SunTrust Wins Customers, Small Businesses With Service
Written: Dec 09 '08
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great service and staff who personalizes cross-sells while giving some away free.
Cons: I haven't had a poor experience yet.
The Bottom Line: SunTrust won my consumer business with multiple mortgages, a credit card, free checking and more. Now they're about to win my business accounts too.
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| Joubert's Full Review: SunTrust Bank |
Any national financial company's reputation ultimately rests with the individuals working directly with consumers. Guidance, rates and policies are certainly sent down from headquarters, but a good local banker can change the fortunes of an individual branch.
One success metric for any organization remains employee turnover. Countrywide and mortgage giants Freddie and Fannie taught the entire global market that fast growth in the U.S. mortgage market can hide a multitude of problems. But when the same employees stay with a firm for years on end, seem genuinely happy in their job and work for a major company, consumers have a good indication that the company is doing well. This is true even as banks in 2008 consolidate, fail and lay off tens of thousands of employees.
SunTrust, which stretches up the U.S. East Coast from Florida to the Mid-Atlantic, is a company I have found the most easy to work with, largely because the company's policies make employees stay longer, which allows relationship building on multiple levels. Residential financial services win by placing multiple tentacles within a consumer's account. These "switching barriers" make customer defection less likely or even actively more difficult.
Imagine you have a mortgage with a bank. The bank offers free checking as an enticement. Next the bank suggests a pre-approved credit card, safe deposit box and even a tie in to your business account if appropriate. Suddenly, the institution has gone from simply being the company you pay 360 times for a conventional mortgage to your main financial institution. This process has worked for decades, and there is no reason to believe why consumer behavior will change.
Mortgage Soft Sell Creates More Business
I have done three mortgages and a home equity line of credit (HELOC) with SunTrust. The same team handled my transaction in each case, most recently when we jumped to a conventional mortgage as the credit crisis began making daily headlines. Having the same team each time facilitates the transaction beyond any written explanation. Some faxing back and forth, a credit card number to use for appraisal costs, and you can be in closing within several weeks.
During the go-go mortgage days, SunTrust wrote everything from NINJA mortgages (nicked-named that as 'no income, no job, no assets') to conventional 30 year buyers with credit scores over 750. What makes SunTrust special is the same thing that won AT&T's now defunct Universal Card a Malcolm Baldridge Award for customer service excellence a generation ago: the staff -- even national call center staff -- treats all borrowers with courtesy and special care. There is no magic in providing outstanding customer service. Businesses simply have to believe that providing amazing service costs more and creates a higher return, a lesson SunTrust seems to have no problem grasping.
Dealing with the same team also shows you are a consumer willing to respond to the company's efforts. This negates the need for a heavy upsell pitch on each item. You've already proven the business is theirs to lose so why would they risk any animosity or avoidance by aggressive upselling or cross-selling?
Free banking Services For Good Customers
Does free checking sound good? How about free business checking? And a free safe deposit box? And a pre-approved credit card at a juicy rate? And while they last, a home equity loan (also called a HELOC, for home equity line of credit). Since our credit was known and a significant asset was secured, all of these were easy for the bank to evaluate as part of a package. One of my earliest managers, the CEO of a web company that survived, taught me how to string along "switching barriers" like this in the business market. Every type of account we opened and service we used was one more hook the bank sank into us.
Eventually, the free offers should go away, but we enjoyed free business checking on top of all that. Is it any wonder we continue to refer friends to SunTrust? And maybe that is really the end game.
Gaining new financially solvent consumer customers as evangelists is a genius strategy during an economic crisis. We estimate our savings in the hundreds every year. And sure, there were some restaurant coupons and other nice add-ons, our decade's equivalent of a toaster, but the real gold was in the service and then the piling on of the free services.
At least in this branch or area, the bank's philosophy seems clear. Find a good customer. Keep them happy, keep them on the books and help them stay solvent. Suntrust wins, and consumers who use Suntrust win too.
Recommended:
Yes
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