In times like these, it's back to the basics.

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

The reduced liquidity conditions resulting from the so-called subprime credit crisis have brought back into focus the fundamental precept that solid, reliable, low cost and loyal deposits are still at the heart of successful banking. These deposits come from well served, happy, loyal customers who trust their bank and value the relationship they have with their banker. If these conditions exist, all will be well.

But how do you know if they exist? How do you mange toward this goal? A well established principal of sound management says, "You can't manage what you can't measure," so step one is to figure out how to measure these conditions of customer satisfaction. Of course, one way is to simply ask customers how satisfied they are, and you should, of course, do this. But there are a few other facts, or benchmarks, you should look at to get a well rounded picture of whether your plans are paying off.

Here are five key measures which, if looked at on a systematic, periodic basis will give you what you need to know. These five might be called your "top five customer measurables," or something similar to give them credence in your company.

First, you should measure how many new customers are coming in your "front door," so to speak. That is, how many brand new clients, perhaps of various types, are joining your bank? I am not talking about products here, but customers ... consumers, small businesses, or whatever target segments you are aiming at. You should develop a way to measure this in total and perhaps by branch, banker, market or whatever management-execution "denominator" makes sense. Remember, it is important to hold people accountable for these measures.

Second, you should measure customer retention. That is, how many clients are leaving and why. Hopefully you will have more coming in the front door than going out the back, but if you are not happy with this ratio, you'll need to know what to work on. Benchmark studies suggest that a good customer retention rate would be...