Finnish lenders offer model of customer service

The main office of OP-Pohoja, a leading Finnish bank based in Helsinki, is shown in this undated photo. Finnish lenders are famous for their customerfriendly services. / Korea Times

By Kim Jin-hoo

Nokia mobile phones, Angry Birds games, Xylitol gums, Santa Claus

Village, and sauna. These are some of the contributions made in a country, Finland. There is yet another contribution that Finns have brought to the world; Finnish banking service. Banking service in Finland is known to be the most advanced model of its kind, according to a survey by IMD business school in Switzerland.

The student exchange program in Finland let me experience the advanced banking service in person, and what intrigued me most was a shared principle among Finnish banks, "standing with customers." It aims to put customers before any other values. Back in Korea, I found that services of Korean banks are arguably as great as those of Finnish ones, but there is some room for further improvement. Two changes must be followed, and those are services available in English and "un-uniformed" tellers.

Korean banks need to provide foreigners with proper English communication, lowering the barrier of using their services. After arriving in Finland, it took a long time for me before visiting a Finnish bank for the first time. Not knowing whether employees were proficient enough in English so that they could carry out my tasks with ease, I did not dare to step into the bank. It turned out to be an unnecessary time consuming.

All Finnish employees I met, without exception, were highly good at communicating in English, thereby there were no difficulties at all in dealing with banking work. Such a robust English prowess did not alienate expatriates like me, and it struck me hard with admiration.

Unluckily, it is hesitated to say that foreigners in Korea are enjoying the same benefit I had in Finland. For them, Korean banks are hardly a paragon of English communication largely due to employee's insufficient English competency. Foreign population is consistently soaring with 10 percent growth rate each year. This increase may churn out an ever growing number of complaints, unless any solutions are administered.

On the other hand, they will become a new pool of clients by making employees ready with honed English skill. Training employees to sharpen the language ability and offering services in English are a jumping-off point to stand with customers who are from outside of Korea.

Bank tellers in a suit or uniform are nowhere to be found in Finland. Instead, casually dressed tellers sitting before the desk are waiting for visitors. On my first visit to the Finnish bank, as I mentioned above, I struggled to step in. There was another challenge stopped me from stepping further.

None of tellers were uniformly dressed, and this unexpected scene pressed me down with overwhelming discomfort. As I came from a country where darkly uniformed tellers are the norm, tellers in casual style looked as if they were just the same visitors. Soon I came to realize that this casual dress code is an intended policy in order to put visitors' mind at ease.

People are mostly prone to feel difficult when juggling with vexing bank affairs. Staying concentrated on a barrage of technical banking terms is a huge distress for them. They become desperate when a teller whose mouth pours out complex words is even uniformed in gloomily dark colors, perceiving that they are threatened by teller's authority. Wittingly or unwittingly, teller's uniform causes mood disturbance.

On the contrary, being in casual wear implies there is little distinction between tellers and clients. Clients feel less threatened as tellers in casual clothes look similar and even friendly to them. Namely, non-uniform service is an implicit and indirect expression of ‘standing with customers.'

Ossi Leikola, head of banking Poland and Baltic countries at Nordea Bank, once explained why the Finns hold "standing with customers" as an unwavering principle, trust and patronage from clients are built up when they perceive a bank is always there for them. Finnish banks would fail to be the top tier of customer service, were they not considering customers seriously.

Like my experience in Finland, I want to see Korean bank branches in which English is readily used and employees are casually dressed. Another contribution of Finland is worth to learn and follow for the benefit of customers.

Site Map E-paper Subscribe Register LogIn
Site Map E-paper Subscribe Register LogIn