Service: the competituve edge in banking

With service as the product, banks can only gain a competitive edge by offering quality service. Technological advances and automation have been effective in reducing operating costs and improving operating efficiencies but such gains do not necessarily lead to quality improvements. Service quality is derived from personally tailored services and attention to individual needs. It is not just friendliness and courtesy, it is being there for a client with the required response when the need occurs. Service quality can not be found in standardized responses or restrictive bank policies. Service quality is not found in a busy signal or in hours that accommodate the bank staff but not the client. Communication and interactive skills, and recognizing that customer needs should drive product offerings and operations, will ultimately add more to a bank's bottomline than trying to find customers that fit the bank's needs.