Monday Morning Musings
Volume XXIV, Number 24 (Issue 1185 ) June 15, 2026
Exceptional – Part I
I recently spoke to a group of young leaders who are taking part in the Southwestern Graduate School of Banking at SMU. As I often do when addressing a group of individuals from a service industry, I asked for a show of hands of those whose organization prides itself in delivering exceptional customer service. The response was typical. Eighty hands were quickly raised from a group of eighty students. Well, either this group of bankers hail from an exceptional collection of financial institutions or… their respective standards for what constitute exceptional service must be called into question or… some among them (their organizations) are suffering from a case of excessive hubris/self-deception. That is to say, they are fooling themselves since it is highly implausible that every single bank represented in that auditorium is part of the crème de la crème when it comes to service.
This point was reinforced in an unexpected way last week when I opened a money market account at one of the nation’s larger banks. I did so because of a promotional rate advertised in a mail flyer, so credit to the bank’s marketing team for an eye-catching campaign. When I visited the nearest local branch of this big bank I was anticipating mediocre service at best, especially inasmuch as the branch was quite busy. However, what I experienced was an exceedingly high standard – one I would rate as exceptional. Such service could be attributed to how I presented myself, or perhaps the size of my opening deposit, or possibly the staff’s training and experience, or it might be due to a combination of those factors.
Whatever the cause, I will not bore you with the details, other than to say that that same day I stopped in at the branch of the bank where we normally conduct our banking business and boy, was I disappointed. Suffice it to say that my long-time bank acted indifferent to my presence. Granted, given the size of our current bank we are veritable minnows swimming in a multi-trillion-dollar sea.
One of my mentors told me that when it comes to banking relationships, it is better to be a medium size fish in a medium size pond rather than a small fish in a big pond or an exceptionally large fish in a small pond. His reasoning was that by being a medium size fish in a medium size pond you can attract attention when wanted whereas small fish go unnoticed (are immaterial) and big fish, though they receive attention, can find such attention to be problematic during challenging times.
In the case of our longstanding banking relationship, we do maintain a healthy balance and as such we are clients of their Private Client/Wealth Management Services group. That fact, coupled with past interactions, has led me to expect a certain level of service. But on this day our current bank missed the mark entirely. Exacerbating my frustration, as I looked around at the five office doors I could see from the waiting area, I did not recognize a single name plate though I did recognize the face of a wealth management advisor who was briefly visible in his office doorway. Thus, after sitting in the waiting area for twenty minutes with barely any acknowledgement I left.
I will own the fact I walked in without an appointment. Furthermore, now that it is summertime some of the investment advisors might have been on vacation while others could have been on a lunch break given the hour. Nonetheless, when I compare the service of the new banking relationship and that of my long-time bank, for the first time in a while I am considering shifting a substantial percentage of our liquid assets to the new bank. Service, including consistency of service levels, matter.
In Part II we will explore another facet of how we have been conditioned to respond to the exceptional compared to the good.
Soli Deo Gloria
“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.” 1 Corinthians 9:24
J. Keith Hughey
Mobile: (210) 260-0955
E-mail: keith@jkeithhughey.com
Website: www.jkeithhughey.com
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