Customer satisfaction: a tale of two models.

• Author: Motley, L. Biff
• Position: Customer Satisfaction

Like most families these days, we have two cars. In our case, one is an Infinity and the other a BMW. They are both nice cars, but my satisfaction is much higher with the Infinity and the reasons might be very instructive to bankers. Especially in times like these.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

In both cases, I take my cars in for routine service whenever the manual calls for it. In the case if my Infinity, the service manager, Stan, knows me by name and we always have a pleasant little talk about our favorite baseball team ... we are both Chicago Cubs fans ... or about the New Orleans Saints football successes ... or our last golf outing ... or any of a number of common interests. I usually wait for my car and spend time in the new car showroom where the salesmen also recognize me and chat up the benefits of the newer models. It is a generally fun time for a car guy like me.

However, when I do the same transaction at the BMW dealership, the experience is quite different. The service associate is never the same person I checked in with during my last visit. There is virtually no acknowledgement that I have ever been there before. My requests for service are processed quite efficiently with no chit chat and I head for the showroom to wait and look over the new cars. The new car salesmen know very well that I have no intention of buying anything, so, despite being the only person in the place, they all ignore me and gaze out the window or fiddle with their computers.

Now, these are both very nice products. And the technical service capabilities are about the same. But my satisfaction levels with the two brands are quite different, due, not to the products, pricing, or promotion strategies of the companies, but rather to important but subtle differences in the behavioral customer service management practices of the two companies.

I didn't think much about these differences until last month when...