Quality Control

Like most banks customer service and transactions (time and accuracy) are highly monitored for quality. Investors Savings Bank, again like most banks, uses cards and/or online surveys that customers can fill out that expresses their level of satisfaction in many areas in which their visit encompasses. These area would be friendliness of the teller, how much time the transaction/s took,....etc. The use of QC charts doesn't really work very well with intangible products and services that Investment Savings Bank offers, so the surveys of customers are the best way to guage quality.



Investors Savings Bank, like all other companies, is always looking to continually improve it's practices and quality for the sake of business success and customer satisfaction. A bank is is responsible for using careful procedures for the processes to ensure that customers money is accessable to them. Banks cannnot afford to have unintended variablitiy in there services. The fishbone diagram is most definately used to seek out inefficiencies that might be adversely effect quality. Training of employees, new bank technology (software and hardware), and even the manager's schedualing of more employees at peek hours or days will probably be the categories most looked at using the fishbone diagram.

Investors Savings Bank does not use Six Sigma practices. Investors Savings Bank should look into adopting Six Sigma practices because it has been proven to increase efficiency which positively correlates with quality. Also, since Six Sigma basically regiments practices, it would be very fitting for a bank because banks must follow many procedures to accomplish their everyday business. (www.isbnj.com)

Quality Management

4 Dimensions of quality:

PROCESS OF DESIGN:
To meet the customers need, Investors keeps opening new modern branches in diverse cities in New Jersey (Red Bank Branch is the next grand opening) and trying to create ways in which the customers can gain access to their account in a really simple way.

PROCESS OF CONFORMANCE:
The last grand opening - Perth Amboy Office - had high quality of conformance. Local customers are really happy to have a branch close to home, with not only bilingual, but efficient and courteous service.
High quality conformance is shown in the use of online banking too.

ABILITIES:
Availability: Each branch has its own operations hours. The regular hours are from Monday to Friday from 8:30 am to 5 pm and Saturdays from 9 am to 1 pm. Perth Amboy for example has late-night hours Thursdays and Fridays until 6 pm. Online banking is 24 hours and 7 days a week, and the same for the ATMs and the Phone Automatic System.
Reliability: The bank offers such things as savings and checking accounts. These types of accounts given to customers are very secure and there is almost no chance of failure. Possible threats are fraud and other types of abuses to these accounts. There are many regulations and ways for customers to regain their lost moneys, so the threat is taken care of.
Maintainability: In case of any sort of account abuse, the customer is immediately notified to these wrong doings. Steps are then taken toward the reacquisition of their funds.

FIELD SERVICE:
The customer service at Investors is prompt, competent and integral. Investors will always try to help its customers, providing personalized and friendly service. The objective is developing new business while retaining and expanding existing customer relationships.

Investors Savings Bank currently has many quality systems in place. These include 24/7 online banking, ATM machines, bank employees (during store hours), automated phone services, and online information on their website. Future improvements can be made by opening up more new stores which would allow for a greater number of ATM locations and a greater number of bank employees to speak with. The automated phone services should become less automated and become more personal with live representatives of the bank. This would establish a more personal feel to the bank, which should earn Investors Bank a good reputation, which would generate more business. Also, on the topic of speaking with customers, Investors Bank has many bilingual locations, but increasing the number of languages spoken by employees could be a very big asset for brining in new clientele. http://www.isbnj.com/

Service Process Design

SERVICE PROCESS DESIGN

The tangible (explicit) service in Investors Savings Bank is borrowing and lending money to its customers and real estate services. The financial security provided to them is the implicit service and the facilitating goods are the 47 branches all over New Jersey, the drive-up windows, the ATMs, the Point-of-Sale (POS) Terminals, the checks, and the debit and credit cards.

Investors Savings Bank offers co-routed services in teller stations and at the customer services representative desks (branch operations). Here it offers a moderate number of choices to customers, providing personalized and friendly service, products tailored to the needs of its clients, and competitive interest rates. In the other hand, Investors ATMs are service systems with a very limited number of pathways from which customers may choose and they provide a limited set of services and there is little customer discretion in using them; so ATMs fit as provider routed in the service matrix.

CUSTOMER CONTACT:
To open an account at Investors, the presence of the customer is required at the desk. The Customer Service Representative will interact with the customer during the opening of the account process. After that, the customer has more than one choice: access to his or her own account via the teller or drive-up (again face-to-face), by the phone (via 1-800-252-8119), via internet (http://www.isbnj.com/) or at the ATMs (low contact system). The ATMs are the best example of self service and technology at the same time, but if we want to consider technology, we must mention the website and the online services offered by Investors. Technology allows customers nowadays pay their bills in matter of minutes, shop online, transfer money among accounts, and more.
Investors focuses operations in the long-term relationship with its customers. And the employees have the objective to bring 110% of them to successfully satisfy every customer. At the same time, employees are trained not only to accomplish with the description of the position they got, but trained in customer service excellence. Productive employees are rewarded with yearly bonuses.

Complementary services for Investors Preferred and Preferred Plus Customers :
Free checking
Free checks
Free online banking with bill pay
Free money orders
Free travelers checks
Free notary
Free check imaging
Free ATMs worldwide*
Discounted or free sweep protection
Discounted or free safe deposit box
Special Preferred loan rates
Special Preferred deposit rates
*Investors Savings Bank will reimburse up to $6 in ATM surcharges you incur per month for Preferred Plus Banking and up to $3 per month for Preferred Banking. Customers will not be charged the surcharge and no extra fee will be deducted from their account.