The World Economic Forum cites Emotional Intelligence as the critical skill needed by all industries at all levels in every region. In business, perhaps one or two players in any given sector are looking at whether a greater use of EQ might improve their customer or staff relationships.
It’s hard to shift from a value set that prizes rational thinking and hard nosed discipline to something else. Like stepping out on a tightrope without a safety net. It takes bravery, honesty and we need to see others doing it first. The herd won’t move until the outliers show the way.
The banking sector is one such herd. Together they’re looking at generations of staff and customers they don’t really understand and they’re trying to think of ways to close the gap. The problem is that the gap can’t be closed by intellect, it requires empathy.
Empathy is one of those words you use in a business meeting and people think you’re are being soft. But empathy is not sympathy. Empathy means being able to put yourself in another person’s situation and understand it from their point of view. In that sense it can be just a steely-eyed as rational analysis.
Banks have quite rightly decided on digital transformation as the way to make banking process less stressful and more intuitive for their customers. This is not about making customers more wealthy, it’s really about making banking systems less irritating for customers and staff. The problem is that only half of the process of digital transformation is about the technology. The other half is about the new behaviours staff might demonstrate when the administrative burden is reduced. And the point where technology and staff behaviours intersect is the hardest part to manage.
Last week something went wrong with the messaging around my monthly credit card bill. On day one I received an infomail telling me how much I had to pay this month. No statement, just a number and a demand. Next day came an email from a person in Credit Control addressed to ‘Overdue - Christopher Harrison’. It told me I was three months overdue (I wasn’t) and my card would shortly be suspended. The following day I received a Customer Service Week email saying I was the only reason bank staff got out of bed in the morning. And on the fourth day I received my statement.
So, I replied to Credit Control and cut up the credit card. That afternoon my Relationship Manager rang me four times to try to change my mind. But he, like I, was powerless. Both victims of system designed without empathy.
Chris Harrison leads The Brand Inside
www.thebrandinsideafrica.com
