4 small-business success strategies: to compete for this heavily targeted commercial segment, bankers need to view the world through the eyes of customers.

• Author: Dorfman, Rich
• Position: Customer Retention

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Recently I gained new insight into the small-business market while serving as one of the speakers at the 11th Annual Small Business Banking Conference. While listening to the other presenters, I realized that their advice on how to acquire the loyalty of small-business customers could be summarized in the form of four success strategies:

1. Use customer service as a strategic weapon.

2. Create intimacy and trust through knowledge of the customer.

3. Make the banking experience easy, convenient and painless.

4. Differentiate value for the unique needs of your most profitable customers.

   Taking this insight a little further, I drew up the following report on the various speakers, organizing their remarks under each of the relevant strategies.

   1 Success Strategy #1: Use customer service as a strategic weapon.

   Jeff Rosen, executive vice president of business banking at Huntington Bank (assets: $36 billion; 380 locations) Columbus, Ohio, relayed some of his personal experiences concerning best-in-class service in the retail industry. He explained how Costco turned a potentially unpleasant experience into an exceptional service following his purchase of a defective gas grill. While returning the item to the store, he was greeted by five Costco employees who rushed to help him unload his truck. They saw to it that he got an immediate refund, with their profound apologies. All this attentive service for an item he was returning.

   Another story involved the department store Nordstrom. Rosen was in Seattle when the September 11th disaster occurred. Because he could not fly home until the weekend, he needed clothes to get him through the week. So while waiting the next day at Nordstrom to pay for some clothing he picked out, a Nordstrom's clerk took two of his shirts, pressed them at the back of the store and put them on hangers for Rosen so he could wear them immediately. This incredible act was done without even asking, performed simply out of the sales clerk's perception of the angst of his customer.

   Rosen suggested that his fellow bankers take note of these service experiences. He emphasized that this is the only way a customer can differentiate one bank from another. Banks cannot differentiate themselves as well on price or product in such a thin-margined, highly commoditized industry. And to be a superior service provider, Rosen said that banks must wow customers at every opportunity. Huntington Bank's credo of "simply the best service" is grounded in three main principles:

   * Hiring the right people and continually training them on delivering quality service.

   * Instilling a corporate culture of caring, friendly, problem-solving people.

   *...