Results have started coming in from our new customer trust surveys, and they show that North Shore Bank is taking care of the people who bank with us. They also show where we can do better.

“We are doing a good job of establishing and building trust with our customers. And there’s still room to grow,” said Craig Witz, VP, Branch Sales, who led development of the survey, which goes out to customers 90 days after they open a checking or savings deposit account with North Shore Bank.

The trust survey asks questions about whether the bank representative greeted and helped the customer in a friendly, professional, and efficient manner; whether the customer will return for more financial advice and recommend the representative to others; and how satisfactorily North Shore Bank’s products, services, and employees have performed for the customer.

Overall, North Shore Bank has scored 92.38 out of 100 on customer trust this year so far. For the month of February, we scored 99.56.

The bank started distributing the surveys in October. Responses from 48 customers were counted in this batch. The questions were developed in-house by Craig and his team.

“A lot of reading went into the background,” he said. “We wanted to know what establishes trust, what defines trust, and what elements help you get there faster.”

Although the bank achieved a high score on the surveys, Craig reiterated that there is always room for improvement. The biggest action item? Checking in with customers after they open a new account.

“The number one factor in building loyalty, and therefore doing well on the survey, is following up after the account is opened,” Craig said. Customers who answered “yes” to a question asking if their bank representative had contacted them to see how the account was working out gave the bank significantly higher scores on the rest of the survey than did customers we weren’t able to connect with.

North Shore Bank best practices are to call new checking households approximately 10 days after the account was opened. “A handwritten thank-you note is also a nice touch, and I think very helpful,” Craig said.

“We’ve all had that experience of getting out of a meeting, and as soon as you leave, you think of six more questions you wish you’d asked,” he said. “Doing that follow-up call gives the customer the opportunity to ask those six questions.”