Some thoughts on the role of lobby manager

Some thoughts on the role of lobby manager

Ten years ago, by chance, the author came to a commercial bank, Hangzhou Tianshui Sub-branch. As soon as I stepped into the business hall, a well-trained young female employee immediately greeted me, kindly asked what help I needed, and then served a drink and patiently answered several questions raised by the author. At that time, there were few lobby service staff in bank outlets, which was a little flattered, so that it was still memorable after many years. Later, it was learned that the bank set up a full-time lobby manager among its peers in Hang Cheng, and insisted on the construction of service quality as a breakthrough, which was widely welcomed by customers. At the same time, various businesses also developed rapidly and became the benchmark inside and outside the system.

Re-examination of the role of lobby manager

Outlets are the cells and foundation of commercial banks and an important platform for the development of retail banking. Although various emerging channels such as the Internet are booming, traditional physical outlets still have an irreplaceable position in various distribution channels of retail banking products. The research of Datamonitor, an internationally renowned consultancy, shows that branches are still the most important channel for the sale of complex retail banking products, and the importance of branches increases with the complexity of products. However, physical outlets are the most expensive and difficult to manage. If their functions are not fully exerted, they will become a huge burden for commercial banks. Because of this, domestic commercial banks have launched in recent years? Network transformation? To promote the transformation of the function of outlets from accounting transaction type to marketing service type, thus improving service efficiency and enhancing sales ability. The direct result of the transformation of outlets, reflected in the hardware environment, is that all banks have completely transformed the business halls of outlets, making customers feel convenient and comfortable in them, and on this basis, put forward? The lobby wins? 、? Win in the lobby? Concept, to maximize the functions of outlets in product sales and customer service.

although before this, some branches of banks have tried to set up the position of lobby manager, such as China CITIC Bank (3.74,.3,.81%). However, most banks only regard the lobby manager as an auxiliary marginal position, engaging in simple customer guidance, which is dispensable and sometimes absent. As a brand-new role and special post, it is under the background of network transformation that the role of lobby manager has been re-examined:

From the perspective of customer perception, the service ability and level of lobby manager directly affect customer satisfaction. Service is the only area where banks can truly reflect differentiation and personalization. For ordinary customers, it is difficult for them to see and understand how excellent the bank is, and their evaluation of the bank basically comes from the service experience obtained from various channels. The lobby of the outlet is the first place for customers to enter the outlet, and the lobby manager is the first person that customers come into contact with, which represents the first impression of the bank to customers and is the most direct experience.

from the perspective of market competition, is the lobby manager realized? The lobby wins? The important role of the target. Before the transformation, the post setting of outlets was self-centered, with complicated processes and lack of coordination and integration. Equipped with a full-time lobby manager, the post design has strengthened the management and arrangement of various resources for serving customers. If the lobby of the outlet is decorated magnificently, but there is no comprehensive post in the lobby to coordinate the inside and outside and serve the overall situation, the outlet will still be in disorder and chaos, and it is impossible to win the lobby.

from the perspective of marketing services, the lobby manager is helpful to give full play to the role of outlets in product sales. For commercial banks, marketing products and serving customers are completed through various channels, and physical outlets, as the most effective sales channels, carry high hopes. The lobby manager has the most contact with customers, and his ability directly affects the marketing level and results; The lobby manager plays an irreplaceable role in the network marketing service chain by identifying and referring customers. The lobby manager's guidance and diversion to customers will also help outlets improve service efficiency.

　? Vision determines the realm? In the context of the transformation and upgrading of retail outlets, re-examining the role of lobby managers is to further unify and deepen the relationship at the branch level. The lobby wins? Understanding of the concept, and make more appropriate responsibilities and institutional arrangements.

three orientations of the role of the lobby manager

the lobby manager faces all kinds of customers every day, keeps an eye on all directions, coordinates all directions, and is an outlet to the outside world? Spokesman? , is it the lobby at home? Big housekeeper? There are many and complicated responsibilities, but they boil down to three aspects, namely: identification and guidance, contact marketing and relationship maintenance. Branches and branches have different orientations for lobby managers, and the differences are mainly reflected in the different emphasis on three aspects of responsibilities:

? Guide? . Before the full-time lobby manager is equipped, the branch tellers and account managers can't allocate effective time and energy to identify and guide high-quality customers, and the differential service for high-quality customers and the guidance and diversion for mass customers can't be implemented. As a result, some branches select a group of older, slow-moving but experienced employees to be responsible for maintaining order, guiding customers and providing simple business consulting and guidance services in the lobby of outlets. This is it? Lobby guide? , is the predecessor of the lobby manager. It should be said that identification and guidance is the most basic responsibility of the lobby manager. However, the quality and skills of lobby guides are often single, and they are simply positioned to guide customers, which can't meet the complex situation in the lobby. A few banks sometimes let external cooperative companies station personnel or even network security? Part-time job 、? Guest appearance? Lobby manager. This seems to save labor costs, and in fact completely deviates from the requirements of the function transformation of outlets and the improvement of customer demand for the lobby.

　? Account manager? . Network transformation focuses on improving marketing ability. Some banks take measures such as paying the bill directly, which stimulates the enthusiasm of outlets' employees in marketing. Lobby manager, as the position with the most contact with customers at outlets, has a natural advantage in product sales. Lobby managers are also used to positioning themselves as account managers, and think that marketing is the most important among many responsibilities. In order to highlight the lobby manager's role in promoting network marketing, banks often classify lobby managers as individual account managers. For example, ICBC (3.91,-.2,-.51%) clearly stipulates that lobby managers are an important category of individual account managers. Marketing is of course important. Being positioned as an account manager, the performance of the lobby manager is also easy to assess. However, it is time-consuming and laborious for the lobby manager to directly sell products, especially complex products, which often weakens the identification guidance and relationship maintenance for customers. Moreover, in order to achieve personal performance, conflicts of interest are easy to occur between lobby managers and financial managers, personal business consultants and tellers.

　? Network manager? . According to the requirements of transformation, the lobby manager should shoulder the burden of management and coordination, and should become the leader of the outlet lobby. To this end, some banks position the lobby manager as the outlet manager. For example, in China Construction Bank (4.3, .1 and .23%), in order to ensure the full play of the role of the lobby manager, it is clear that the outlet manager is the first responsible person who plays the role of the lobby manager, and it is required that the outlet manager spend more than 5% of his time performing the duties of the lobby manager. Bank of America, which is good at retail banking, has no full-time lobby manager in its outlets, because their most important job from morning till night is to patrol the lobby with the lobby manager clip and serve customers, and they are veritable full-time lobby managers. However, in China, some network managers either undertake more internal management affairs or need to go out to market customers frequently, even if they are required to serve the lobby half the time, it is difficult to guarantee. Therefore, some banks, such as some branches of Agricultural Bank of China (2.47%,-.1% and-.4%), position the lobby manager as the deputy manager of the outlet, and under the leadership of the outlet manager, they are responsible for coordinating and coordinating the marketing and service work in areas outside the counters.

Countermeasures and suggestions to improve the service ability of lobby managers

Although full-time lobby managers have been in existence for many years, some banks still have some shortcomings in their understanding, management and service support, such as unclear understanding of the importance of lobby managers in network marketing services, ignoring the high requirements of this position for professional quality and ability, more part-time lobby managers, insufficient equipment and insufficient support, and so on. These shortcomings can be improved by branches in the following aspects:

1. Further improve the post design of lobby manager

It should be said that lobby manager is the soul of network service, the resource allocator, service organizer and team leader of network, not in the traditional sense? Running? . The lobby manager should know the customer's needs at the first time, and coordinate the network resources to provide quality services for customers, and be mainly responsible for maintaining good lobby order, easing customer queues and improving customer satisfaction.

of course. Positioning determines status? How and how much the lobby manager can play depends on how to define the role. Different banks, or different branches of the same bank, can define the role of lobby manager in different ways based on their own understanding and understanding, according to different situations and needs: if the number of customers in outlets is small, there are many old customers, and the requirements for identification, guidance and relationship maintenance are not high, they can be positioned as account managers, focusing on playing a direct marketing role; On the contrary, it should be positioned as a network manager or deputy manager, so that it can be named in name only, and give full play to the role of managing the lobby and coordinating all parties. In a word, the choice of the role orientation of the lobby manager should meet the actual needs of product marketing of branches and meet the growing service needs of customers.

2. Promote the lobby manager to realize? Specialization? And? Professional?

secondly, the lobby manager should be full-time. Except for a few special outlets, each outlet is equipped with at least one full-time lobby manager, which is relatively stable. In a few branches, the lobby managers are held by the staff of various positions in the outlets in turn, or the candidates for lobby managers are adjusted at will, which is very unfavorable for customer identification and relationship maintenance. Of course, when the lobby manager leaves his post or has a rest, it should be clearly replaced by a personal business consultant or an account manager to ensure that the on-the-job rate of the lobby manager is 1%.

3. Enrich the composition of the lobby manager team

First, explore the dual lobby manager system. For outlets with dense customer flow or large lobby area, two full-time lobby managers should be equipped in time when the service capacity of one lobby manager overflows. Two lobby managers can be parallel, clear priorities, or focus on something. The customer flow of some outlets has seasonal or periodic characteristics, so flexible arrangements should be made for the allocation of lobby managers, and one lobby manager should be kept on duty in peacetime; In the season or time when the customer flow is large, double lobby managers are configured.

second, properly equip the assistant to the lobby manager. A lobby manager is too busy to be equipped with two people, and is subject to many restrictions such as establishment and cost. What should we do? At this time, the assistant to the lobby manager can be introduced. The assistant manager of the lobby can be selected by the bank independently, or can be outsourced to an external labor dispatch company for recruitment and management. The post requirements and labor costs of the assistant lobby manager are lower than those of the lobby manager, mainly to help with routine work such as customer diversion and simple business consultation, so that the lobby manager can spend more time and energy on more valuable management and marketing.

thirdly, a reserve team of lobby managers is being established. Through competitive recruitment and other means, select a group of reserve forces of lobby managers for network employees and new clerks, which will be uniformly deployed and used by branches. When the manager in the lobby of the outlet leaves his post, he can provide mobile support, and when there is a vacancy, he can quickly replenish it.

4. Provide strong technical support for the lobby manager

It is difficult for the lobby manager to have enough time to sit down and have no chance to use all kinds of complex systems calmly. Therefore, it is very important to provide convenient and quick technical support for it. In addition to the comprehensive inquiry system and mobile teller machines, some banks have developed exclusive handheld terminal equipment for lobby managers with tablet computers such as iPad as carriers. Like China Construction Bank? Lobby manager marketing easy? , which can realize three functions, such as customer entrance identification, active marketing and financial information service. For example, after the customer swipes the card at the paging machine to get the number, it passes? Marketing is easy? The customer's name, age, occupation and financial assets can be obtained in real time, and at the same time, the marketing words can be prompted in a targeted manner. According to this, the lobby manager can recommend products to customers or refer them to financial managers, which greatly improves the success rate.

In addition, Bank of China (2.67,.,.%) developed scenario-based? Online lobby manager? Minsheng Bank (9.36,.2,.21%) introduced the function of booking the number of outlets through mobile banking, etc., which guided and diverted some customers for the lobby of outlets and also supported the work of lobby managers. ;