Commonwealth Bank: 50 cent Motivation

Agamedes points out why Commonwealth Bank will not win the customer satisfaction wars. If they were our clients, we would also point out the winning strategy.

An interesting snippet in today's (28 Feb 2010) Sunday Times, in an article which is really about the star of a bank commercial... Under the heading, 'Barbara' beats the banks, the final paragraphs are about banks and their concern with customer satisfaction ratings.

There is an example, of banks chasing customer satisfaction. The article doesn't say much. But it's pretty clear why the Commonwealth Bank is losing.

Do you need new -- lateral -- thinking for your own problems? email nick leth at gmail dot com. Need solutions? No worries. Now.

According to the article, "the Commonwealth offered staff nearly $90 million in bonuses and chief Ralph Norris nearly $12 million if it reached No.1 in ratings..."

How de-motivating is that?!

Check out the Commonwealth Bank's website. The bank website tells us that, "Our full-time staff equivalent is more than 38,000." So that "huge" $90 million equates to something less than $2,400 per full-time staff equivalent. Or, less than $11 per work day per staff member.

The boss, on the other hand, could get $12 million. That's more than $54,000 per work day. Yes -- more than 54 thousand dollars for the boss, per work day during the year.

Now think: who actually deals with the customers? Norris? You have to be joking!

So, for an average of less that $11 per day... less than $2 per hour... possibly 50c per customer dealt with... bank employees are being asked to be nice to customers. "Be nice," they are told, "And we will give you 50 cents. Oh, and we will give your boss 12 million dollars."

But wait, there's even less!

You can bet that the "bonus" is scaled, depending on salary. So bank tellers -- who deal with customers all day may get a cent or two per satisfied customer. Branch managers may get a few dollars per satisfied customer. Head office staff -- who never see a customer in all of their working life -- may get a few hundred dollars per satisfied customer.

And the big boss -- who believes that the board and shareholders are the real customer -- he could get $12 million... if the drones at the customer interface can just be encouraged to smile all day.

Can you see your bank teller being motivated to make you more satisfied?

Nope. Nor can I.

Independent thinking & independent analysis of your problems by Agamedes Consulting. Support for your thought: email nick leth at gmail dot com