Key Takeaways
- Direct observation shows how employees actually spend their time versus how managers assume they do. This often reveals inefficiencies, such as senior staff spending disproportionate time on basic instruction or supervisors performing low-level tasks that could be handled by junior staff.
- Operations often run smoothly under normal conditions, but “monkey wrench” moments like unexpected traffic spikes or complex customer interactions can derail service quality.
- While quantitative metrics like wait times provide a foundation, they lack the “why” behind customer sentiment. Seeing live interactions allows organizations to understand non-verbal cues and “contagion effects,” where one customer’s mood influences the entire branch environment.
One of the Burnie Group’s most effective methods for helping clients understand their branch operations is on-site observation. By spending time on-site, we gain a firsthand understanding of employee activities and workflows, process execution, and the live customer experience.
There’s no substitute for direct observation. Self-reported tools can be inaccurate, and internal data tells only part of the story. Nothing replaces what is seen and heard in the branch itself.
Based on our experience, similar patterns occur across many industries, including personal banking, commercial lending, HVAC, and retail. Here are five impactful insights that can be learned by observing branch operations with a critical eye.
1. Understand how employees are truly spending their time
Managers often assume teams follow planned schedules. In practice, front-line staff respond to real-time demand and make situational decisions. Human nature also plays a role: people gravitate toward familiar, comfortable tasks that may not align with priorities.
Common patterns we observe:
- Managers jump in to support the front line during busy periods. While well-intentioned, it often happens too soon and for too long, crowding out other critical responsibilities.
- Supervisors get too involved with low-level tasks: This provides short-term relief but is an inefficient use of high-value labour. Crucially, it limits opportunities for new leaders to develop their own skills.
- Senior sales/business development staff spend disproportionate time teaching and coaching junior colleagues. While some mentorship is healthy, persistent reliance on top performers for basic instruction indicates gaps in formal training and onboarding programs. It also diverts the best revenue generators away from closing their own business.
Bottom line: There is almost certainly valuable capacity that can be unlocked by understanding what is and isn’t getting done, and how your in-branch staff are spending their time.
2. Outlier events can dramatically impact the customer experience
Operations run smoothly when demand is predictable and staffing aligns with plans. But outlier events, unusual situations requiring disproportionate time can throw a “monkey wrench” into operations, resulting in long wait times and even customer abandonment.
Success isn’t defined by performance under normal conditions; it’s about anticipating and responding to “wrench” moments while maintaining service quality.
Common outliers we see:
- An unexpected spike in traffic creates a snowball effect on wait times.
- A single complex customer interaction ties up a rep in a low-volume branch such as a small business client depositing a month’s worth of checks in one visit.
- Unscheduled maintenance happens at an inconvenient time such as a security team changing a safe lock during the lunch rush, pulling staff away when they’re needed most.
Bottom line: Successful operators anticipate outliers, respond quickly, and restore normal operations. Understanding likely outliers is essential to designing an effective playbook.
3. The local environment really matters
Multi-site operators often segment branches by size, volume, or growth potential for planning and staffing. This is useful, but it can miss crucial local nuances. We frequently see branches in the same segment facing very different realities.
Examples:
- Two branches with the same daily transaction count may need different staffing due to the mix of cash vs. non-cash, transactions per customer, and average transaction value.
- Catchment demographics such as language, cultural norms, and service expectations should inform staffing and training.
- Proximity to the next nearest branch can materially affect foot traffic and its distribution throughout the day.
- Mix of personal vs. business banking, and within each, the balance of servicing vs. Advisory/sales, drives different workflows and skill requirements.
Successful execution depends on appreciating these nuances when considering planning and staffing requirements.
Bottom line: The best operators account for local nuances through explicit planning and empower branches with enough autonomy to adapt to the market.
4. Learn what customers really think
A primary advantage of spending dedicated time in the branch environment is the unfiltered customer feedback it provides. While operational metrics, such as traffic counts, wait times, average handle time (AHT), and quantitative survey scores, provide a necessary foundation, they capture only a fraction of the customer experience. What these quantitative data points typically lack is the context behind the data (the “why”) and the accurate reflection of customer sentiment.
Direct observation answers questions like:
- Did customers consider an eight-minute wait acceptable or too long?
- Was one person upset, or was the entire line frustrated?
- Did staff resolve issues quickly and confidently, or did problems linger and spread?
Observing customers reveals non-verbal communication, tone, and crucial contagion effects (the dynamic influence of one customer’s mood on others). This is particularly valuable for understanding the disproportionate impact of outlier events on the overall customer experience.
Bottom line: Customer satisfaction data is incomplete on its own. Observing live interactions adds depth and context that is not in transaction data.
5. Too many priorities can stifle productivity
Frontline employees often face a hidden burden: a proliferation of mandates from across the organization. Product wants cross-sell and upsell. Marketing needs opt-ins. Product teams want feedback on pilots. Legal and compliance require checks. Customer experience wants surveys. The list grows.
Each initiative may be valid, but in aggregate, it is too much. Too many directives from too many stakeholders create confusion about what to prioritize. At best, execution is diluted; at worst, high-value work gets crowded out.
This problem is easy to miss because each incremental ask seems small and often comes from a different team. Observing and speaking directly with frontline staff reveals the cumulative load and how it snowballs into an unmanageable workload.
Bottom line: Observe the frontline to fully understand everything they are being asked to do. Use that insight to focus on initiatives that drive growth while improving both customer and employee experience.
Conclusion
Significant insights can be derived from direct observation of branch operations. Hands-on observation helps organizations:
- Understand how employees truly spend time, which can be used to improve workforce planning, refine targets, and update standard operating procedures.
- Anticipate and plan for outlier events to maintain a great customer experience under stress.
- Plan and staff each branch appropriately by factoring in local nuances alongside segment-level efficiencies.
- Grasp true customer sentiment, beyond the raw numbers, to see how in-branch experience shapes outcomes.
- Drive profitable growth by giving the frontline clear, focused direction based on a grounded view of priorities.
The additional insights from observing day-to-day employee and customer interactions can be the foundation for improving branch operations. Contact our consulting team today to schedule a structured assessment to unlock the organization’s full potential.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Why isn’t internal data enough to understand branch operations?
Data and metrics lack the reason and the specific context behind the numbers, such as non-verbal communication and true customer sentiment. Direct observation is the only way to see how processes are actually executed and capture the unfiltered reality of the branch environment.
2. How do “outlier events” impact the customer experience?
Unusual situations like traffic spikes or complex transactions act as a “monkey wrench” that can cause long wait times and customer abandonment. Because performance under stress defines success, operators must use direct observation to build playbooks that anticipate and resolve these moments quickly.
3. Why does having too many organizational priorities decrease productivity?
When multiple departments issue small, individual mandates, the cumulative load creates an unmanageable workload for frontline staff. This “hidden burden” leads to confusion over priorities and often causes high-value growth initiatives to be crowded out by administrative tasks.
By Graeme Hartlan, Practice Leader, Strategy & Operations