Research shows that one of the greatest factors influencing a customer’s perception of service is how long they waited to be served (Gartner Group, ACNielsen November 2003).  In an effort to improve overall customer satisfaction, banks impose wait time targets such as, 85% of customers should wait less than 5 minutes.  By measuring and managing to average wait time standards, one key driver of customer satisfaction can be controlled (or so the theory goes – as you will see in this article).

For now, let’s take a look at the impact of service time on customer wait time.  Consider a busy branch with average value customers, and a busy branch with extremely high value customers.  it is easy to see that in both branches teller service time and the number of customers who wait less than 5 minutes have an inverse relationship – when teller service time increases, more people have unacceptable wait times.

By defining this relationship, the manager is able to start asking tougher questions.  The deeper questions will lead to actions that can be taken to reduce service time and a confidence that when we reduce teller service time, customers will also wait less. 

The high value does a good job of serving almost 85% of it customers in 5 minutes or less, whereas the average value branch struggles and rarely serves more than 60% of their customers in less than 5 minutes.  Where the high value branch can focus on tactics that can produce incremental changes and achieve a target of 85%, the average value branch must find a mix of incremental and high impact tactics. 

To control wait time, there are a number of levers that can be used by branch managers, corporate staffing managers, and internal process consultants.  Other Brickstream reports can be used to execute each of the following tactics:

Incremental Tactics:

·         identify lengthy transaction types and segregating them into a special line

·         identify a teller that needs additional training on specific transactions

·         identify strong performing teller and moving them to the head of the line

·         learn the relationship between the number of people in line and the number of tellers that are open that generally results in long waits and then proactively “queue bust” the line

High impact Tactics:

·         Monitor compliance to staffing model to demonstrate need to comply

·         Make adjustments to staffing model assumptions

·         Perform intra-minute staffing adjustments

·         Integrate well stocked check writing desks into queues decreasing perception of wait time and at the same time producing better prepared customers, decreasing teller service time

The reward for taking action can be quite significant.  Shorter waits have been linked to huge increases in customer satisfaction in a small amount of time.  One Brickstream customer has experienced a 19 point improvement in queue satisfaction scores and 4 point improvement in overall customer satisfaction in less than 3 months.  Such increases in satisfaction generate revenue benefits that add up quickly.

Assuming 10 customer facing FTE’s per branch, improved service times of 10% and 10% increase in utilization translates to annual savings of $60K per branch.  Some Brickstream customers have experienced as much as 35% combined improvement.

More satisfied customers also lead to more positive referrals and fewer detractors.  If each of these branches increases their referrals by just 0.25% and decreases their negative referrals by 0.25%, they will see high margin revenue improvements of $37K and $75K at the average value branch and the high value branch, respectively.