I absolutely HATE it! Our location has seen a huge downturn in walk-ins and foot traffic over the last couple of weeks. 60% of the day I'll be sitting, customerless, looking out the window or looking for things to follow up on. There's only a small trickle of regulars that actually come to the branch and one of the other employees always pounces on them first due to their location vis-a-vis the door.

I absolutely despise it when the branch gets slow and there isn't a constant stream of customers. First of all, the hours go by SO MUCH SLOWER compared to when the branch is very busy. Impossible to get in your zone and grind out customer interactions when there's no one there. On the days when the branch is busy, I don't even have time to blink before lunch or break time is upon me.

Second of all, a tiny trickle of regulars means that sales pressure starts rearing its ugly head. We're at one of the most sales-heavy CUs, so this is a huge problem for us and for our managers. When we're slammed it's absolutely trivial to rack up insane sales figures. You present the customers with a product recommendation or a pre-approval for a credit card, if they say yes great, if they get shy and say "I'll think about it" you let 'em go home with the paperwork and immediately roll the dice again with the next one in line.

When it's dead, on the other hand, it might take hours to get a customer who's not a regular (can't really try and sell something to a regular), and so you have ONE chance to get them to take you up on your product recommendation. You'll have to fight them and use all the "overcoming objections" strategies from the playbook, harangue the guy constantly and try to convince him right there and then to sign his pre-approval or use some of his savings to open up a CD. It's exhausting and grueling, not only for the customer but also for you. When you have one chance per ~2 hours, you pour your heart and soul into it. If they end up walking away, it's quite sad. If it happens over and over then you start feeling that noose tightening around your neck as management demands a "plan of action" from you in order to start meeting your sales goals.

Lastly, when it's dead, the managers don't ever have to step on the line. That means they're completely free to spend their time observing you when you do have that one customer interaction. Not only do you have insane pressure to sell to that ONE customer, your only chance... you now also have to contend with your managers picking apart the entire interaction to try and find things to "suggest improvements on". Oh, yes, you pitched this credit card and really knew how to answer their questions effectively and explain the benefits, but the reason they didn't take it HAD to have been because you didn't talk about X, Y or Z in conversation before bringing it up! Nevermind that customer was only in here for a quick transaction and I didn't have the time to have a long conversation.

(Management doesn't believe that customers can decline sales for any "valid" reason, to them each decline is actually just an "objection" (something that management believes only happens when customers are misinformed) and if we follow our sales scripts and "overcome objections" correctly then every single cross-sell should result in the customer accepting. If they don't, then it's some sort of employee error)

The easiest days by far are the days where two employees are off at the same time. We have a constant supply of customers, sales goals continuously get hit, and local management is too busy to do their "impromptu coaching sessions".

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