IBT Enterprises

Events & Press

IBT Hosts 13th Annual Retail Banking Trends Conference
Attendees uncover creative strategies for retail banking

ATLANTA, Sept. 4, 2003
IBT, the nation’s largest specialty retail branch and performance consulting company, hosted the 13 th annual Retail Banking Trends Conference, Aug. 6-8, 2003, at the W Hotel in San Francisco. During the two-day conference, participants discovered innovative solutions to boost their performance within their retail branch.

The theme was “Let’s Get Creative” and the event contained several firsts. Unlike many retail banking conferences, this program did not include any speakers from the financial institution industry. It relied on experts outside of the financial services industry to share creative ideas and solutions that can work in banking. Another first was sending the attendees out into the city “In Search Of…” creative retailing ideas that they could use back at their institution. The focus of this event was on retail, not banking.

Vicki Jocelyn, regional manager of Boeing Employees Credit Union (BECU), said, “This is the fifth IBT conference I have attended, and I benefited from this one more than any to date. The speakers were inspirational and reflected the innovative changes in customer service and sales, which are important to us in our daily operations.”

During the opening session, Doug Lipp, president of Doug Lipp & Associates and former head trainer for Walt Disney University, delivered the keynote address, stressing the importance of strategically training front-line employees to provide exceptional customer service. He suggested great customer service stems from great leadership, which is reflected in the front-line employees attitudes and behaviors. IBT presented an interactive workshop, and Rob Broadfoot and Matt Blackburn of BlackburnBroadfoot Inc., a creative services company, focused on the steps in the creative process to market and merchandise the branch. The attendees put into practice what they learned by creating an ad campaign for a famous brand of hot sauce.

Creating a “wow“ customer experience was the topic Jim McPartlin, general manager of the W Hotel in San Francisco, focused on during his afternoon session. Sharing the thought process behind the W Hotel experience, McPartlin encouraged managers to lead by example, create an environment in which the employees have ownership around the customer’s experience and have fun.

"Attending the conference each year enables our branch to retain a cutting-edge knowledge of the retail banking world,” Jocelyn added. “The workshops are extremely beneficial in reinforcing retail banking methods, as well as networking with members of the industry and looking for new ideas to implement within our retail branch program.”

To promote innovative and imaginative solutions to daily procedures, IBT divided conference attendees into teams to scour San Francisco for retailers with creative approaches to customer service, merchandising and employee relations. Each team was given a topic to research out on the streets of San Francisco and instructed to look for unique styles and practices. Once the search was completed, each team presented their findings to the group, explaining how the approaches could be applied within a retail bank.

During the closing session, Mary Duncan, IBT performance consultant, presented the benefits of “creative coaching.” Duncan focused on how to get employees to learn to solve their own challenges. “Instead of telling the employee what they need to do, you really need to lead them to understand themselves how they can accomplish the task at hand. You do that with very targeted questions that encourage the employee to come up with the answers they need.

“During this session we encouraged managers to tap into their creativity while coaching employees,” Duncan continued. “Effective coaching will maximize employees’ performance, uncover hidden potential and drive results throughout the entire branch.”

Patricia Clemens, president of IBT, said, “ The success of this conference exceeded all of our expectations. This was a very interactive conference, and it was very rewarding to see such enthusiastic participation from our clients. The feedback and suggestions we received from the participants is invaluable and will only enhance next year’s conference.”