I made a comment about this recently, but I felt in light of today's events it deserved its own post.

I work as a relationship banker at a branch. When I first joined, I noticed a severe problem. Whenever I had to call our back-office departments to assist with a client's issue, I'd often get a tired, unmotivated back-office employee who didn't want to go an inch beyond the bare minimum.

Sure, I get it- we're just here to work, to exchange our time for money. Act your wage, go home and don't overwork yourself. Our FI notoriously underpays everyone in our organization, so I'm not necessarily upset when a back-office worker refuses to help a client and I out, or tries to rush us off the phones without actually resolving our issue.

However, the clients get caught in the crossfire here because they walk into the branch trying to get resolution on some problem, only to be given the runaround by a faceless, heartless and unfeeling corporation (represented by an anonymous voice on a phone). They get frustrated, they know *we're* trying our best (in the branch), but that doesn't do anything to help their own situation. I feel for these people.

I noticed that every once in a while I'd get a back-office employee that was the total opposite. They were kind, understanding and patient, going above and beyond to work with me on the phone and get the client's needs taken care of to the best of their ability and within their policies and restrictions. Sure, putting in a request to merge a "ghost card" balance is technically the purview of XYZ department, but they might decide to put in the request themselves to expedite it and get the member's card unblocked on the spot so they can buy groceries/gas.

I started making a note of these back-office employees names, so that I would be able to talk to them again if I had a very tricky or difficult situation arise in the branch where I wanted my clients to really receive A service.

I noticed that these back-office employees hold even more power of our clients in the branch than we do. They represent the faceless, nameless company, right? And if they're agreeable and pull some levers, the faceless, nameless company smiles upon the customer and they might have a favorable resolution. I started noticing that when I got a good back-office employee who would go above and beyond, the members in branch would be SO thankful, the look of relief and happiness visible upon their faces.

I realized that I could tap into this resource and kick back the benefits to the back-office employees while taking a small commission for myself. Everyone wins!

What I started doing was subtly gassing up the back-office employees on the phone in front of my clients. "Oh, don't thank me, thank Jessica from Fraud. Jessica is being really nice and going through *all* your statements for you so we can identify every single fraudulent claim. She even took herself off the phone queue to focus on your guys' case". Cue a plethora of thanks from the clients, and an embarrassed thank-you from Jessica.

Then, I started turning up the dial and showering more praise on the back-office employee who was helping out, to really amp up the clients and get them thinking "Wow! I am so thankful that they are doing this for us!" Then, I whip out a piece of company letterhead and tell the members to fill out a "service recognition letter". "You know what? I think Jessica is really going above and beyond here for you guys- how about this, why don't you write down a couple of sentences about how she helped you today, and guess what? I'm going to send it to her boss! She deserves this recognition, don't you think?"

Our clients of course jump on the idea and fill out the entire paper with glowing praise and thanks for the back-office employee. And, without fail, they *always* ask "hey, you've been really helpful too- can I put your name down as well?" Of course, I say, I would be honoured!

After the members leave, I look up who the back-office employee's direct supervisor is, I scan the service recognition letter and send a short paragraph to both the supervisor and the employee commending them for going above and beyond and helping the clients, and how the client could not contain themselves from writing a glowing thank-you letter to show recognition to the employee. At the same time, I also send the scanned document to my own supervisor and tell her that I (and a back-office employee) received a recognition letter from a client

Back-office employees are not customer-facing, so they are not supposed to receive such commendation letters. When they do, it's a HUGE deal for their bosses and their personal file. Receiving a commendation letter while not being member-facing is somewhat of an impossible feat.

Win-win. The back-office employee is shocked and awed, their manager is thankful and impressed, my manager pats me on the back, and the client is absolutely ecstatic.

What ended up happening was that word spread throughout the back-office that I was hooking people up with commendation letters. When I got connected to back-office employees over the phone, they recognized my name. The service and help I got from the back-office started increasing dramatically. Whereas I used to only know one "good guy" in a certain department, I now had more than I could count. Every time, I'd kick them up a commendation letter and praises, and every time I'd have another devoted back-office employee thanking me in Teams and telling me to come to them "for whatever I need".

Today, I had a back-office employee who I've kicked back a couple of commendation letters to take herself off the phones for AN ENTIRE HOUR just to be ON STANDBY on the phone while I opened a special kind of account for a regular of mine who I had promised A service to. She didn't have to be there, it wasn't her job, and she had other stuff on her plate to deal with. I could have done all this by myself. But she is vying for a promotion, and she knew I always make sure my back-office counterparts are well taken-care-of, and she thanked me with an embarrassed, happy voice once more as my regular was writing out a beautiful letter of commendation for her (with my name tucked in there too, of course). I sent it to her boss with my own paragraph of praise, explaining how her expertise and patience saved the day and calmed my "frazzled" regular.

By spreading the love and scratching back-office employee's backs, I have noticed a marked increase in the average quality of help we receive in our branch from all these departments. It's not only benefiting me and my members, but benefiting every member that walks through our doors.

Shout them out, people! They're underpaid, overworked and rarely appreciated, but it doesn't have to be that way. Some days we're lucky to be client-facing, so send some of that luck upwards.