, and filling in for tellers and even personal bankers when needed.
GlobalBank aims to make sales people out of tellers by developing their interpersonal
skills and by having them contribute directly to the relationship strategy through “referrals.”
Ideally, a teller evaluates customers that come to his or her service window, and when account
information indicates a profile for a particular product, refers them to a personal banker or
investment officer. A savings account balance of $70,000, for example, would indicate a
referral to investments. Potentially, then, referrals can require product knowledge and selling
skills that are far removed from tellering in the past. The enhanced training of tellers reflects this
shift in emphasis, by introducing appropriate sales and product knowledge classes.
In practice, however, the importance of referrals varies considerably by branch
management and by the clientele that the branch serves. There is strong consensus among branch
workers that accuracy in transactions and organizational skills are still the key attributes of a
good teller. And during high customer volume, no one expects or wants tellers to make referrals,21
since doing so necessarily slows down service – and this hurts customer satisfaction. Finally,
some types of referrals are relatively easy to make (such as suggesting a credit card application),
whereas referrals to lucrative investment products are not yet commonplace. Referrals do not
dominate tellers’ job content.
That tellers have not to date become an integral part of the sales process is not to say there
has been no change in job content or quality. Compared to the past, tellers must organize a
greater number of time-sensitive tasks while not undermining courteous service. This makes the
job more stressful. There is also evidence for a moderate increase in skill levels, mostly in the
area of interpersonal skills. In short, at an absolute level, some upskilling and upgrading of job
content has occurred, yet tellers have not been transformed into sales representatives. Finally,
corresponding to the industry-wide trend toward flexible staffing, more than half of the tellers are
now part-time workers and almost everyone begins part-time. This is in stark contrast to the
past, when virtually all tellers were full-time.
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