RECOMMENDATIONS Perceived Service Quality Recommendations According to Forbes Magazine, customer service is the new marketing (Mickiewicz, 2011). Our CVATTM analysis indicated that Bank of America is seriously struggling with providing exceptional customer service. We are recommending that BOA conduct a complete overhaul of their customer service program in order to get back on track. The following are some things that BOA can implement to ensure they are providing exceptional customer service. 1) Listen to the customer. Like many large companies, Bank of America conducts customer satisfaction surveys and ways to comment and complain if they have something to say. But, our research found that there were far too many unsatisfied customers. BOA should make a greater effort to listen to their customers and make changes to their services according to what their customers need. BOA is providing ways for customers to speak up, but they are not ensuring the complaints are problems are solved to the complete satisfaction of the customers. Another part of listening to customers is being available to listen. In his article “Why Customer Service is the New Marking” Matt Mickiewicz of The Young Entrepreneur Council points out that one of the golden rules of customer service is being available to your customers (2011). Since Bank of America is a big company, they have a customer service department. But some customers complain that customer service agents are not readily available and they have to wait several minutes for their call to be answered. BOA should ensure that there are an appropriate number of customer service representatives available to assist customers in a timely manner. 2) Improve communication about products and services. A lot of information about Bank of America’s products and services are included in the fine-print. This makes for confused and upset customers who don’t understand BOA’s fee structure. Improving communication outside of the fine print could result in fewer complaints about fees due to misunderstanding. 3) Make complete customer satisfaction a top priority. One of the most important things that Bank of America can do to accomplish this is to make sure they hire the right people. The right people understand how to effectively deal with customers. Employees hired must be patient and know how to treat others in a respectful way. Bank representatives need to be excellent listeners and should make the customer feel valued. If customers are a priority, BOA employees should be able to solve any problem a customer has with the bank. The best employees are those who are able to make the customer feel like they are in control, while adhering to bank procedures. 4) Improve internal customer service training. From our research, we know that Bank of America has many programs in place to train their employees on customer service. However, our research would indicate that their current programs are not completely effective. We would recommend that BOA assess their current training program to ensure that employees know that customer service is a top priority. We would also recommend continuing customer service training through each employee’s tenure with BOA to make sure that customers know how to appropriately handle difficult situations. 5) Make sure that customers feel valued. BOA should identify their most valuable customers and make them feel special in order to retain them. Our research found that many long-time BOA customers feel undervalued. BOA should know who their long-term customers are and should focus on keeping them. These customers will give good feedback to the company and will recommend it to others. It is cheaper to keep a customer than acqui re new ones. BOA could consider rewarding long-term customers special perks. For example, they might offer a fee forgiveness credit after one year, an interest rate reduction at five years, 50% off a safe deposit box after ten years, and so on. Rewarding customers for staying with the bank will make them loyal.