April 24, 2025 • 30 mins
What does it really take for smaller banks and mid-sized businesses to triumph over industry giants while still delivering exceptional customer experiences?
This burning question lies at the heart of the latest episode of the Delighted Customers podcast, where we dig deep into the unique advantages that smaller organizations hold in fostering emotional connections, empowering employees, and personalizing customer interactions—even when their resources pale in comparison to mega-corporations. The impact of this question stretches across industries: if you feel outmanned or outspent by competitors, Tara Brady’s strategies could just be the difference-maker. She reveals exactly how you can leverage your agility and authenticity to delight customers and transform employees into powerful brand advocates.
You should listen to Tara Brady, Chief Experience Officer at Provident Bank, because she has walked the walk—from big banks to credit unions to her current leadership role at a thriving regional institution. Tara brings practical, actionable insights on how to create customer and employee advocacy, how to turn real feedback into process improvements, and why empathy and emotional connectedness are your secret weapons. If you’re navigating the David versus Goliath landscape—whether in banking or beyond—Tara’s perspective will help you see your “smallness” as a superpower.
Here are three compelling questions Tara answers during the show:
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How can banks without massive technology budgets still compete with—and even exceed—the customer experiences offered by mega banks?
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What practical steps can organizations take to bridge employee and customer experience, ensuring both groups are genuinely heard and empowered?
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Why is building emotional connections more than just a “nice to have”—and how does it directly affect loyalty, advocacy, and your bottom line?
Meet Tara Brady
With over 19 years’ experience in Customer Experience (CX), Tara Brady
is a successful brand evangelist known for coaching and leading
organizations and teams to new heights in delivering exemplary,
impactful, and results-focused customer experiences that drive sales
and brand loyalty.
Tara believes that today’s consumer market means striving for
excellence in customer AND employee experience is mandatory – and
no longer optional or ‘nice to haves.’ As a leader, she operates from the
premise that happy, empowered employees are the face of the brand
for consumers. This is reflected in her holistic approach to CX that
integrates employee experience as a foundational element.
Her multiple CX redesigns and transformations stem from working
directly with customers and leading teams and users to deliver
excellence. Known to surprise teams by showing up and working on-site
to serve customers directly, test processes, and gather employee and
customer feedback, her hands-on approach is a differentiator. This real-
world laboratory shapes the innovations that transform customer and
employee experiences.
TARA’S CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE USER EXPERIENCE MANIFESTO:
Stellar experiences are built strategically – and require data/analytics,
employee input and feedback, thorough understanding of an
organization’s goals and vision, KPIs, and a project management
approach – including timelines, deliverables, benchmarks, and
assessments.
Outstanding CX/UX experience isn’t a matter of being
‘friendly’. Rather, it is ALL about having responsive technology, expertly
trained and engaged employees empowered with all they need to serve
customers, clearly defined value statements, executive support,
defined journey maps, and more! ‘Friendly’ may be a fac
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:08):
Welcome to the Delighted Customers podcast. I am so glad
you're here. We challenge conventional thinking about customer
experience because I believe that improving experiences isn't just good
for business. It's a powerful way to make a meaningful difference
in people's lives. Each week we feature thought provoking
conversations with industry thought leaders from a variety
(00:30):
of backgrounds, offering you unique perspectives and actionable
insights. Get ready to sharpen your leadership and transform
your approach to customer experience. Let's dive
in. Well today
on the Delighted Customers podcast, I am so
excited to welcome a fellow banker. So
(00:53):
excited to have someone from the banking industry. And Tara
Brady is the Chief Experience Officer at
Provident Bank. Provident serves New York, parts of
Pennsylvania, New Jersey and is now quite a quite a large
bank. And so excited to have you on the show, Tara. Welcome aboard. Thank
you so much, Mark. I'm really excited to be here. Yay. So we're going to
(01:14):
talk about some fun stuff. In particular, if you're not familiar with it, in
banking there are sort of these mega banks that you probably have heard
about too big to fail banks and then there is a whole bunch of
other categories of banks that are trying to compete and get market
share. And we are today going to spend a little bit of time
talking about sort of this David and Goliath and I'm how can
(01:37):
you compete with the big bigger banks and
share some tips. But before we do, Tara, can you share with the audience a
little bit about your role now and a little bit about
your background on how you got to doing what you're doing today? Absolutely.
So my role as the Chief Experience Officer
entails everything that touches a customer. So the customer experience
(01:59):
segment currently have a team of four which has all different
dedicated focuses. CX insights and design, Voice of
the customer journey, mapping, traveling the customer journeys and understanding
where the pain points might be, removing friction. My team has taken on a leg
of our employee experience stool when we talk about employee
activation. So how do we empower our employees to be great
(02:20):
in front of customers? How do we give them the tools? How do we give
them the resources? How do we make sure that they feel supported? And then I
also oversee the marketing team. So when we think about that connection to
customers, everything they touch, everything they see about our brand has a
customer centric focus and feel. Because again, my team is a part
of all of those different processes. Yeah, love that model, the
(02:41):
structure of your team and what a great way to go about making an impact,
making a difference, having some influence over those different areas that
you shared. So One of the things that we are going to talk
about is this idea of thinking about how
we compete with larger organizations. In the world of banking in particular,
there seems like an, it almost seems like an unlevel playing
(03:04):
field. If you're not familiar with banking and may be true in other industries
as well. Once you get to a certain size, you can literally bring in your
own staff to do things like tech and you
can literally have like 30, 40, 50 people and, and have
proprietary systems where typically smaller to medium sized
banks work off of someone else's core operating system
(03:25):
middleware, other software applications for all the different product
categories are stitched together, for lack of a better word,
to make things happen. And so you have a lot less control and you're sort
of at the mercy of what those business partners
that are helping you deliver for the customer, however they want to
prioritize getting things done. And so I'll, I'll let you just respond
(03:47):
to that from your own experience. So the unique thing for me is
I started in the big bank world and I went from the big bank world
to the smaller regional bank. I've been in the credit union space.
I've gotten to travel this lens as an employee
and as a customer. So I feel that I have a pretty good viewpoint of
what the key differentiators are. The thing that I will say that I think is
(04:09):
most impactful about the regional bank and banks of our
size is we are very much in it with our customers. And when I say
we're very much in it, people say, you know, we are in your communities. All
banks will give you kind of that messaging. But I think the unique
thing about banks of this size is these things are real. We truly
are living in the communities where we work and we truly are making
(04:31):
decisions about you and your personal situation together
as a collective. It's not done by the big bank AI and it's not
done off at some random headquarters that nobody ever gets to
see. Group of folks is coming into our headquarters in Island, New
Jersey and we are working together to understand what are the pain points for
our customers. What does decision making look like? Do we need to have more
(04:53):
conversations? Right. So we're not at the, we don't have the joy of
having all of the like fancy toys and the shiny objects, but what we
lack in that area for me we make up in the human emotional connection. And
there's been so much conversation about AI and the speed of
things and you know you're going to get left behind if you're not in that
space. But I talk to customers all the time. I talk to happy customers, I
(05:14):
talk to frustrated customers, I talk to tired customers depending on what's happening in their
personal life. And you know, with banking there's very human touch points and
moments that matter. Crave that human connection. When we're dealing with something that
is so personal, we're talking about your banking and your money. That's not something you
want done by a robot or a computer. That's something that you know, when
I have a death in my family, I need advice on how to
(05:36):
manage a situation. When I'm starting my small business, I want
someone who also is working in what would be a smaller business
thinking about and helping me make those decisions. I want to see the person at
my bank that comes into my small business and banks and as I bank with
them, you know, they patronize my business. That's the benefit for me
of seeing all the places and all the communities that we touch. When you think
(05:57):
about those empathy driven experiences too, so much of customer experiences around
those connected moments that matter. You know, big banks focus on their
size and we focus on the moments where we can show up for you. And
I think that is a crucial part of the focus of why
not necessarily going with the large bank is beneficial for you as a
customer. You have more connectivity to us, we have more connectivity to you.
(06:19):
We have a clearer line of sight. Right. I'm not digging through millions of customers,
I'm looking in smaller numbers, which gives me more time to work on
what's important to you. And I say that as a CX leader who
takes feedback and we'll take that feedback back to teams and we'll make
improvements and changes and I'll call and follow up and let you know what we
changed. Because Mark, you called me and gave me the feedback. That is one of
(06:40):
the most connected experiences a customer can have. And I really don't imagine
that's happening on that kind of national forefront level. Yeah, I would
agree 100% and I really like the way you frame
that is the emotional connection versus the size
and bells and whistles perhaps that some of the larger banks have.
I think it's true in banking, I think it's true in other industries as well.
(07:03):
They're having similar conversations about, well, how can we compete with the
big guys. They have all these millions of dollars to throw at this and all
these people to throw at this. And while, you know, it is important
to have a strategy around how we're going to use
technology to improve the experience, the experience itself
is really what we're starting with and how we're going to use a
(07:24):
technology, not have technology in search of a strategy.
Very, very, very true. You hear conversations a lot about,
you know, that AI is going to replace this or technology can do this. Right?
My goal always, and I've said this several times in different conversations,
technology should only make things better for people. In my opin,
I should be able to support you faster as an employee because of technology.
(07:46):
You should be able to get immediate answers you need as a customer because of
our technology. But that technology shouldn't be the answer. And
again, banking is a unique industry in that you're dealing with the most crucial
thing in people's lives. You either have enough money or you're worried about making more
money, or you are worried about how much money you have and keeping it safe
and secure. Right? There's such a visceral connection to how you feel about
(08:09):
your money. Um, that it is something that it
just needs, it needs that human connect when you need advice, when you need guidance,
when you need support. It. It's just for me, it's not something that technology
shouldn't be fixing that portion of it. And I know people will say I have
a very outdated view or an, an old school sentiment to it, but I,
the customers I talk to are not looking for AI when something goes
(08:31):
wrong. They're not looking for AI when their child's getting married and they want to
celebrate and figure out how they're funding the wedding. They are wanting to share that,
they are wanting to connect with you and they're wanting to know that again in
those moments that matter, that their bank is going to be crucial in
supporting them. And so let's, let's talk about this in terms of, so
what's the big deal here? If you're in the C suite and you are
(08:51):
working for a mid sized company or even a larger company,
but maybe not a mega bank. And whether it's in banking or not,
and we're talking here about the customer experience and the emotional
connection that you're describing. You know, if someone were to say to you,
which we, we do here all the time, is like, well, I can't compete with
the guys. And you know, we need to make our numbers, we
(09:13):
need to hit our revenue targets and therefore, and we need
to keep our cost low because we got shareholders to answer
to. And so we need to look at our operating margins and our
return on average assets and all these metrics that bankers use. You know,
we we don't have the time for the emotional connection or we have to
automate as much as we can. How would you respond to that? My response would
(09:36):
be that that's very, very short sighted. So I think we all know it's, it's
far harder to find new customers than it is to do a, of taking
care of the ones that you have. One of the key proponents, and this is
something that I absolutely love about Provident and about my CEO is his big
push is called, I shouldn't say it's called. It is focusing on
creating advocates for life. How do you get a customer that is so
(09:57):
happy and so engaged and so connected to you that they'll go out into their
communities and they will advocate on your behalf? How do we,
we have to take those calories and we have to take those moments that matter
and we have to make positive impact. I mean that it just, it would cost
us so much more to constantly chase customers than it would be
to really engage the ones that we have and help them to become advocates for
(10:17):
our organization. The other portion of that is that investing in our
employees and making them advocates for your organization, they have to be
as bought into your brand and as engaged as your customers are. And when you
make that investment in not only the human emotional connection of your customers but
also of your employees, you really help impact and change lives. And at the end
of the day, the bottom line is more customers that are happy to stay where
(10:40):
they are and are not enthralled by the shiny objects of the big banks and
not willing to jump ship and like that, an emotional connection. Know other
people like them that are also looking for that. So for me it's again, it
would be very shortsighted to just say hey, we have to go fast and we
have to try to keep up versus let's take that time, let's invest,
let's build that relationship and let's create that advocacy. Yeah.
(11:00):
Recently I had Bruce Temkin on the, on the show actually. I
think that's coming out this, this coming week. He's, he's come back a couple of
times and Bruce was the co founder of cxpa. He was the founder
of XM Institute. He worked for many years at Forrester before that. And
one of the metrics they used was one that looked at success,
effort and emotion called the CXI at
(11:23):
Forrester. And an emotion of the three customer Was I
successful? Did I accomplish what I hoped to accomplish? What was the effort like
for me? And then the emotional how did I feel about the experiences I went
through. And emotion, all three of them were important on loyalty, but emotion
was the most important. So to your point, if you know,
part of the answer I think to the C suite is if that's what's going
(11:44):
to drive loyalty, if that's what's going to drive customers
to keep coming back and telling their friends about the experience,
then there's your financial argument. Absolutely. I mean it just,
it's, it's very hard to put pen to paper to say, here's the math of
this, this is exactly how you know. And some folks will say yes, there's, there's,
you know, the customer lifetime value, there's, there are certain numbers. It's very hard
(12:06):
to put pen to paper on how people are advocating for you, but
also how important that advocacy is. And the other piece of that is
that customers are equally loud when they're dissatisfied. So if you're just rushing to
push products and you're rushing to try to hit numbers quarter over quarter just
because to hit that number when those folks are dissatisfied and they're not emotionally
connected when they leave, they're noisy, they're unhappy, they're disjointed.
(12:29):
So now you've created kind of anti advocates or detractors through this process.
So it's not just on the front end. I think it's also on the back
end of that scenario.
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(12:51):
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(13:13):
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(13:35):
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(13:58):
I am really interested in the position that
you identified as a need in the organization that you're going to
be filling soon, which is sort of the liaison between the
employees and the customers and filling that gap and
helping make that connection, bridging that for the ultimate
customer experience. Could you describe more about what that
(14:21):
role is going to do and what the outcomes you Hope to achieve from it?
Absolutely. So as a part of the CX team, we're going
to have a role which is going to be called employee experience Activation
leader. And their role is to understand what the
roadblocks are for our employees to activate in different
situations. So say we provide a tool, right? That feels really awesome and
(14:42):
we've tested it and it seems great. But when the employees in that
interaction, right, they're not able to use it as quickly as they need to or
they can't draw the information they need. The goal is that this person goes out
and supports the employees to understand how are things going with the customers
and supporting the customers. Do you have access to the tools that you need? Are
the tools helpful to you in interactions? Right. It doesn't matter if I make the
(15:04):
coolest tool on the planet. If when you're in the heat of the moment with
the customer, you're like, oh, I can't remember where that we want to avoid all
of those pitfalls. I think we've all worked in a place where someone's handed you
a manual and you're like, I can't read this manual in front of a customer.
So I think that's the neatest thing about this is we're going to take,
you know, idea and action based on customer feedback of where this
pain point came from and we're going to build the tools and the support
(15:27):
and the training models and the things that the employees need to
activate and then we're going to have someone work on it with them. With the
outcome being, again, a better employee experience. We all know more engaged employees
deliver better customer experiences. This also allows our employees
to have a feedback, role and model in the tools that they use and
the experiences that they're creating. And I think pretty much everyone feels
(15:49):
better when they get to be a part of something versus just, hey, go do
this. So I think that's the part I'm most excited about. We've learned
so much in my last. It's almost three years now with Provident of just
where we thought we fixed something and maybe we made it a little bit more
difficult for the employee, right? So that's one of the things we're also going to
measure. Measure is employee effort score, right? How easy is it to be great
(16:09):
in an interaction with a customer, what the ultimate goal is? Again,
really well educated, empowered employees who have
great efficiencies. My three E's of kind of EX and CX lead to great
customer experiences. So I could not be more excited for that. To be coming
to Provident. I lost sound. I don't know where you went. Sorry. Oh, you're back.
Sorry, it was my bad. I had myself on mute because I was
(16:31):
coughing. Forgot to take myself off of mute. Good. Okay. So
we'll probably put a commercial break in there.
Okay. Oh, good. I'm gonna get a drink too then. If we're doing that, I'm
just gonna. Comment on that and ask you another question. Put a little pause
in here for myself so I can see when to come back.
So kudos to you for being creative enough to think through that
(16:53):
position because there's so much great intelligence that can
come from employees, whether on the front line or behind the scenes. A
bit that can really tell you what's going on. That, yeah, there's some
operational data, there's some sentiment data that you can glean, but
when you hear direct from the people who are serving customers, that's
such a great source of information to be able to respond to.
(17:16):
I could not agree with you more. And I think that is also one of
the best parts about working at Providence. Since I got here, I've done a ton
of journey mapping and when I journey map, we're doing the ux, we're doing
what. What does the customer feel and what do you feel? And I think that's
a sign of engagement and, you know, connection to our
culture is every single person I talk to and I say, this is why we're
(17:38):
going to do journey mapping. This is the outcome our team members to back to
the very original about being the regional bank. They care. They want
to point out this is painful and this could be better. Right. So I don't
think anything speaks more to our organization when we think about our customers is
that our employees also know that this is a process and they know that these
things are taking place and they are eager to make improvements on behalf of our
(17:59):
customers, which is also awesome. That is awesome. Tara, can
you you share this? I think this is a great strategy that I don't think
a lot of people are doing this, hiring this person that can be that
liaison. Are there any other strategies that come to mind
that can help small to medium size start with banks?
Hopefully the idea goes across other industries as well that,
(18:21):
that maybe you've implemented or you're in the process of implementing
that. I think the most crucial thing that we can all focus
on and really implement on is digestible amounts of
information. So coming at this, as a former branch
employee, there are a lot of things that you have to tackle in the day
to day, there's a lot of things that you have to remember. And every day
(18:43):
something's changing in a bank all the time. We're always getting new information, new promotions,
new campaigns, new alerts. So putting things into
digestible, easy to access, you know,
tidbits I find to be incredibly crucial for improving
this process. And I also just think it goes back to listening to the employees.
So I know we're creating this role, but if they're telling you that things are
(19:04):
inefficient and if they're telling you we can design the best process in the
whole world, if they can't activate on it and they're saying this is hard to
do or I'm not capable of creating the experience you're trying to do,
not listening. We're doing these folks a disservice. We're disengaging folks. We are
putting them in possible situations where they can't win the moments that matter. So we
talked about how crucial it was that we show up in those moments. If we
(19:26):
don't hear them and we don't address what those pain points are, then we're
truly setting them up for failure. When we really need every at bat and every
win that we get in front of a customer, we need every moment to be
something that they want to repeat and that they want to talk about. So those
are the two things that I've spent a ton of energy focusing on over the
last few years. We are continuing to evolve and adapt different
(19:46):
ways. How do we make it more interesting? As we know everyone's changing.
Your Instagram Reels are 30 seconds. How do we get people's attention? How do we
make this important? How do we make it usable? So those are the things that,
you know, I'm really trying to work on and I think other organizations and
other groups can do similar things. It doesn't have to be this big, expensive
in depth training or process or binder, but it
(20:07):
definitely needs to be something that folks can activate on. So
important to think about that and I think also so receiving
the employees feedback, they're telling you where they're
having trouble serving the customers
who are feeling the pain. And of course, if they
keep coming up against the same problems or similar problems, well,
(20:30):
their experience is going to be dreadful and that ultimately will
cycle back to the customer. The question is they
are a great source for you and hopefully. I know, I know, I'm sure
you do. This is how do you go back to the root cause and
say, let's just Fix this upstream so they don't have to keep doing
heroics. Because oftentimes we do hear about heroics. And
(20:52):
there's kudos given at town hall meetings about, you know,
Joanne did three jumps and a flip to make this customer happy. And
you're wow, good for Joanne. She went out of her way, she worked late, she
worked weekends. We did that, created this report. But the, but the bottom
line is like you got the best situation to fix it where
it originates, right? Yeah. And I think that's the interesting. Based on what
(21:14):
you just said, why did Joanne have to do three backflips in a cartwheel to
get there? Like, why did we make it such a difficult process? And I know
you talk a lot about the hero piece, but we should just get to be
the awesome person in other people's stories in the bank. We shouldn't have to be
the hero in these scenarios. It should be simple enough that you know, we're
going through the processes and the efficiencies that make sense for customers.
(21:36):
So that's one of the first things I ask. I think I drove everybody a
little bit nuts when I first got here because everything I get into, I go,
why do we do it this way? Why did we keep doing it this way?
Like, oh, we've had complaints about this. Well, it's the way we know it,
or it's the way we built it, or it's the way the system allows. So
it's also being creative and challenging people to think about things
differently, being open to change. It might feel uncomfortable if we do it a little
(21:59):
bit different. But in the end, if it's a better process for you long term,
if it's a better process for the customer, then that's a win all around. Because
I think at the end of the day, the goal is that our employees want
to feel connected to our customers. They genuinely care about what's going on
in our customers lives, the success and you know that we call them customer
compliment letters, that we get some of the things that our customers say. It's
(22:19):
amazing, it's so amazing to hear about the impact that our
employees have had on these folks lives. And it's such a neat way
to kind of showcase that. So like as an example, we
have like an awards platform, a recognition platform.
We take the verbiage, we take the actual verbatims from our customers and we
put that out for the whole organization to see. Not only did Mark say he
(22:40):
liked this experience, he said you made him feel heard. He felt like he could
Trust you with what was going like those really crucial pieces so
that so often we get stuck in what went wrong or what's difficult. We also
want to make sure that we're highlighting you were able to create this amazing moment
just by listening to the customer, engaging with the customer and meeting their
needs. So there's a lot of different ways that we can impact the employees and
(23:02):
the customers at the same time. But I think this is a, you know, removing
again the hopscotch and the backflips is crucial. Yeah.
As you look to the future, as you think about the bank and
your bank has grown quite a bit in the last few years, you know, you're
going to have to scale what you're doing so that you can deliver
at least as good or better an experience for your customers to try and drive
(23:24):
their loyalty and have them tell their friends and get
referral business and all that good stuff. What do you have in mind
as the organization grows to kind of keep that
personal, keep that level of emotional connection we talked
about earlier in place. So the things that are crucial for me are in
improving our CX training and creating those
(23:45):
empathy touches and really keeping the human emotional connection as
a key point. As we grow, we just need to introduce CX sooner, We need
to introduce CX more often. We need to make sure that we help
folks understand. It used to be in banking that your customer competed with the
bank across the street. They'd say across the street they do this. Now we're competing
with every single single interaction that your customer has everywhere
(24:08):
they go. We're not, we're not comparing bank to bank anymore. We're comparing the most
recent thing that happened to me. The customer expectations have changed for how
fast or how quickly you can do things. But also, you know, the,
the piece just around, you know, but also keep me safe. So do things fast
but make sure nothing goes awry. So there's definitely opportunities for
us again to continue to improve training, to introduce training
(24:29):
sooner and to constantly have remind in those spaces.
Right. Inspect what you expect. You know, what gets tracked, gets impact is,
you know, one of the ways I've always heard it. So making sure that as
we scale we keep that, that personal touch. Right. We, we remember our
customers names, we know why they were in the last time they were in, but
also make sure that we're ready to deliver the experiences that they're, they're having
(24:50):
elsewhere. Yeah, I love, I love that you said we remember what they
came in for the last time they came in or called in. For
interacted with us. And I think it. And I'd be curious to get your
opinion on this. But one of the other advantages of the smaller
banks versus a larger bank, and I'm thinking now about
business, business or commercial clients, is if they're trying,
(25:12):
if. If they're in a business, for example, that's cyclical. Like, let's say
they're cyclical in contracting, and maybe they're a government
contractor or they're just a private contractor and
their business happens to be cyclical. Well, the big banks may not care
at all. They may not want to listen about the cycles that you go through,
but the smaller banks already know that you're going through
(25:35):
cycles. And the conversation's a lot different. The
conversations, you know, more collaborative with the bank.
Bank. At that point, the bank's a partner of yours, a business partner of
your. They're invested in you. If they've either lent you money or offered a
large line of credit, for example. So what do you. What are your thoughts about
that as being a really important advantage as a small
(25:57):
bank? So what you just shared is actually such a crucial part of what we
do at Provident. And we do customer highlight videos where we
go out to a business that we've created a great kind of relationship with,
and we highlight their business and they talk about their relationship with
Provident. And one of the videos that I got to be a part of, and
one of the neatest things I've ever heard a customer say was when all of
(26:18):
the other banks looked at me in black and white, you looked at me in
color. You came out to my place of business, you learned about
what I did. You didn't just look at the books. You didn't just say, hey,
here's the numbers. You took the time to invest in me to
understand my business and the value. And for that reason, I can't
imagine banking anywhere else. Like, that's the level that you're getting, where
(26:39):
the larger scale folks might go, yeah, this doesn't make sense. I'm looking at this.
This isn't connected. But we'll take the time to get to know you. We want
to understand where you are today. We want to understand where you're going. And we're
willing to make the investment in you as a customer to learn about you and
to connect dots. So that's the neatest thing. Again, having a customer say
this unscripted, this was his feeling, this was his opinion, was an
(27:01):
absolutely amazing testimonial. But also that was the impact he
had. The big banks just weren't interested in what he was doing. What a great
story. And I think it's true in banking. I think if you're
listening and you're in a, in a business
where you think, you know, you just can't compete because they've got all
these people and money and locations or whatever, hey, you've got a very
(27:22):
unique advantage because as you mentioned
with the people who call in want to know that, you know
what they called in about the last time. They don't want to have to repeat
it. This idea of know me extends to business
loans and it extends to all sorts of different things where
you have a competitive advantage because the large companies,
(27:44):
you're much more like a number. Right, Agreed. No, I
think that's the. And again, we, we hear that directly from our customers. I want
to go someplace where the bank knows who I am. I've been with your bank
for years, 20 years, 50 years. Like that's, that's a pride point. So
when you talked about partnership and connection, there is something about the bank that
helped you open your small business. There is something to the bank that was there
(28:06):
when you had to send your child to college and you weren't sure and, you
know, you had to move through those processes. There's something to the bank that supports
you in buying your first home. Like there. I keep saying moments that matter, but
these are such crucial points in people's. And that's another neat
thing. Providence been around for 185 years. So like we have, we've
been through it. We survived, you know, the PPP loans and had
(28:27):
such great feedback about how we got into the weeds with customers and got
them supported and got them what they needed. So, you know, our tagline is commitment
you can count on. And we very much mean that, that when you need us,
you have our commitment, you can count on us and we're going to support you
and we're going to help you. Well said. Well said. Tara. I'd
love to continue talking. We'll have to have you back on the show, but we
(28:48):
have to land the plane now. And I want to end with the
same question that I ask all my guests at the end of the show, which
is what delights you as a customer. I think the thing that delights
me most is people trying. I'm going to, I'm going to back into this. The
thing that delights me least is when people say I don't know or I'm not
sure or they make absolutely zero effort. I understand that in the service
(29:09):
industry, the pay might not be great and people deal with all kinds of
things every day, all the time. But the simplest interactions, if you are kind, if
you are friendly, if you are making eye contact, if you're engaging, and if you
try, if you go out, some people say go out of your way to please.
I don't need a grand gesture, but I greatly appreciate when people put in effort
to connect with you. Now, do I have my like, I expect this at certain
(29:30):
places, absolutely. But I think it's easier to delight customers than people
represent. I do. I enjoy the human emotional connection. So a smile.
People say your name, they repeat your name. I think that's crucial to connecting with
people. So, you know, it's for me, it's the little things that really seem to
go a long way. Love it. Love it. Tara, congratulations on the
great work that you're doing at Provident bank and thank you so much for being
(29:52):
a guest on the show. Thank you so much for having me, Mark. I really
had a great time. I appreciate it. I hope you
enjoyed this episode of the Delighted Customers podcast. It would
mean so much if you would take a moment to subscribe. You can go to
Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen to
podcasts. Click on the plus sign or follow button and that will ensure
(30:13):
that you don't miss an episode. And it helps get the word out to
others. While you're there. I'd love it if you'd leave a five star
review. I look forward to seeing you back here next Thursday.
Welcome to the Delighted Customers podcast. I am so glad
you're here. We challenge conventional thinking about customer
experience because I believe that improving experiences isn't just good
for business. It's a powerful way to make a meaningful difference
in people's lives. Each week we feature thought provoking
conversations with industry thought leaders from a variety
(00:30):
of backgrounds, offering you unique perspectives and actionable
insights. Get ready to sharpen your leadership and transform
your approach to customer experience. Let's dive
in. Well today
on the Delighted Customers podcast, I am so
excited to welcome a fellow banker. So
(00:53):
excited to have someone from the banking industry. And Tara
Brady is the Chief Experience Officer at
Provident Bank. Provident serves New York, parts of
Pennsylvania, New Jersey and is now quite a quite a large
bank. And so excited to have you on the show, Tara. Welcome aboard. Thank
you so much, Mark. I'm really excited to be here. Yay. So we're going to
(01:14):
talk about some fun stuff. In particular, if you're not familiar with it, in
banking there are sort of these mega banks that you probably have heard
about too big to fail banks and then there is a whole bunch of
other categories of banks that are trying to compete and get market
share. And we are today going to spend a little bit of time
talking about sort of this David and Goliath and I'm how can
(01:37):
you compete with the big bigger banks and
share some tips. But before we do, Tara, can you share with the audience a
little bit about your role now and a little bit about
your background on how you got to doing what you're doing today? Absolutely.
So my role as the Chief Experience Officer
entails everything that touches a customer. So the customer experience
(01:59):
segment currently have a team of four which has all different
dedicated focuses. CX insights and design, Voice of
the customer journey, mapping, traveling the customer journeys and understanding
where the pain points might be, removing friction. My team has taken on a leg
of our employee experience stool when we talk about employee
activation. So how do we empower our employees to be great
(02:20):
in front of customers? How do we give them the tools? How do we give
them the resources? How do we make sure that they feel supported? And then I
also oversee the marketing team. So when we think about that connection to
customers, everything they touch, everything they see about our brand has a
customer centric focus and feel. Because again, my team is a part
of all of those different processes. Yeah, love that model, the
(02:41):
structure of your team and what a great way to go about making an impact,
making a difference, having some influence over those different areas that
you shared. So One of the things that we are going to talk
about is this idea of thinking about how
we compete with larger organizations. In the world of banking in particular,
there seems like an, it almost seems like an unlevel playing
(03:04):
field. If you're not familiar with banking and may be true in other industries
as well. Once you get to a certain size, you can literally bring in your
own staff to do things like tech and you
can literally have like 30, 40, 50 people and, and have
proprietary systems where typically smaller to medium sized
banks work off of someone else's core operating system
(03:25):
middleware, other software applications for all the different product
categories are stitched together, for lack of a better word,
to make things happen. And so you have a lot less control and you're sort
of at the mercy of what those business partners
that are helping you deliver for the customer, however they want to
prioritize getting things done. And so I'll, I'll let you just respond
(03:47):
to that from your own experience. So the unique thing for me is
I started in the big bank world and I went from the big bank world
to the smaller regional bank. I've been in the credit union space.
I've gotten to travel this lens as an employee
and as a customer. So I feel that I have a pretty good viewpoint of
what the key differentiators are. The thing that I will say that I think is
(04:09):
most impactful about the regional bank and banks of our
size is we are very much in it with our customers. And when I say
we're very much in it, people say, you know, we are in your communities. All
banks will give you kind of that messaging. But I think the unique
thing about banks of this size is these things are real. We truly
are living in the communities where we work and we truly are making
(04:31):
decisions about you and your personal situation together
as a collective. It's not done by the big bank AI and it's not
done off at some random headquarters that nobody ever gets to
see. Group of folks is coming into our headquarters in Island, New
Jersey and we are working together to understand what are the pain points for
our customers. What does decision making look like? Do we need to have more
(04:53):
conversations? Right. So we're not at the, we don't have the joy of
having all of the like fancy toys and the shiny objects, but what we
lack in that area for me we make up in the human emotional connection. And
there's been so much conversation about AI and the speed of
things and you know you're going to get left behind if you're not in that
space. But I talk to customers all the time. I talk to happy customers, I
(05:14):
talk to frustrated customers, I talk to tired customers depending on what's happening in their
personal life. And you know, with banking there's very human touch points and
moments that matter. Crave that human connection. When we're dealing with something that
is so personal, we're talking about your banking and your money. That's not something you
want done by a robot or a computer. That's something that you know, when
I have a death in my family, I need advice on how to
(05:36):
manage a situation. When I'm starting my small business, I want
someone who also is working in what would be a smaller business
thinking about and helping me make those decisions. I want to see the person at
my bank that comes into my small business and banks and as I bank with
them, you know, they patronize my business. That's the benefit for me
of seeing all the places and all the communities that we touch. When you think
(05:57):
about those empathy driven experiences too, so much of customer experiences around
those connected moments that matter. You know, big banks focus on their
size and we focus on the moments where we can show up for you. And
I think that is a crucial part of the focus of why
not necessarily going with the large bank is beneficial for you as a
customer. You have more connectivity to us, we have more connectivity to you.
(06:19):
We have a clearer line of sight. Right. I'm not digging through millions of customers,
I'm looking in smaller numbers, which gives me more time to work on
what's important to you. And I say that as a CX leader who
takes feedback and we'll take that feedback back to teams and we'll make
improvements and changes and I'll call and follow up and let you know what we
changed. Because Mark, you called me and gave me the feedback. That is one of
(06:40):
the most connected experiences a customer can have. And I really don't imagine
that's happening on that kind of national forefront level. Yeah, I would
agree 100% and I really like the way you frame
that is the emotional connection versus the size
and bells and whistles perhaps that some of the larger banks have.
I think it's true in banking, I think it's true in other industries as well.
(07:03):
They're having similar conversations about, well, how can we compete with the
big guys. They have all these millions of dollars to throw at this and all
these people to throw at this. And while, you know, it is important
to have a strategy around how we're going to use
technology to improve the experience, the experience itself
is really what we're starting with and how we're going to use a
(07:24):
technology, not have technology in search of a strategy.
Very, very, very true. You hear conversations a lot about,
you know, that AI is going to replace this or technology can do this. Right?
My goal always, and I've said this several times in different conversations,
technology should only make things better for people. In my opin,
I should be able to support you faster as an employee because of technology.
(07:46):
You should be able to get immediate answers you need as a customer because of
our technology. But that technology shouldn't be the answer. And
again, banking is a unique industry in that you're dealing with the most crucial
thing in people's lives. You either have enough money or you're worried about making more
money, or you are worried about how much money you have and keeping it safe
and secure. Right? There's such a visceral connection to how you feel about
(08:09):
your money. Um, that it is something that it
just needs, it needs that human connect when you need advice, when you need guidance,
when you need support. It. It's just for me, it's not something that technology
shouldn't be fixing that portion of it. And I know people will say I have
a very outdated view or an, an old school sentiment to it, but I,
the customers I talk to are not looking for AI when something goes
(08:31):
wrong. They're not looking for AI when their child's getting married and they want to
celebrate and figure out how they're funding the wedding. They are wanting to share that,
they are wanting to connect with you and they're wanting to know that again in
those moments that matter, that their bank is going to be crucial in
supporting them. And so let's, let's talk about this in terms of, so
what's the big deal here? If you're in the C suite and you are
(08:51):
working for a mid sized company or even a larger company,
but maybe not a mega bank. And whether it's in banking or not,
and we're talking here about the customer experience and the emotional
connection that you're describing. You know, if someone were to say to you,
which we, we do here all the time, is like, well, I can't compete with
the guys. And you know, we need to make our numbers, we
(09:13):
need to hit our revenue targets and therefore, and we need
to keep our cost low because we got shareholders to answer
to. And so we need to look at our operating margins and our
return on average assets and all these metrics that bankers use. You know,
we we don't have the time for the emotional connection or we have to
automate as much as we can. How would you respond to that? My response would
(09:36):
be that that's very, very short sighted. So I think we all know it's, it's
far harder to find new customers than it is to do a, of taking
care of the ones that you have. One of the key proponents, and this is
something that I absolutely love about Provident and about my CEO is his big
push is called, I shouldn't say it's called. It is focusing on
creating advocates for life. How do you get a customer that is so
(09:57):
happy and so engaged and so connected to you that they'll go out into their
communities and they will advocate on your behalf? How do we,
we have to take those calories and we have to take those moments that matter
and we have to make positive impact. I mean that it just, it would cost
us so much more to constantly chase customers than it would be
to really engage the ones that we have and help them to become advocates for
(10:17):
our organization. The other portion of that is that investing in our
employees and making them advocates for your organization, they have to be
as bought into your brand and as engaged as your customers are. And when you
make that investment in not only the human emotional connection of your customers but
also of your employees, you really help impact and change lives. And at the end
of the day, the bottom line is more customers that are happy to stay where
(10:40):
they are and are not enthralled by the shiny objects of the big banks and
not willing to jump ship and like that, an emotional connection. Know other
people like them that are also looking for that. So for me it's again, it
would be very shortsighted to just say hey, we have to go fast and we
have to try to keep up versus let's take that time, let's invest,
let's build that relationship and let's create that advocacy. Yeah.
(11:00):
Recently I had Bruce Temkin on the, on the show actually. I
think that's coming out this, this coming week. He's, he's come back a couple of
times and Bruce was the co founder of cxpa. He was the founder
of XM Institute. He worked for many years at Forrester before that. And
one of the metrics they used was one that looked at success,
effort and emotion called the CXI at
(11:23):
Forrester. And an emotion of the three customer Was I
successful? Did I accomplish what I hoped to accomplish? What was the effort like
for me? And then the emotional how did I feel about the experiences I went
through. And emotion, all three of them were important on loyalty, but emotion
was the most important. So to your point, if you know,
part of the answer I think to the C suite is if that's what's going
(11:44):
to drive loyalty, if that's what's going to drive customers
to keep coming back and telling their friends about the experience,
then there's your financial argument. Absolutely. I mean it just,
it's, it's very hard to put pen to paper to say, here's the math of
this, this is exactly how you know. And some folks will say yes, there's, there's,
you know, the customer lifetime value, there's, there are certain numbers. It's very hard
(12:06):
to put pen to paper on how people are advocating for you, but
also how important that advocacy is. And the other piece of that is
that customers are equally loud when they're dissatisfied. So if you're just rushing to
push products and you're rushing to try to hit numbers quarter over quarter just
because to hit that number when those folks are dissatisfied and they're not emotionally
connected when they leave, they're noisy, they're unhappy, they're disjointed.
(12:29):
So now you've created kind of anti advocates or detractors through this process.
So it's not just on the front end. I think it's also on the back
end of that scenario.
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(12:51):
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(13:13):
can align teams, break down silos and then you can track
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(13:35):
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(13:58):
I am really interested in the position that
you identified as a need in the organization that you're going to
be filling soon, which is sort of the liaison between the
employees and the customers and filling that gap and
helping make that connection, bridging that for the ultimate
customer experience. Could you describe more about what that
(14:21):
role is going to do and what the outcomes you Hope to achieve from it?
Absolutely. So as a part of the CX team, we're going
to have a role which is going to be called employee experience Activation
leader. And their role is to understand what the
roadblocks are for our employees to activate in different
situations. So say we provide a tool, right? That feels really awesome and
(14:42):
we've tested it and it seems great. But when the employees in that
interaction, right, they're not able to use it as quickly as they need to or
they can't draw the information they need. The goal is that this person goes out
and supports the employees to understand how are things going with the customers
and supporting the customers. Do you have access to the tools that you need? Are
the tools helpful to you in interactions? Right. It doesn't matter if I make the
(15:04):
coolest tool on the planet. If when you're in the heat of the moment with
the customer, you're like, oh, I can't remember where that we want to avoid all
of those pitfalls. I think we've all worked in a place where someone's handed you
a manual and you're like, I can't read this manual in front of a customer.
So I think that's the neatest thing about this is we're going to take,
you know, idea and action based on customer feedback of where this
pain point came from and we're going to build the tools and the support
(15:27):
and the training models and the things that the employees need to
activate and then we're going to have someone work on it with them. With the
outcome being, again, a better employee experience. We all know more engaged employees
deliver better customer experiences. This also allows our employees
to have a feedback, role and model in the tools that they use and
the experiences that they're creating. And I think pretty much everyone feels
(15:49):
better when they get to be a part of something versus just, hey, go do
this. So I think that's the part I'm most excited about. We've learned
so much in my last. It's almost three years now with Provident of just
where we thought we fixed something and maybe we made it a little bit more
difficult for the employee, right? So that's one of the things we're also going to
measure. Measure is employee effort score, right? How easy is it to be great
(16:09):
in an interaction with a customer, what the ultimate goal is? Again,
really well educated, empowered employees who have
great efficiencies. My three E's of kind of EX and CX lead to great
customer experiences. So I could not be more excited for that. To be coming
to Provident. I lost sound. I don't know where you went. Sorry. Oh, you're back.
Sorry, it was my bad. I had myself on mute because I was
(16:31):
coughing. Forgot to take myself off of mute. Good. Okay. So
we'll probably put a commercial break in there.
Okay. Oh, good. I'm gonna get a drink too then. If we're doing that, I'm
just gonna. Comment on that and ask you another question. Put a little pause
in here for myself so I can see when to come back.
So kudos to you for being creative enough to think through that
(16:53):
position because there's so much great intelligence that can
come from employees, whether on the front line or behind the scenes. A
bit that can really tell you what's going on. That, yeah, there's some
operational data, there's some sentiment data that you can glean, but
when you hear direct from the people who are serving customers, that's
such a great source of information to be able to respond to.
(17:16):
I could not agree with you more. And I think that is also one of
the best parts about working at Providence. Since I got here, I've done a ton
of journey mapping and when I journey map, we're doing the ux, we're doing
what. What does the customer feel and what do you feel? And I think that's
a sign of engagement and, you know, connection to our
culture is every single person I talk to and I say, this is why we're
(17:38):
going to do journey mapping. This is the outcome our team members to back to
the very original about being the regional bank. They care. They want
to point out this is painful and this could be better. Right. So I don't
think anything speaks more to our organization when we think about our customers is
that our employees also know that this is a process and they know that these
things are taking place and they are eager to make improvements on behalf of our
(17:59):
customers, which is also awesome. That is awesome. Tara, can
you you share this? I think this is a great strategy that I don't think
a lot of people are doing this, hiring this person that can be that
liaison. Are there any other strategies that come to mind
that can help small to medium size start with banks?
Hopefully the idea goes across other industries as well that,
(18:21):
that maybe you've implemented or you're in the process of implementing
that. I think the most crucial thing that we can all focus
on and really implement on is digestible amounts of
information. So coming at this, as a former branch
employee, there are a lot of things that you have to tackle in the day
to day, there's a lot of things that you have to remember. And every day
(18:43):
something's changing in a bank all the time. We're always getting new information, new promotions,
new campaigns, new alerts. So putting things into
digestible, easy to access, you know,
tidbits I find to be incredibly crucial for improving
this process. And I also just think it goes back to listening to the employees.
So I know we're creating this role, but if they're telling you that things are
(19:04):
inefficient and if they're telling you we can design the best process in the
whole world, if they can't activate on it and they're saying this is hard to
do or I'm not capable of creating the experience you're trying to do,
not listening. We're doing these folks a disservice. We're disengaging folks. We are
putting them in possible situations where they can't win the moments that matter. So we
talked about how crucial it was that we show up in those moments. If we
(19:26):
don't hear them and we don't address what those pain points are, then we're
truly setting them up for failure. When we really need every at bat and every
win that we get in front of a customer, we need every moment to be
something that they want to repeat and that they want to talk about. So those
are the two things that I've spent a ton of energy focusing on over the
last few years. We are continuing to evolve and adapt different
(19:46):
ways. How do we make it more interesting? As we know everyone's changing.
Your Instagram Reels are 30 seconds. How do we get people's attention? How do we
make this important? How do we make it usable? So those are the things that,
you know, I'm really trying to work on and I think other organizations and
other groups can do similar things. It doesn't have to be this big, expensive
in depth training or process or binder, but it
(20:07):
definitely needs to be something that folks can activate on. So
important to think about that and I think also so receiving
the employees feedback, they're telling you where they're
having trouble serving the customers
who are feeling the pain. And of course, if they
keep coming up against the same problems or similar problems, well,
(20:30):
their experience is going to be dreadful and that ultimately will
cycle back to the customer. The question is they
are a great source for you and hopefully. I know, I know, I'm sure
you do. This is how do you go back to the root cause and
say, let's just Fix this upstream so they don't have to keep doing
heroics. Because oftentimes we do hear about heroics. And
(20:52):
there's kudos given at town hall meetings about, you know,
Joanne did three jumps and a flip to make this customer happy. And
you're wow, good for Joanne. She went out of her way, she worked late, she
worked weekends. We did that, created this report. But the, but the bottom
line is like you got the best situation to fix it where
it originates, right? Yeah. And I think that's the interesting. Based on what
(21:14):
you just said, why did Joanne have to do three backflips in a cartwheel to
get there? Like, why did we make it such a difficult process? And I know
you talk a lot about the hero piece, but we should just get to be
the awesome person in other people's stories in the bank. We shouldn't have to be
the hero in these scenarios. It should be simple enough that you know, we're
going through the processes and the efficiencies that make sense for customers.
(21:36):
So that's one of the first things I ask. I think I drove everybody a
little bit nuts when I first got here because everything I get into, I go,
why do we do it this way? Why did we keep doing it this way?
Like, oh, we've had complaints about this. Well, it's the way we know it,
or it's the way we built it, or it's the way the system allows. So
it's also being creative and challenging people to think about things
differently, being open to change. It might feel uncomfortable if we do it a little
(21:59):
bit different. But in the end, if it's a better process for you long term,
if it's a better process for the customer, then that's a win all around. Because
I think at the end of the day, the goal is that our employees want
to feel connected to our customers. They genuinely care about what's going on
in our customers lives, the success and you know that we call them customer
compliment letters, that we get some of the things that our customers say. It's
(22:19):
amazing, it's so amazing to hear about the impact that our
employees have had on these folks lives. And it's such a neat way
to kind of showcase that. So like as an example, we
have like an awards platform, a recognition platform.
We take the verbiage, we take the actual verbatims from our customers and we
put that out for the whole organization to see. Not only did Mark say he
(22:40):
liked this experience, he said you made him feel heard. He felt like he could
Trust you with what was going like those really crucial pieces so
that so often we get stuck in what went wrong or what's difficult. We also
want to make sure that we're highlighting you were able to create this amazing moment
just by listening to the customer, engaging with the customer and meeting their
needs. So there's a lot of different ways that we can impact the employees and
(23:02):
the customers at the same time. But I think this is a, you know, removing
again the hopscotch and the backflips is crucial. Yeah.
As you look to the future, as you think about the bank and
your bank has grown quite a bit in the last few years, you know, you're
going to have to scale what you're doing so that you can deliver
at least as good or better an experience for your customers to try and drive
(23:24):
their loyalty and have them tell their friends and get
referral business and all that good stuff. What do you have in mind
as the organization grows to kind of keep that
personal, keep that level of emotional connection we talked
about earlier in place. So the things that are crucial for me are in
improving our CX training and creating those
(23:45):
empathy touches and really keeping the human emotional connection as
a key point. As we grow, we just need to introduce CX sooner, We need
to introduce CX more often. We need to make sure that we help
folks understand. It used to be in banking that your customer competed with the
bank across the street. They'd say across the street they do this. Now we're competing
with every single single interaction that your customer has everywhere
(24:08):
they go. We're not, we're not comparing bank to bank anymore. We're comparing the most
recent thing that happened to me. The customer expectations have changed for how
fast or how quickly you can do things. But also, you know, the,
the piece just around, you know, but also keep me safe. So do things fast
but make sure nothing goes awry. So there's definitely opportunities for
us again to continue to improve training, to introduce training
(24:29):
sooner and to constantly have remind in those spaces.
Right. Inspect what you expect. You know, what gets tracked, gets impact is,
you know, one of the ways I've always heard it. So making sure that as
we scale we keep that, that personal touch. Right. We, we remember our
customers names, we know why they were in the last time they were in, but
also make sure that we're ready to deliver the experiences that they're, they're having
(24:50):
elsewhere. Yeah, I love, I love that you said we remember what they
came in for the last time they came in or called in. For
interacted with us. And I think it. And I'd be curious to get your
opinion on this. But one of the other advantages of the smaller
banks versus a larger bank, and I'm thinking now about
business, business or commercial clients, is if they're trying,
(25:12):
if. If they're in a business, for example, that's cyclical. Like, let's say
they're cyclical in contracting, and maybe they're a government
contractor or they're just a private contractor and
their business happens to be cyclical. Well, the big banks may not care
at all. They may not want to listen about the cycles that you go through,
but the smaller banks already know that you're going through
(25:35):
cycles. And the conversation's a lot different. The
conversations, you know, more collaborative with the bank.
Bank. At that point, the bank's a partner of yours, a business partner of
your. They're invested in you. If they've either lent you money or offered a
large line of credit, for example. So what do you. What are your thoughts about
that as being a really important advantage as a small
(25:57):
bank? So what you just shared is actually such a crucial part of what we
do at Provident. And we do customer highlight videos where we
go out to a business that we've created a great kind of relationship with,
and we highlight their business and they talk about their relationship with
Provident. And one of the videos that I got to be a part of, and
one of the neatest things I've ever heard a customer say was when all of
(26:18):
the other banks looked at me in black and white, you looked at me in
color. You came out to my place of business, you learned about
what I did. You didn't just look at the books. You didn't just say, hey,
here's the numbers. You took the time to invest in me to
understand my business and the value. And for that reason, I can't
imagine banking anywhere else. Like, that's the level that you're getting, where
(26:39):
the larger scale folks might go, yeah, this doesn't make sense. I'm looking at this.
This isn't connected. But we'll take the time to get to know you. We want
to understand where you are today. We want to understand where you're going. And we're
willing to make the investment in you as a customer to learn about you and
to connect dots. So that's the neatest thing. Again, having a customer say
this unscripted, this was his feeling, this was his opinion, was an
(27:01):
absolutely amazing testimonial. But also that was the impact he
had. The big banks just weren't interested in what he was doing. What a great
story. And I think it's true in banking. I think if you're
listening and you're in a, in a business
where you think, you know, you just can't compete because they've got all
these people and money and locations or whatever, hey, you've got a very
(27:22):
unique advantage because as you mentioned
with the people who call in want to know that, you know
what they called in about the last time. They don't want to have to repeat
it. This idea of know me extends to business
loans and it extends to all sorts of different things where
you have a competitive advantage because the large companies,
(27:44):
you're much more like a number. Right, Agreed. No, I
think that's the. And again, we, we hear that directly from our customers. I want
to go someplace where the bank knows who I am. I've been with your bank
for years, 20 years, 50 years. Like that's, that's a pride point. So
when you talked about partnership and connection, there is something about the bank that
helped you open your small business. There is something to the bank that was there
(28:06):
when you had to send your child to college and you weren't sure and, you
know, you had to move through those processes. There's something to the bank that supports
you in buying your first home. Like there. I keep saying moments that matter, but
these are such crucial points in people's. And that's another neat
thing. Providence been around for 185 years. So like we have, we've
been through it. We survived, you know, the PPP loans and had
(28:27):
such great feedback about how we got into the weeds with customers and got
them supported and got them what they needed. So, you know, our tagline is commitment
you can count on. And we very much mean that, that when you need us,
you have our commitment, you can count on us and we're going to support you
and we're going to help you. Well said. Well said. Tara. I'd
love to continue talking. We'll have to have you back on the show, but we
(28:48):
have to land the plane now. And I want to end with the
same question that I ask all my guests at the end of the show, which
is what delights you as a customer. I think the thing that delights
me most is people trying. I'm going to, I'm going to back into this. The
thing that delights me least is when people say I don't know or I'm not
sure or they make absolutely zero effort. I understand that in the service
(29:09):
industry, the pay might not be great and people deal with all kinds of
things every day, all the time. But the simplest interactions, if you are kind, if
you are friendly, if you are making eye contact, if you're engaging, and if you
try, if you go out, some people say go out of your way to please.
I don't need a grand gesture, but I greatly appreciate when people put in effort
to connect with you. Now, do I have my like, I expect this at certain
(29:30):
places, absolutely. But I think it's easier to delight customers than people
represent. I do. I enjoy the human emotional connection. So a smile.
People say your name, they repeat your name. I think that's crucial to connecting with
people. So, you know, it's for me, it's the little things that really seem to
go a long way. Love it. Love it. Tara, congratulations on the
great work that you're doing at Provident bank and thank you so much for being
(29:52):
a guest on the show. Thank you so much for having me, Mark. I really
had a great time. I appreciate it. I hope you
enjoyed this episode of the Delighted Customers podcast. It would
mean so much if you would take a moment to subscribe. You can go to
Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen to
podcasts. Click on the plus sign or follow button and that will ensure
(30:13):
that you don't miss an episode. And it helps get the word out to
others. While you're there. I'd love it if you'd leave a five star
review. I look forward to seeing you back here next Thursday.
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