FRONT AND CENTER
SUNTRUST CUSTOMERS
"Our clients are at the center of everything we do. We're committed to keeping our clients connected, protected and supported to ensure that the right products and the highest standards of service are delivered every step of the way. If our clients succeed, then we succeed as well."
The quote from SunTrust's 2004 annual report puts an emphasis squarely on customer service, a focus echoed by Lucile Houseworth, director of quality at SunTrust. "In the financial services industry, products perform largely in the same way from bank to bank because of the many regulations that need to be addressed," says Houseworth. "Making an institution distinctive has to be done through the relationship it has with its customer base."
At SunTrust that customer base extends to more than 10 million customer visits to branches, 1.67 million phone calls and more than 80,000 emails each month. However, rather than see millions of challenges, Houseworth sees millions of opportunities to provide SunTrust clients with the highest service experience, to add value and to promote loyalty. "After all, it is less expensive to keep customers than to gain new ones in such a competitive business world," Houseworth says.
SunTrust Mortgage offers an example of how one of the SunTrust lines of business promotes the customer service ethic. In 2004, that division introduced a new vision and core set of guiding principles with a heavy emphasis on customer service. All 3,000 mortgage associates participated in a series of interactive workshops to ground them in these values and to learn how to demonstrate them in daily work. Workshops to reinforce the training have continued on a quarterly basis. Following a loan closing, SunTrust Mortgage surveys all customers. Loan officers must resolve any issues with customers who provide an unsatisfactory rating or negative comments within five days of receiving scores. Monthly leaderboards rank individual loan officers and their branch offices. SunTrust's in-depth training program for all new loan officers (which includes the company's commitment to customer service, service standards, best practices and customer retention) is unparalleled in the industry, ranging from one week to three, depending on prior experience.
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