Sick of your aloof banker? He won't be next time. A butler is going to take care of his manners.
Customers have become a more fickle good than they used to be and a lifelong partnership with the bank is no longer a given. That's why banks have started looking more closely at the behavior of their relationship managers and taken to unusual measures to correct their manners: Bank Linth for example wants its staff to not just look, but also behave impeccably.
The institute a while ago decided to move the bank into the future, developing a new concept for its branches and a hybrid robo-advisory. finews.ch repeatedly reported on it.
No More Bullet-Proof Glass
Now, the bank has gone a step further, CEO David Sarasin said in Rapperswil, on the Lake of Zurich, on Thursday. In future, a renowned butler will teach all its staff who are meeting customers how to treat them with elegance and style. About 120 of its employees will have to undergo such a course.
The reasoning behind the order is pretty straight-forward: with banking becoming more or less an advisory business – most transactions being completed online – the contact with the customers has to be reevaluated, with the clerk behind the bullet-proof glass becoming a concept of the past.
Bank Branch: Your Meeting Zone
Bank Linth has already revamped the shape of its 19 branches. The customers today is being welcomed in meeting areas. All the more important it is that staff know how to treat the clients and what empathy means.
The man teaching the 120 Linth bankers is Hanspeter Vochezer. He once served as butler to Gunter Sachs, the legendary heir to the Opel dynasty. Naturally, Vochezer has the batches from all the schools available in the business.
Butler-cum-Banker
Hanspeter Vochezer is the owner of Knigge Coaching (& Swiss Butlers), a company advising on and teaching aspects of personal branding and image consultancy.
The butler-cum-banker combination isn't unique to Linth of course. UBS is also relying on Vochezer's services.
