Shirlet Brooks will tell you that most of the time, the only way to learn about a customer’s needs is to ask – and then listen. And sometimes, building a relationship helps customers realize needs that they hadn’t fully considered. Then we can tell them about services they might not even know we provide. Shirlet found that sometimes “understanding needs” means providing extra banking services; sometimes it means a lot more.

Every month we check in with nearly 6,000 customers, some from every branch, to find out how happy they were with a recent transaction. That gives AmSouth a continuous view of customer satisfaction across the franchise. In 2000, for example, 92 percent of our customers surveyed reported that they were satisfied with our service.

It is clearly not a coincidence that some of the branches with the highest levels of customer satisfaction are also turning in above-average sales performances.

That kind of service quality is a cornerstone of our relationship philosophy. It’s also a key to increasing sales productivity. Great service means understanding our customers’ needs. Reaching higher sales productivity means meeting more of those needs.

AmSouth’s focus on service quality involves training, recognizing and rewarding employees who provide superior service. Our service quality is constantly measured using more than 100 standards.

Our TeleBanking Call Centers handle 60 million calls each year – but the average wait time is only 22 seconds.

The sales productivity part of the initiative is extremely powerful because of its breadth – it spans all six states and all lines of business – and because of the potential impact of even incremental improvements. The theory is simple: bring our lower performing markets up to the current company average.

AmSouth bankers have strong, proven sales techniques, and we will be teaching them throughout the company with workshops and training. We know what works, we understand the power of good service, and we are spreading the word.