Customerspective

ING...Setting a new Banking Standard

I made a switch from TCF Bank to ING about 2 years ago and since then I never stopped trying to convince friends and family to also make the switch.  ING is creating a new standard in the banking industry and this approach has helped them become one of the 50 largest banks.

I was hesitant to make the switch at first because I knew I was going to have to do most of my banking online, but I found their website to be more informative and straightforward then going to a teller at a TCF local branch.  And my switch to ING has eliminated the many account mix-ups and erroneous charges I experienced at TCF.

I recently was reading and interesting article in fastcompany.com in which ING's President and CEO Arkadi Kuhlmann discusses three principles to creating effective websites which I believe has led to the growth of ING:

Keep it clean. "There's always a temptation to add stuff to the Web site, to load on the features," Kuhlmann says. The Web team at ING Direct resists that urge. There are no menus that pop out from behind things, no animated flash movies.

Cheaper is better. ING Direct also resists adding a "chat now" button that would link customers to the call center. Why? "Our cost model doesn't accommodate that," CTO Rudy Wolfs says. "It's a huge investment to train reps to be typists and to make sure that they respond quickly enough." This year, the company launched a modest test of a chat application in one area of the site, where it has found that users sometimes get stuck in the process of applying for a home-equity loan. If it works, ING Direct may try chatting with users elsewhere on the site.

Numbers don't lie. Internally, ING Direct tries to measure every aspect of its Web site: how long it takes reps to respond to customer emails, how long it takes each page to be sent to a user's computer, and how often users give up in the middle of a process. "Tracking stats lets you solve small problems before they turn into major problems," says Mike Florax, who oversees ING Direct's command center.

Everyone is your Customer

A few days ago, I was reading a Tom Vander Well's blog post titled "When Customers are Co-Workers" on QAQnA.

The article reminded me of someone I met a few years ago. She worked in the research department of a big global company and after complaining to me once too often that no one valued her work, I offered her advice on customer experience tactics. I was rewarded with the retort, "I don't need any of this, because I don't deal with customers!"

Then it hit me… She didn't understand her work as providing a service to several other departments in her company. No wonder her co-workers didn’t respect her work; she never considered them her customers and her work reflected that.

The blog author suggests that you should think of co-workers as customers, but I will go even farther and say that you should think of everyone as your customer.

Think about it! You are always providing some type of service to someone. Your boss, your co-workers, your friends, your wife, your kids—absolutely everyone—in one way or the other, expect something from you. It doesn't matter if you are more than happy to give them what they want. They often count on it; they frequently demand it and most of all they will resent it if you fail to meet their expectations. But if the service you provide is good enough for them the majority of the time, they will remain with you and will pay you back in your desired currency: friendship, love, trust or respect.

Customer experience tools can be applied to everything in your life. The lesson is pretty simple: If you really care for your customers and make a sincere effort to understand their expectations, they will love you for that and will be loyal to you while you are loyal to them.