High-pressure environment, stringent regulatory requirements, and the continuously changing technological landscape adversely affects the morale and enthusiasm of relationship managers in banks. But customer-facing staff in banks can avoid switching jobs for reasons other than salary hikes.
Customer-facing staff play a crucial role in the banking industry because they help banks build and maintain relationships with clients, which can result in increased customer loyalty and drive revenue growth.
The significance of a relationship manager’s role cannot be understated, including customer engagement as they act as the primary point of contact for clients. They assist clients in reaching their financial goals while providing personalised advice. Additionally, they play a crucial role in identifying new sales opportunities, optimising resource allocation, and indirectly contributing to the bank’s financial success.
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However, employee attrition in private sector banks has witnessed an increase to about 25 per cent and this high turnover rate poses significant operational risk, according to a latest Report on Trend and Progress of Banking in India 2023-24, released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
Although banks have a critical role to play when it comes to employee retention such as creating a good working environment, investing in frequent training programmes to equip staff with the skills they need to handle customer concerns and conducting “stay” interviews to help senior bank officials understand why relationship managers have decided to stay, employees, too, can do their bit to make their stints long-lasting.
As relationship building is key to this role and customer-facing staff are the primary point of contact for clients, communication skills, both written and verbal, are crucial for maintaining strong client relationships. Relationship managers must take quick steps to become a primary point of contact and trusted adviser to the client and, over time, retain and enhance this relationship. Also, such relationship managers must understand a client’s financial goals and risk appetite. Besides, a comprehensive knowledge of the sector for making informed recommendations and discussing risk management and compliance issues will go a long way in building client trust. It is also important for client-facing staff to meet and exceed performance targets as this can lead to increased efficiency and profitability.
Through the establishment and nurturing of long-term client relationships, relationship managers can contribute to increased customer loyalty and retention for banks thereby making themselves indispensable.
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Since relationship managers are also required to identify and acquire new customers in order to generate new business, it is imperative to prepare and deliver presentations and pitches to prospective clients, in addition to ensuring a seamless onboarding experience.
In his post on Linkedin, Kishor Shrivastava, a former senior vice president at Axis Bank, wrote: “In my long stint as a retail banker, I happened to meet many employees in the role of relationship manager and witnessed their journeys. While, some were exceptionally good and popular with their clients, some always struggled to meet expectations. … so, what may be the gold standard of client relationship for a banker?”
He further writes that whenever he got an opportunity to interact with his people, he always used this funny analogy to drive home the point:
“The day your client walks in to take your advice in selecting a suitable groom for his/her daughter, consider that you have reached the pinnacle of client relationship value chain.”
It is worthwhile to note that good customer service makes people view a brand positively and bad experiences can harm a bank’s reputation. In many cases, this leads to both the bank losing a customer and an employee.
