RIT Professor Helps Track Customer Satisfaction in Financial Institutions

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Eugene Fram

Economic conditions play havoc on the banking industry. So how do trust officers retain customers during turbulent times and maintain positive relationships?

“In our study we surveyed 96 bank trust officers across the U.S. using a mail questionnaire,” says Eugene Fram, professor emeritus in the E. Philip Saunders College of Business at Rochester Institute of Technology. “We wanted to provide an analysis of some of the initiatives bank trust officers undertook to weather this period during 2008 and 2009 when faced with increased compliance regulation and financial industry problems.”

Together with RIT alumnus Michael McCarthy (B.S. ’79, MBA ’88), who is a marketing professor at Miami University’s Farmer School of Business, Fram co-authored “Retaining customer satisfaction in turbulent times”—recently published in the International Journal of Bank Marketing.

“On average, trust officers were able to keep customer satisfaction from going into a free fall but suffered a decline in their own job satisfaction due to professional stress,” says Fram about the survey results.

The paper makes three recommendations to senior managers to help them maintain customer satisfaction during turbulent times:

• Continue to focus on the fundamentals of customer focus—applying the basics even after economic conditions improve;
• Use existing and emergent technology (mobile, social media applications) for customer support that is current and customer-friendly;
• Constantly review and update the financial value proposition offered to customers. Product, price, place, and promotion need to be keenly aligned.

Fram can be reached for interviews at 650-209-5724, 585-732-6817, or eugenefram@yahoo.com. The article is available upon request.

Note: One of nine colleges at RIT, the E. Philip Saunders College of Business enrolls more than 1,200 undergraduate and graduate students. The Saunders College and its entrepreneurial learning facility, Venture Creations, work in partnership with RIT’s Albert J. Simone Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship to integrate business education with RIT’s world leading technical and creative programs. Graduate programs include Master of Business Administration, MBA-Accounting, Executive MBA, and master’s degrees in finance and administration.