The Shopper Stopper.

• Author: Hetherington, Mike M. W.
• Position: Techniques for banks to turn phone calls into sales

Banks are inundated daily by people telephoning for information about services and products. Surprisingly,] few banks bother to develop a comprehensive program for converting these 'shopper' contacts into actual sates.

Here's a simple, effective way to get started.

Every day, telephone calls from so-called "shoppers" pour into the bank's switchboard or call center. Here are typical examples:

"What's your current rate on a one-year CD?"

"What kind of checking accounts do you offer?"

"What's the going interest rate on a home-equity loan?"

Concerning this deluge of enquiries, banks need to ask themselves: How many of these shopper calls are translated into money-making business?

When consumers perceive a business's goods and services as commodities (in other words: "I can get this anywhere"), they often dig out their mangled Yellow Pages and start dialing down the list of businesses "looking for a deal." Examples of such commodities might include tires, motel rooms, rental cars, eyeglasses--or most retail banking services.

"Callers see our products as commodities because we treat them that way," said Charlotte House, vice president of marketing at the $200 million Cherokee State Bank in St. Paul, Minn, "Proctor and Gamble spends what--tens of millions?--creating distinctions between everyday brands of laundry soap. We haven't done much to distinguish our retail products from any other guy's. What we do try to do is make the distinction in how we deliver them."

Echoing that sentiment, Richard Whittenburg, vice president of marketing at the $400 million City Bank in Lubbock, Texas, adds: "With products essentially the same, the competitive distinctions come from constant upgrades, enhancements and service quality."

"Yes, they are almost all alike," says Karen Everhart, vice president of retail marketing at the $550 million Castle Bank based in DeKalb, Ill. "We're in a stable community. To contrast with competitors, we constantly emphasize local people and local decisions with customized service tailored to unique individuals."

Whether shopper assessments are correct or not, savvy and jaded callers do often break out a scratch pad, pound their phone, "dial for dollars" and then play twenty questions with new accounts staffers. Aggressively focused on price and terms, they often knock around helpful customer service folks like a kitten with catnip. As Dr. Stephen Duncan of the Brigham Young University business faculty quips, "Capturing 'shopper' calls is like trying to take a drink from a fire...