Keeping them honest
Australia’s banking inquiry ripples through New Zealand. Rob Stock and Susan Edmunds.
‘‘I’m very reluctant to sell [customers] something they don’t need, but there are some staff that do out of fear.’’ Bank staffer
Kiwi bank branch and call centre staff are relieved their Australian-owned employers have eased the sales target culture they’ve had to endure for more than a decade.
And they’re keen to share their stories of life under the pressure of sales targets, which drive them to constantly push products such as life insurance, KiwiSaver and loans to customers.
Three branch-based bank staff, all members of First Union, were willing to speak as long as they were not named. Their contracts with their employers –ANZ, Westpac, and BNZ– forbid them from criticising the banks, or risk being sacked.
Bankers Association chief executive Karen Scott-Howman said the banks’ revised staff incentive schemes which followed the highly critical Sedgwick Report in Australia last year, indicated banks were committed to ‘‘continuous improvement’’.
The report was critical of the heavy focus on sales targets.
More could be to come, with Scott-Howman telling the Reserve Bank and Financial Markets Authority in a letter the industry was ‘‘committed’’ to adopting the recommendations of the Sedgwick report ‘‘as appropriate for each bank’’.
‘‘In some cases this work has already been completed,’’ she said, though First Union said it was time staff sales incentives were banned from banking altogether.
One veteran of branch banking, who saw the sales target banking culture emerge after the financial deregulation of the 1990s, said the Sedgwick report had had a big impact in New Zealand.
‘‘To be fair, the bank did jump, and brought it over quickly. When the Australian banks accepted the report, the New Zealand banks had to learn to live with it as well.
‘‘We thought, great. The emphasis would be taken off sales. Normally, you got your targets every year, and they normally got higher, and you thought ‘God, what am I going to be doing this year’!’’
Her bank’s post-Sedgwick scheme still had individual targets, but it was a points-based system.
Gone were dollar targets for individual products like KiwiSaver, credit cards, and term deposits. In came a greater emphasis on customer surveys, and sticking to bank procedure.
‘‘Honestly, we were all ecstatic because we thought it would be a relief.’’
Though customers are never told about the sales incentives, she said they had felt the difference. ‘‘Customers loved it.’’
But things took an unexpected twist. Sales appeared to have dipped.
‘‘Towards the end of the year, they were saying you are behind in your sales targets.’’
They were told they should be selling 12 products a week. It was a stressful time.
‘‘I’m very reluctant to sell [customers] something they don’t need,’’ she said, ‘‘but there are some staff that do out of fear.’’
Even after the change, she said: ‘‘Tuesday sales meetings were all about how many sales we had made, who was doing well, and who needed to pull up their socks.’’
‘‘In the last few weeks we have gone away from that. It’s almost as if the bank got wind that they would get some bad press. It’s
now all about how we look after customers.’’
‘‘I’m a bit suspicious about the sudden shift.’’
A young staffer from a different bank recalls heavy targets when she first started.
Each month as a branch-based personal banker she had to achieve sales targets in each of a number of product ‘‘buckets’’. That included $140,000 in term deposits alone.
‘‘Now, they have taken that away. It’s very service-focused now. It’s fantastic. We don’t do sales meetings anymore.’’
The change suited her nature. ‘‘I never achieved my targets anyway,’’ she said.
‘‘I hope the bank will just keep doing what they have done. If you make your customer happy, they will stay as your customers. I believe pressuring the people is not the way to do that.’’
The third banker experienced the installing of ‘‘smart ATMs’’ in her branch, designed to wean customers off dealing with staff in a bid to cut costs.
But her sales targets were not cut, despite the time she had to spend ‘‘teaching’’ people to use the smart ATMs.
She blames sales target pressure for many colleagues leaving.
‘‘I was spending so much in goodbye presents because so many people were leaving,’’ she said.