Sandy at Chase Bank is my new hero. She made a difference. She’s a linchpin.
On a Saturday afternoon I visited a Chase branch to do some typical banking, one of which was to get a service fee waived on a dormant inactive business checking account.
Maggie, my bank manager whom I have been doing business for a couple of years, came to greet me as I waited After a brief exchange, she said someone would be with me and I sat down, and waited.
In a few minutes, Sandy, a bank representative, called my name and I followed her to her desk. I took a seat and explained the specific service fee that I was requesting to be waived.
I elaborated the intricacies of the problem I have with this service fee. The details aren’t really significant in this story. But as a representative, she was not authorized to make such decisions. However, she did understand my concerns.
Then I did the unexpected thing, I smiled.
I smiled because suddenly, I wanted to test out a theory – people will try to help if you are friendly, and if you are friendly, people will try their best to do the best. I wanted to test out another theory – even with all the technologies and corporate structure in institutions, people still run the world.
So I bought a couple of more minutes to sow the seeds. I asked for a copy of the disclosures that was mailed to notify me of the imminent service fee that I overlooked. I asked for a status update of all my accounts, personal and business. I wanted to remind them that I had a vested interest in my banking relationship. As Sandy was printing the copies and thoroughly summarizing my accounts, we started chatting about non-banking stuff. I found out that Sandy used to live in Montebello and has been working at WAMU for 8 years. She likes the change from WAMU to Chase because Chase offers more products.
As I reviewed the information Sandy presented me, I brought up the fee one more time. This time, she called in the manager.
So we called Maggie, the branch manager.
Maggie came and initially apologized that she couldn’t take off the fee because she would have to explain to upper management and repeated that since this was not a bank error, she was not allowed to waive the fee, not even as a courtesy. And, she further explained, since WAMU became Chase, Chase is not that lenient of waiver fees unless it is specifically a bank error.
But I smiled Maggie. I smiled because this is a by the corporate book play, and managers are instructed in black and white.
Then suddenly, Sandy, in a moment of brilliance, came up with a solution out of thin air. As the branch manager was thoroughly explaining why she couldn’t waive the fee, Sandy sat quietly, did nothing, but think.
She was thinking about a solution to help me. She was too busy thinking to tell me she couldn’t help me. She was busy thinking yes, because saying no doesn’t require too much thinking.
Saying yes requires thinking.
Sandy brilliantly connected all my banking products and linked them in a way that qualified my business checking account to meet the fine print of Chase’s policy. She also thought of a way to effectively avoid service fees on my account which meant that the charged service fee in question could be waived, as my account was indeed within the terms of the bank’s policy.
Sandy excited explained her solution to Maggie, so Maggie could justify it to upper management.
Linchpins rule the world.
Too often, customer representatives are quick to say no. Companies pay for them to do the task at hand, not to think. Then sometimes, you meet a Sandy. Sandy thinks. She wants to help the customer. She’s creative and innovative with her simple job. That makes her a linchpin – someone’s who indispensable. Creativity and innovations are not measurable like a resume, and you can’t put a price on creativity and innovations because they’re priceless. Being priceless makes you indispensable – a linchpin.
It’s not about doing better at what others are doing, it’s doing what others aren’t doing at all. That makes a difference. That makes you a linchpin and Sandy is a linchpin.
Doing the little things like that can go a very long way! I like the post and I think that it tends to ring true, but only if your friendliness is genuine. This world is bombarded by people who fake it and then become upset when they don’t receive the outcome they wanted. Great post, and you have inspired me to continue to use this approach in my own life.
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thanhdlu Reply:
February 16th, 2010 at 10:58 pm
Thanks for sharing your comments Dan – I agree with your point about genuineness. That’s the great thing about working with people – people give great feedback, and you learn a lot through people’s non-verbal feedback and the results you get. I often remind myself about this. When I get or don’t get what I want, I feel I’m responsible, first and foremost. It’s a learning process.
People faking and getting upset is normal, however, those people need to be upset at the right person, with themselves, and see that they need to learn and change, not be upset at the undesired results.
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