Episode Notes:

City National Bank Executive VP and Chief Marketing Officer Linda Duncombe joins The Customer Experience Show to discuss how City National Bank is a little different than the other big name banks, how she deals with difficult situations involving her customers, and how the recent pandemic has affected CNB.

3 Takeaways:

• Great CX leaders need to be willing to break bad news to their customers. Doing this in the proper way requires bravery and a gentle touch.
• Honesty in marketing needs to be more than a buzzword. A commitment to be honest and transparent is a key first step in creating a great customer experience.
• Creating a great experience for your customers requires thinking through needs from their perspective. CX managers need to be willing to put themselves in their customers’ shoes.

Key Quotes:

• “The importance of digital to the relationship with our clients has grown and grown and grown over the last 12 months, and we have been very innovative in that way. That we serve our clients. We basically sent home 80% of our workforce within a few days of when it got really serious with COVID last March and we've worked tirelessly to make sure our clients feel that we're still there for them 24 seven.”
• “We put together a workforce that was more than just the relationship and we had people from operations, from product strategy, from HR, from legal processing loans. So we could get these [PPP Loans] through, so our clients could get the money that they needed to help their businesses. And it was something that everybody from the CEO, Dan got involved in something that we feel incredibly proud about, and we're doing it again with phase two of the PPP program. And it's just what we do, people. Don't question it.”
• “When Frank Sinatra's child was kidnapped, we were one of his banks and he came to our CEO at the time and said, I need a bank that can open their safe on a weekend. I'm being told that that can't be done. And he'd been told no by another bank. And our CEO at the time said, yes, I can open the safe.”

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This episode is brought to you by IBM. If you are responsible for Customer Experience, they've created a White Paper just for you. In the CX North Star Report, you can learn more about how to activate your CX vision. Download it here.

Bio: 

Linda Duncombe is executive vice president and chief marketing, product and digital officer of City National Bank. Ms. Duncombe leads a team that is responsible for advancing the company’s brand and digital strategy, articulating its value proposition, and supporting business development. 

Ms. Duncombe oversees marketing, client experience, advertising, and communications as well as digital channels, product development, credit cards, and multicultural outreach. She is also responsible for the bank’s technology innovation team, which identifies and deploys fintech solutions for City National and its clients.