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IBT Introduces “Service Beyond Service” Workshop
New workshop helps partners develop customer service program foundation

ATLANTA, April 16, 2003
IBT, the nation’s largest specialty retail branch and performance consulting company, announced its new customer service workshop, Service Beyond Service. The one-day workshop was designed to help IBT’s bank partners gain and retain customers by developing the ultimate customer service experience. The addition of Service Beyond Service brings IBT’s total number of workshops to eight in addition to its six training courses. The workshops were created to provide financial institutions with the tools necessary to master retail banking.

“Service Beyond Service was a natural addition to our suite of financial workshops,” said John Nicola, senior vice president of IBT. “Most of our workshops focus on how to develop branch employees’ selling skills. Before developing sales skills, employees need to understand how to deliver excellent customer service. Our new customer service workshop teaches bank employees how to go beyond delivering basic service to the customers who walk into their branch.”

Service Beyond Service is customized to fit each bank’s needs. Aspects of the institution’s customer service standards are incorporated into the workshop. Participants are taught how their communication, interaction and responses affect each individual customer connection. Additionally, participants role-play how to create “service beyond service” for both external (bank customers) and internal (bank employees) customers.

In October 2002, IBT conducted an initial Service Beyond Service Workshop with Alexandria, La.-based Red River Bank and solicited feedback about the workshop from the bank.

While Red River Bank was not one of IBT’s partners at the time of the initial workshop, it became one shortly after by enrolling its employees in the workshop. According to Debbie Triche, vice president and branch manager at Red River Bank, focusing on customer service has lifted every employee’s spirits. “Our goal was to find a partner who could understand our customer service theme and work with us in rolling out our customer service program. We found that in IBT. The major difference between IBT’s customer service workshop and another vendor’s workshop is that IBT customizes it to fit your specific needs.

“IBT helped us build a solid foundation on which to create our own customer service program. The workshop gave us the opportunity to define what customer service is to Red River Bank. Every participant analyzed how his or her particular branch was performing on customer service delivery. Service Beyond Service also gave us the opportunity to put ourselves in the customer’s shoes to truly discover what they feel excellent customer service should be,” said Triche.

“Our goal was to create a workshop that taught beyond the basic customer service skills,” Nicola said. “This workshop is not just about shaking hands. Our workshop takes the practice of good customer service to another level. We teach our participants how they can tailor their communication skills to best suit the needs of each customer.”