egyii blog

There is a lot of talk on trust today.

But let me ask one simple question. Where is the action?

The following are quotes from financial websites and financial leaders. Can you see the common theme?

“Trusted relationships. Advanced thinking. Our private bankers offer clients a genuinely different service. Our proposition is led by solutions rather than by selling clients our latest product. We will do nothing to jeopardise the integrity of the long-term relationships that we enjoy with our clients.“ Schroders Private Banking Website.

“Company leaders must foster a culture that focuses on integrity, strong execution, quality products, long-term value creation and doing the right thing.” Jamie Dimon, CEO, JPMorgan Chase, reportedly saying that financial institutions need to clean up their act and earn back public trust.

“No matter how sophisticated, no matter how complex, ours is an industry that is underpinned by the fundamental building blocks of confidence, integrity and trust. These are basic principles in running a bank – principles which may have been forgotten along the way.”  United Overseas Bank Ltd. Chief Executive Wee Ee Cheong. 

“There is a certain level of disappointment and a need to re-build trust.” Francois Monnet, Credit Suisse MD and Head Private Banking, Southeast Asia/Australasia.

“The client is the driving force behind what we do: Develop and maintain long-term relationships by actively listening to client feedback in order to build trust and loyalty.” from The Merrill Lynch Principles: Defining Our Shared Values.

“If you look at the financial crisis the world is experiencing, it is a crisis of trust. The main currency we need to restore is trust between businesses and customers, as well as employers and employees.” Alain Rohaut, EVP HR, AXA Insurance.

Can you see anything different about the following?

“Those banks that caused our problems need to step aside. It’s time to go beyond a return to old-fashioned banking. It’s time to restore trust between banks and the customers we serve.” Gerard P. Cuddy, President and Chief Executive, Beneficial Bank, July 16, 2009.

Gerard Cuddy gets it. What about the others? All talk? All marketing? No action?

Trip Allen, Team Egyii, Singapore

Kare Anderson titles her recent blog ‘Coddle and Keep Customers – Even in a Cold Economy’.  She talks about a cafe near her home in Sausalito, California that now offers fresh-baked pastries and coffee to drive-by customers.

Now let’s transfer this image of ‘coddled customers’ to the experience people have with their banks. My Collins Concise English Dictionary defines ‘coddle’ as ‘to treat with indulgence’. Wouldn’t this kind of experience be the kind of thing that would drive you to a bank and keep you there long term?

Yes, we know that banks are designing comfortable, even luxurious environments where their customers can lounge over a fresh-brewed coffee. But while coffee and pastries are a cafe’s product, coffee and sofas are not a bank’s product. To coddle us, banks must treat us with indulgence, not just provide nice furniture.

It’s time that banks put aside their product innovations and selling tactics and get to know what the words ‘treat us with indulgence’ mean in their context. Here are just three suggestions:

Firstly, treat your customers like the intelligent people that they are. This means knowing your area of expertise backwards and only offering the highest quality, well-considered advice.

Secondly, be one hundred percent present in the presence of your customers. Pay attention to them and respond to what they are communicating instead of your own idea of what you want to say.

Thirdly, get your own attitude sorted out. Make sure that you have a strong purpose and are clear about what your personal values are, so that you come across as sincere, authentic and caring.

Treating bank customers with indulgence means taking them under your expert wing and looking after them. That’s all we really want. We can get the coffee round the corner.

James Irvine, Team Egyii, Singapore

It’s time for change.

No more pushing products and services at customers in an effort to meet monthly targets. No more macho, aggressive behaviour pushing employees for results without stopping to think about how to get them. And no more grandstanding about how the customer comes first without stopping to see the situation through your customer’s eyes rather than your organisation’s.

It’s time to step back. Nick Morgan, in his latest book Trust Me – Four Steps to Authenticity and Charisma, tells us that being authentic in all our dealings with others is the secret of building trust and loyalty. And this starts not with actions, behaviour or words, but with intent.

If you’re trying too hard to be authentic, it means you’re thinking too much. You’re concentrating on how your are behaving and what you are saying. If you’re a company, you’re focusing on crafting the perfect message for the public or your employees. All these ‘up front’ actions will continue to fall on deaf ears if you don’t step back and reflect on your true intention in meeting a client or an employee, or in creating your company strategy.

It’s time for leaders, relationship managers and organisations to look inside themselves and connect with the higher cause that drives them personally and organisationally. Forget about your targets and the pressing need to win more business. Why are you doing this in the first place? What is it about you that you want to give to the world? Why was your company originally set up? What difference does it want to make?

Connect with your intent and the world will see you and your organisation as more authentic, patient and understanding. Only once you arrive at this place can you then begin to build your business based on integrity and trust. And in the new world of business that we must now enter, stepping back and addressing the fundamental issues of intent and authenticity is the only way to create the trust that leads to hard business results.

James Irvine and the Egyii team, Singapore