For the past three years, North Shore Bank employees have SOARed ever higher — and last year, the gains were particularly substantial, SVP Sue Doyle reports. In 2016, our internal summary scores for the SOAR Together program leapt from 79 percent in 2015 to 84 percent.

The SOAR Together program asks employees to:

• Smile and create a positive first and lasting impression (even over the phone or via email)
• Offer personalized solutions based on the customer’s needs
• Actively listen to hear and understand the customer’s needs and goals
• Respond promptly and knowledgeably with answers that build the customer’s confidence and trust

When the program was being developed, it was decided that employees should aim to SOAR when dealing with internal as well as external customers, as this would help make the behaviors habitual and provide a way to track performance. Every month, employees receive an email asking them to rate their dealings with one or two other departments, based on the SOAR scale. Those ratings are shared with managers, who can then take action to foster any necessary improvement within their team.

The steady rise in SOAR scores is probably mostly due to simple awareness of the program, Sue says — employees know what is expected of them and their colleagues, and the bank’s high-touch culture perpetuates itself. She notes that there has also been more collaboration among departments since SOAR Together was implemented. “There’s a lot more sharing and purposeful conversation now,” she says. For instance, the different sales departments have gotten better at sharing contacts and building off of one another’s client relationships.

As for this year, Sue says, our SOAR Together goal is to achieve 90 percent in each service quality. To reach this benchmark, employees are encouraged to:

• Include a SOAR Together goal in your employee performance conversation
• Use Seymour Salutes and recognize co-workers for outstanding service
• Participate as a team in quarterly SOAR Together training exercises developed by training
• Continue to discuss ways you can improve behaviors as a team
• Make recommendations to improve bank and department performance to your manager

Go forth and SOAR!