Q&A: still lacking--that critical customer conversation.

• Author: Doss, Henry
• Position: Henry Doss - Interview

HENRY DOSS is a principal at Avenue ISR, a market research firm in Traverse City, Mich., where he has empirical conversations with his customers about how they can have the same with theirs. He was a senior vice president, sales and service at First Union for 10 years. Most recently, he was a senior vice president, retail bank, at PNC. He is a pioneer in sales force automation and customer information management.

What's your beef these days when you walk into the bank lobby?

I can't help cringing when I walk into my old bank. Don't get me wrong: I get treated great. Hello! Good to see you again! The branch looks great, keeps Teller lines short.

But nobody ever says to me, "You used to keep six accounts with us, and now just one. Your average monthly balance went from six figures to a bare minimum. What happened, and how can we get your business back?"

This bank has proudly told the world that it has invested millions in the customer experience. Branding, data analytics, customer profitability, sales and service training, branch automation, and a 360 view of the customer--they've tried it all.

Yet nobody there has ever tried to have a substantive conversation with me about the only thing that would contribute directly and immediately to bank profitability--my use of their services.

So banks are failing to initiate this critical customer conversation?

This is the critical missing piece of the customer puzzle, and its absence is costly. Consider: It is not unusual for 85 percent of the customer's total wallet to be somewhere else

For all of those 15 percent-penetrated customers with far more needs than the bank is currently meeting, the bank has full access to their banking histories, accounts and contact information. All that lies between the bank and a gold mine is having a focused, intentional conversation about what the customer wants and needs.

So why isn't that conversation taking place?

I believe it is because few banks have taken the steps necessary to ensure that the "customer conversation" is empirical. They haven't insisted that it be based on information gained by means of observation, experience and experiment. They haven't made it quantifiable, measurable and measured.

Further, since they haven't made it empirical, it follows that they have not made sure that all customer touch points have a shared knowledge base and "speak" with the same purpose.

What should the "customer conversation" sound like?

Three things drive the...