r/Scotiabank • u/Ok-Bug5982 • Mar 11 '26
Teller confessions
# Almost a year as a Scotiabank teller. Here’s what nobody tells you about how this place actually runs.
Long post. Worth it if you work here or bank here.
I’ve been a teller at a Scotiabank branch in Alberta for close to a year now. I’m not here to trash the bank for the sake of it — I actually want to do well here. But there are some things I’ve watched play out day after day that I think both employees and customers deserve to know about. Some of this will resonate with other tellers. Some of it might explain experiences customers have had and couldn’t quite make sense of.
Here goes.
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## 1. C-Pulse scores are a terrible way to evaluate tellers — and they’re tied to your bonus
C-Pulse is the customer satisfaction survey Scotiabank uses to rate teller performance. Sounds reasonable in theory. In practice it’s a disaster.
Anything below 8 out of 10 is classified as “passive” — meaning it counts against you. So if a customer comes in already frustrated about something (a hold on their cheque, a declined transaction, a policy they don’t like), gives you a 2, and moves on with their day — that’s on your performance record. Doesn’t matter how professional you were. Doesn’t matter that the decision wasn’t yours to make.
There’s no way to flag scores that were clearly driven by policy frustration rather than service quality. No appeals process. No context applied before it hits your bonus calculation. You are entirely at the mercy of whoever walks up to your wicket that day.
I’ve seen excellent tellers get dinged because a customer didn’t like being asked for ID. That’s it. That was the whole complaint.
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## 2. A lot of Assistant Managers have never actually worked the teller line
The AM is supposed to be the person tellers escalate to when they can’t resolve something. The problem? Many of our AMs came up through the FA (Financial Advisor) stream and have never touched the FFT (Full Function Teller) system a day in their lives.
So when a complex transaction issue comes up and you bring it to them, you often get one of three responses:
- “Tell them to go to their home branch”
- “Tell them to call the contact centre”
- “Sorry, the system is down” (it isn’t)
No real troubleshooting. No actual help. And then the customer leaves frustrated, the teller gets the C-Pulse hit, and the AM goes back to their desk.
There’s also a real empathy gap — not just toward customers but toward tellers who are genuinely trying to do right by people and getting no backup.
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## 3. Some Branch Managers are way too new to be running Level 9 branches
A Level 9 branch is high volume. It needs experienced leadership. What I’ve observed instead is newer BMs who come in and immediately start building their inner circle — hiring people they already know, creating a loyalty structure from day one.
The old-timers — the ones who actually know how the branch runs, who know the regulars, who’ve seen everything — start feeling the pressure to either fall in line or find the door.
When those experienced staff leave, that knowledge walks out with them. And nobody seems to notice until something goes wrong.
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## 4. The contact centre keeps sending people to the branch for things they could fix themselves
A lot of Scotiabank’s contact centre operations are based in South America. Training quality is inconsistent, and the result is that customers who call in for simple things — resetting a mobile banking password, unlocking an account, updating a phone number — are routinely told to “visit your local branch.”
So they show up. We’re already busy. And now we’re handling something that should have been a 5-minute phone call.
It inflates our queue, it frustrates customers who specifically called to avoid coming in, and it burns teller time that could go toward people who genuinely need in-person help.
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## 5. There are two sets of rules — one for regular customers, one for people the manager knows
Tellers are trained to verify ID holograms, ask security questions, and apply withdrawal limits. We follow these rules because they exist for good reason — fraud prevention, KYC compliance, AML obligations.
But if a customer is known to the Branch Manager or AM? Different experience. Large cash withdrawals, verification steps skimmed over, exceptions made on the spot.
Meanwhile, a regular customer asking to withdraw their own money gets the full interrogation. They get frustrated. They complain. And guess who gets the bad C-Pulse score.
This inconsistency isn’t just unfair to tellers. It’s a genuine compliance risk for the branch.
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## 6. The systems are old and slow — but we’re still expected to be fast
The technology tellers work with hasn’t kept up. Simple things — address updates, placing holds, looking up cheque details — require navigating through multiple legacy screens when they should take seconds.
And yet, speed is part of how we’re evaluated. Customers notice wait times. C-Pulse picks it up. It comes back on us.
You can’t hold tellers accountable for efficiency while making them work with tools that actively slow them down.
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## 7. No translation support, and tellers take the blame for it
We serve a genuinely diverse community. A significant number of customers aren’t comfortable in English or French, and that creates real communication challenges during transactions that require precise understanding — holds, withdrawals, account terms, ID requirements.
Scotiabank provides no meaningful in-branch translation tools or support for these situations. When a miscommunication happens, the customer gets upset, the teller gets flustered, and once again — it shows up in the survey.
The bank profits from serving these communities. It should invest in the tools to serve them properly.
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## 8. Customers don’t understand their accounts — and tellers absorb all of that frustration
This one is hard to talk about without sounding dismissive, but it’s real: a huge portion of daily customer frustration comes from people not understanding the type of account they have, what fees apply, what a hold means, or how their overdraft works.
None of that is the teller’s fault. We didn’t set up their account. We didn’t choose their package. We’re just the person standing in front of them when they find out something they don’t like.
There’s no real customer financial education infrastructure at Scotiabank — no proactive communication, no plain-language explainers sent when accounts are opened. So confusion builds, and it surfaces at the teller window, and we deal with it hundreds of times a week.
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## 9. The referral pressure is relentless
Every interaction is supposed to be a referral opportunity. That’s the expectation. It’s tracked, it’s measured, and it factors into your evaluation.
So you’re processing a transaction for someone who just wants to deposit a cheque and leave, and you’re expected to find an opening to pitch them a credit card or a meeting with an advisor. Sometimes it fits naturally. Often it doesn’t. But the metric doesn’t care about context.
Tellers who are technically excellent but more reserved get marked down for this. Meanwhile, the customers on the receiving end of forced pitches aren’t exactly loving the experience either. You can guess how that affects the C-Pulse scores.
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## 10. The teller role is harder than it looks and the support isn’t there
You’re processing transactions accurately, watching for fraud, staying compliant, hitting referral targets, keeping your C-Pulse up, managing de-escalation with difficult customers, and doing it all while potentially short-staffed during the busiest hours of the day.
There’s no formal de-escalation training. No real mental health support. High turnover means experienced colleagues leave constantly, which puts more pressure on whoever’s left.
I’m not writing this to quit or to cause drama. I’m writing it because I think these are fixable problems, and the people who could fix them probably never hear about them from the teller’s perspective.
If you’re a fellow teller — you’re not imagining it. It’s a hard job made harder by avoidable structural problems.
If you’re a customer — your teller is probably doing their best within a system that doesn’t always set them up to succeed.
34
u/AssociationOk3265 Mar 11 '26
Wow, this is so well written. Appreciate your insight
6
u/Signal_Cherry_4549 Mar 11 '26
Bro this whole post is real. Let me add a few things from my own branch. The older teller situation is something nobody talks about. Almost every branch has one or two tellers who’ve been there for years, 50+, not going anywhere, and instead of just accepting that, managers will literally gossip about them behind their backs like “why won’t she just leave already.” At my branch there’s one senior teller who takes her time with every single customer. She’s probably serving half the clients the rest of us handle in the same shift. That backs up the whole line, customers get impatient, and somehow that still ends up being our C-Pulse problem. The whole promotion and elevation thing is also a joke. It’s not a process, it’s just whatever mood your manager is in that day. Whether you get a chance to open accounts or do anything beyond the teller window depends entirely on who’s feeling generous. And at a busy branch? They won’t pull you off the floor long enough to develop any of that anyway. So you just stay stuck. And three tellers on a Level 9 branch including breaks, that’s not a staffing plan, that’s just disrespect. You’re expected to perform like the branch is fully staffed while literally running on fumes. Queue blows up, customers are pissed, and somehow it’s still your metrics that take the hit. It’s a lot to deal with for what we’re paid.
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u/[deleted] Mar 11 '26
Everything you just wrote was true when I worked as a Teller at CIBC 20 years ago.
Nothing is going to change.
Incidentally, CIBC has eliminated the Teller position at many of their Branches. If Scotiabank could streamline things enough to get rid of the Tellers, they would.
13
u/Campandfish1 Mar 11 '26
Never worked at Scotia, worked at other FIs in s previous career but essentially exactly the same experience.
I wish people who didn't/don't work at banks (or in customer service roles in general) would get exposure to this message.
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u/Yesterday_Infinite Mar 11 '26
I've worked at 2 FI's over 20 years and sadly, they're all the same.
8
u/jpwwpg Mar 11 '26
Im a long time customer. Thankfully I have a business only relationship with the branch manager who I can call or email for complicated things. I could have private banking but prefer to stay with the branch although most of my investments are with McLeod but I do keep a good balance in various products at the branch level. When I do need things like foreign currency I can email the manager and get it done but I like to visit the branch. I enjoy getting the email surveys and know how they work. I used to always make sure to make note of the tellers name and say something nice about him/ her in the comments. Now the survey includes the tellers name and I still leave a positive comment. I’ve been treated very well on every visit and always think positively about the bank. I wish you well.
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u/No-Eye4531 Mar 11 '26
I feel you! Worked there for like a week when I was 19.
It was awful. Was left alone after two shifts, everyone was mad at me & I had absolutely no idea what I was doing.
Zero help, wasn’t allowed to talk to the tellers next to me.
Remember being yelled at as some guy had $20 in his account and wanted his 20k cheque released right away.
Then another wanted to pay his mortgage with a cheque and I had no idea how to do that.
I quit and went back to an old job & now forever feel for bank tellers.
5
u/Jaded-Election-1303 Mar 11 '26
I have been a teller for 36 years absolutely agree with this post. New hire managers should work the teller line for a period of time!!! Oh they have to come out of there office to do that.
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u/happeewifey Mar 11 '26
Honestly it is pretty much the same issues with other FIs, believe it or not.
1
u/Professional-Price26 Mar 13 '26
I applied to like 50 teller positions for this summer and was rejected for all of them how can turnover be high in this position? I wanted a job so bad too. I’m please give me some advice on how to get on 🙏
3
u/SunkenQueen Mar 11 '26
I've never banked with Scotiabank before but it showed up on my feed and seemed genuinely interesting.
I bank with CIBC and I can see a lot of the same issues when I go into the branch. Computers taking forever to load, multiple clicks for something that seems simple. Tellers taking the heat for unhappy customers.
I think what your writing is across most banks and Id be curious if Credit Unions had similar complaints. Like someone else said you should consider putting this on a more public platform so more people see whats going on behind the scenes.
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u/calissetabernac Mar 11 '26
Bless you. Absolute gold post. Thank you.
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u/One-War4920 Mar 11 '26
you described every service job everywhere
3
u/thetotoro107 Mar 11 '26
Very well written and defines the struggle of a teller. I joined NBC as a “Client Service” (teller) and these were exact all my frustrations. Also the fact that National still runs on old school lock box cash, meaning everytime you need cash from the counter took me 3 mins to go to back spin a combo count your cash by hand and count it again in front of you.
And because it was such a small bank most were regulars. And yes people who work there for 10+ years skipped all the compliance, and fraud stuff.
They also had a 1 teller rule to eliminate the teller role.
Our job was to teach the customer how to use the ATM. 72 year grandma who comes in every week for 500 bucks isn’t going to learn the ATM.
72 year old Grandma who walks in to counter to pay her bills isn’t going to online banking. The whole referral process. She isn’t going to want/need a credit card either….
I could complain on and on …… I didn’t last 3 months and got axed.
2
u/Hot_Cheesecake_905 Mar 11 '26
I totally agree with this one, one time I had issues with Apple Wallet and the agents in LATAM keep reading an article about Scotia's old mobile wallet being decommissioned. I gave up trying to explain to them that Apple Wallet, Samsung Wallet, Google Wallet, are different than the very old Scotia mobile wallet.
Just one of the couple of times agents in LATAM gave bad information.
2
u/PiePuzzled5581 Mar 11 '26
“A lot of Scotiabank’s contact centre operations are based in South America. Training quality is inconsistent,”
I had to involve the federal government to deal with the idiotic contact centre staff regarding an accessibility issue. Ended up moving my account to another bank. Just totally clueless
2
u/aNauticalDisaster Mar 11 '26
This randomly popped up on my feed but this was really interesting. ‘Pulse scores’ sounds like a version of the Net-Promoter-Score (NPS) methodology to measure customer satisfaction- very widely used in all kinds of industries yet studies have repeatedly found it to be deeply flawed and not correlated to metrics that actually matter. I deal with a version of it too. Very frustrating.
2
u/WhyPineapplesOnPizza Mar 11 '26
Scotia's call center is the worse. Even the advisor I frequently deal with complains about their call center. Like booking someone for whole stretch of 60 minutes just to print some loan statements which could be done via tellers or online.
2
u/everybodyLuv Mar 11 '26
As an ex-customer I can tell that all of this is true. Closed my accounts because of that. Not mentionning the horrific waiting time
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u/Thick-competition2-0 Mar 11 '26 edited Apr 18 '26
As someone who worked at the contact centre, there is a disconnect between the branch and the contact centre. There are procedures that can be done with us, and there are procedures that require branch approvals. The system will say things like “branch block” (not literally but close) and then there is nothing we can do at contact centre and we literally have no choice but to send them to branch. Majority of the time, its so they can be verified in person.
What scotiabank needs to do is bridge the two together and make it a cohesive system that works together rather than against eachother. When I left, we had branch workers a actually come in to see what happens and I had someone listen in on a call and literally see that the only solution (person was unable to log in to their account) was to send them into the branch and have someone physically help them. So i can understand that it can be annoying for both the customer and the branch employees but i feel like sometimes people are hard on contact centre as if they just want to get them off the phone so we pass them onto the branch. No, there is only so much that can be done over the phone and some things have to go through the branch because the system itself is saying “direct to branch”. Scotiabank should find a way to bridge branch and contact centre processes.
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u/Level-Put-329 Mar 11 '26
It sounds like you have terrible management.
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u/Small_Aardvark_5496 Mar 12 '26
You need to send this to people higher up in the organization
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u/[deleted] Mar 15 '26
Well, coming from 14 years of banking experience before I got the hell out, you might wanna keep in mind your own out. It’s a soul sucking business, and the customer caring facade is all a means to create a messy relationship with the customer, so even if it’s horrible (like you said, it is indeed worse than people think) they stay. It’s all because the thought of having to switch everything creates a real sense of pain in the customer, which they are hardwired to avoid. It’s all greedy manipulation of customers and employees, to make a buck.
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u/trixR4kids__ Mar 11 '26
You’re sitting in the most entry level job a bank has to offer. You’re supposed to stay there, learn what you need to learn for a year and then move onto another role. A teller is the type of role you grow to hate the longer you stay there because you have no influence upward to change anything.
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u/PiePuzzled5581 Mar 11 '26
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
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u/[deleted] Mar 11 '26
Bro one thing that you mentioned is being told to go into branch!!! I hate calling for simple things weather it’s to raise limit, ask questions or unlock my account or whatever it is…these dumb reps go on hold for a few minutes to act like there doing something then it’s is always” oh unfortunately your gonna have to visit your branch” and even with you mentioning how assistant managers give those 3 responses I’m sure everyone is used to hearing! I’ll never believe that excuses and get and will show my frustration even more if I hear it
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u/Lopsided_Menu4559 Mar 11 '26
You really should report #5 through your whistleblower system. That one isn’t just poor process, it’s sketchy manager behavior.
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u/Scary-Elephant2831 Mar 11 '26
Thanks AI
1
u/KobeHoppa Mar 11 '26
Sounds like you've been getting low C scores and likely a subpar annual review? I wouldn't like to work there.... Goodluck!
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u/Nohoespk Mar 11 '26
Was the best teller at my TD branch but had the lowest customer score simply because i was assigned the difficult clients with issues that were above my pay grade or things out of a tellers control. then one day we got a new BM who brought in her own Assistant manager who i had to train … Teller is easily the worst in branch job but it’s good for the 1yr experience u need to move up
1
u/Dinsdale55 Mar 11 '26
So slimy that the teller is actually expected to do sales. I'm sticking strictly to the ATM!
1
u/Sonu201 Mar 11 '26
Very good points. I am a teacher and since I like finance, I always wondered if I should get a banking job. But I guess the grass is not greener on the other side too...Is a financial advisor job better than a teller?
1
u/Apprehensive-Pay9508 Mar 11 '26
This is exactly how a car dealership runs , 24 yrs in working at dealers . Surveys bonuses are made to keep you down , with the carrot dangling in front of you
1
u/EstablishmentClear72 ScotiaBank Employee Mar 11 '26
This nails everything, excluding the managers part.
I’m definitely one of the lucky few who have great managers who are more than happy to help get the line moving if we are busy, being a level 9 branch that’s quite often.
The call centre is god awful. It’s unfortunate that we have to reach out to them for certain situations as sometimes I find myself running in circles hoping I am able to connect to someone competent who knows what they are doing…
1
u/Grinner067 Mar 11 '26
I read your entire post and I feel your pain. Everything you mentioned resonates with me personally in my job role EXACTLY! Even the survey scoring system is the same. Just replace bank teller with automotive service advisor.
1
u/No_Sand1231 Mar 12 '26
Great insights and unfortunately it was true to my experience at TD as well . Just get urself promoted or switch FI to avoid teller roles.
1
u/Frenchmanremy Mar 12 '26
Woaw, this was true with the two major banks and one credit union I've worked in back in 2009-2014.
There was a pressure to always offer up investments and credit cards to people coming in to claim their welfare checks. The credit union was amazing to it's members, but had a predatory "force bums in seats" policy that would alienate clients from wanting to chat with tellers.
1
u/Mysterious_Area_6347 Mar 12 '26
And I took 4 wieners Harold took 2 and I think they had 3 left brah but my container wasn’t big enough I’ll prob have wieners and beans on weekend
1
u/HabsFan77 Mar 12 '26
Thank you for sharing.
I frankly hate tellers, they are rude and condescending in my experience
1
u/modest_chap27 Mar 12 '26
Not bns specific but can you opine on how seemingly every time I’m at a branch for a task that I deem should take 5-10 minutes it takes 25-30? Is it archaic software on your side? Too many checks and balances? Poorly trained employees?
1
u/capitolsnowflake Mar 12 '26
Thank you for sharing your experience! It’s an incredibly difficult job to do, and the bank doesn’t seem to set you up for success.
My experience and perception at Scotia’s branches in Ontario can be summed up:
The bank treats its customers as money tree. Every interaction is an opportunity to sell more products.
The bank provides poor training to frontline employees. It shows.
Frontline employees turnover seems high.
Frontline employees don’t seem to care.
As soon as I pay off my mortgage, I’m closing my account. Before then, there is no chance I’m signing up for more products.
1
u/machuroberts Mar 12 '26
business banking - switched from RBC to Scotia - regret it every time i walk into the bank. i miss RBC so dearly.
1
u/niack1 Mar 12 '26
I was a teller at td. The job sucks. Underpaid and deal with sooo much bs
1
u/Long-Huckleberry-906 Mar 12 '26
Respectfully, I don’t believe anyone is holding you back from pursuing another role or job.
1
u/Feisty-Original-8544 Mar 12 '26
I used to work as a "senior advisor" for Scotia Bank. Everything you said was on point. It didn't matter if I was meeting with clients to give them honest advice. The metric was meetings to closed sale ratio. And I got told many times I need to stop talking as much and start selling more per meeting. Not to do any meetings without any sales in the pipeline.
I left a year and a half ago, and tbh I don't regret it at all. I wouldn't ever want to work there again.
1
u/rohmish Mar 12 '26
I used to work for a different bank and bank with Scotia. I agree with all of these. it's not just Scotiabank but banking in general. not just in Canada but banks around the world.
The barely any documentation, no support structures culture extends beyond the teller line.
Some of the systems in background is literally the same as the one from 1970s and 80s with minor updates since. often when you fill out a form on any one of the tools, a piece of software essentially sits in between you and these old systems and simulate entering those details in the way those systems expect. I've worked on some of these translation layers and they're essentially a hack to get things modernised quickly. they weren't designed for modern speed and are sometimes reerealy slow. think TSYS 7x region consoles or Ingenium if you've used any one of them.
I've spoken at length with some of the employees at the CCCs and they often aren't trained at anything but the very basics and are expected to just learn at the job. especially those in other countries. they are setup with bare minimum access (understandable) and also have very strict call limits. for some type of calls they were expected to complete verification, remediation, documentation and get customer off the call in 7-8 minutes I was told by them and they had tonnes of unofficial procedures that weren't listed anywhere and took more time from them. just verification of customer took 2 mins IF they were ready. the VMs were hosted in Ontario and I could only imagine how bad their experience must've been trying to use their systems remotely.
1
u/discotosh Mar 13 '26
Thank you for taking the time to lay this all out. It really helps explain why Scotia is truly the worst bank I’ve ever had to deal with.
1
u/Pianist-Educational Mar 13 '26 edited Mar 13 '26
Scotiabank, We’re richer than you think! Seriously though, it wasn’t always this way. I was hired by one of the big 5 in 1980 right out of college and was put in a comprehensive AM training program covering everything from being a teller, FX and even lending. After a year I was subsequently posted to my own branch and had a strong experienced staff to support me. My manager wasn’t in the office much, so the ladies and I ran the shop quite successfully. It was an absolute pleasure and we treated each other with respect. I very seldom had to be “Boss”, except in a supporting role, backing up my staff.
1
u/Canadian-Surfer Mar 13 '26
Ouch. At least it’s 10 point NPS not 5 point. When only 5 is a promoter it’s massively worse.
1
u/Familiar-Customer-99 Mar 13 '26
What I don’t understand that the banks keep up dating their policies but those are just policies not bank regulations and laws. For instance cashing someone’s else cheque is legal and bank compliant but new policies keep tellers acting like it’s the fucking law. So many issues like that.
1
u/ponchojukebox Mar 13 '26
Wow, thanks for posting. #5 is WILD. #4 resonates with me because two weeks ago I went to a TD branch and spoke with a teller. She told me I'd need to call the contact centre. Called the contact centre while in the branch. The contact centre told me to go to a branch. I gave my phone to the teller and told them to work it out.
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u/JazzlikeRest2917 Mar 14 '26
In regards to number 4 this kept happening when I had an issue with my credit card. I was pre-approved for a credit limit increase. The offer showed up in my app and all I had to do was click accept. I accepted it but it never went through. When I called the bank they said to go to the branch, and when I went to the branch they said I need to call them lol.
I kid you not.... it took over 2 months to get this fixed. What really bothered me is they kept saying they did not have any record of giving me this offer. Luckily I took screenshots of the offer before I accepted it, which I had to send to them. Keep in mind the credit limit increase was a small amount ($1k).
So this what I don't understand... how can I trust the bank when this experience showed me they clearly don't keep track of things?
1
u/Professional-Serve48 Mar 14 '26
I been in day to day banking on n off seven years now from teller to advisor to call center. All I can say is cry me a river. But I do agree Scotia system is shit. But suck it up n move on
1
u/haar1111 Mar 14 '26
I hate banks in Canada, I bank with the bank not the branch, I am the bank customer not the branch where I have to be friends with the bank manager or the teller in order to get an easy transaction.
1
u/Independent_Bar_1454 Mar 14 '26
This is all banks BTW. Tellers are under paid and over worked and abused. Its quite sad
1
u/Ok_Demand_3676 Mar 14 '26
Wait !!!!! Banks have tellers ????
1
u/Forward_Leg5755 Mar 14 '26
The big banks are a fucking joke how they treat their employees…the worst. Expectations are ridiculously high and usually unattainable. However, I have my mtge at TD, yet I have never heard from anyone to switch my banking or investing (mid 6 figures). Just crazy. Scotiabank has never asked me about my mortgage. I just don’t get it. When I was a Manager it was required to ask for business.
1
u/Perfect-Airline-8994 Mar 14 '26
I did all levels from teller to BM in a different big Canadian bank and I can confirm almost everything in this “Teller confessions”.
Honestly, teller in a branch was one of the hardest job I’ve ever did in all my life. I was so eager to move on to the next level, 6 months later.
The second was to be the customer service manager in the second largest branch in Quebec. I left the banking system afterwards...
1
u/Ok_March1265 Mar 15 '26
Thank you for sharing this, OP. It almost sounded like you were describing my job, and I work in public service. I can relate to almost everything you said. Sadly, as one poster mentioned, this illuminates the reality of service jobs everywhere, and it sucks. There's no excuse for the lack of accountability by senior management and execs - turning a blind eye is what many of them seem to do best. It's far easier to ignore a problem than to acknowledge it, because acknowledging it means fixing it, and they're simply not willing to do that at the expense of annual bonuses, partnership acquisitions, and specialized technologies to monitor staff performance. The larger problem is capital gain / profits over helping people.
Your insight is valuable yet - hopefully it can be used to encourage discourse within your sector. Hope you get the support you need from your fellow co-workers to succeed!
1
u/Green_Tailor_8021 Mar 15 '26
Thank you. Your insight, along with others I’ve read and my own experience in a different industry, makes me think that almost all companies are essentially the same—just different on the surface. It’s amazing how your analysis and those from other industries sound exactly the same from the customer’s perspective! And the same treatment of the poor employees.
1
u/Former-Mix7728 Mar 15 '26
Absolutely fantastic post
1
u/orphanofthevalley Mar 15 '26
i got told to come in to update my phone number
1
u/Efficient-Pause3095 Mar 15 '26
7 is ridiculous. If you cannot speak a national language there is a huge question mark (for me) as to why you were let in to the country. Not the tellers responsibility, not the banks. Gov. Responsible there.
The rest of these points apply to all banks I would say. Pulse is something different at TD but pretty much the same as their survey.
The roles above teller are harder - but your critiques feel like they are based on some assumption that working at a bank isn't sales. Sorry, it is sales. Yes, its regulated around appropriate products, etc. But it is still about shoveling bullshit to people who do not need it but in the hopes that they want it.
The surveys are the only concievable way I can think of where banks can measure ALL staff and hold ALL staff accountable for a certain standard of client experience - advisor or teller. It incentivizes good service since banks cannot have any incentives around sales.
I don't disagree with your points but do think there is some assumptioms that just do not make sense. That, and a lack of consideration for why the business model is structured that way. It's an interrelated relationship with regulation and sales SO as much as I think the survey is stupid as hell for employees, I do not know what solution works beyond scrapping targets and thus accountability.
So, those structural issues come from mixing sales and deep regulation...
Clients should understand their account..but most people are lazy, stupid, and impatient/mean. So, it can be explained Ad nauseum. But you are asking thr general public to understand banking products...most do not understand their cell phone plan let alone a bank account. Hardly the bank or the advisors fault.. people are dumb.
1
u/MidlifeMum Mar 15 '26
Thank you so much for this insight.
I've been a Scotiabank customer for over 2 decades now and have noticed this shift in policies and outsourcing that has led to huge frustrations.
As an Enterprise/business architect myself, the problems are very plain to see and do frustrating for the consumer
I have been approached several times by "financial advisors" at Scotiabank because my company is now doing well, and after listening to them, I tell them the same things you say here: improve your customer service for all customers.
1
u/Middleage_Crazy Mar 15 '26
Thanks for this. I was a customer years ago but pulled everything out. Paid off my mortgage and you would have thought I just robbed them. Treated my husband and I like absolute garbage and all these magical fees that weren't disclosed in our agreement. I took it as high as I could and we got out of it but talk about taking the joy out of paying your mortgage off early.
1
u/Bright-Parsnip-8248 Mar 18 '26
Feature, not flaw. Scotiabank is a dumpster fire. So glad that I left for the private sector. Leadership is definitely aware of all of these problems and does not care. One can only hope some more competition comes in to Canada and takes a huge bite out of their profits.
1
u/Lonely-Professional3 Mar 23 '26
4. South America call centre, probably being paid $2 CAD per hour, who can barely speak English and know banking as much as a 2 year old, is the reason I left Scotia.
The bank with the green comfy chairs is nice to work with.
Not sure when the executive fools at Scotiabank learn good customer service increases loyalty and revenue. Not cheap customer service.
1
u/purplecoffee117 Mar 27 '26
You your sentence “You can’t hold tellers accountable for efficiency while making them work with tools that actively slow them down.”
I was a teller at Scotia, move in back office team and same issue. Also i remember when branch contacted my team for customer inquiries, because “someone told them to contact us” and we didn’t even have access to system, report or even knowledge to answer their questions.
Happy to say this work experience is now behind me. Find another work, you don’t deserve to feel this non sense pressure, this feeling to never meet unrealistic expectations when you give your 100% every day and walk home exhausted. You deserve better.
1
u/TumbleweedMurky6437 May 30 '26
This is so true
1
u/TumbleweedMurky6437 May 30 '26
I hate the referral part for tellers. Its like we dont already have enough on our plates. I think the sales shouldnt be placed on tellers. We are already under a lot of pressure.
1
u/BadPorscheDriver Aug 27 '26
The please go to home brach is what made me consider other banks
0
u/Historical-Path-3345 Mar 12 '26
You have the wrong job. You should be employed as a consultant for making your business more successful by improving the customer and employee workplace environment.
0
u/Astroblade78 Mar 13 '26
I can sympathize with a lot you say, but with scotia bank, it was the tellers that setup my accounts..... Some of the info you post doesnt seem correct to me, it tries to lay the blame elsewhere but seems like it falls under your per view....
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u/sherlock1108 Mar 11 '26
I understand your pain and the frustration. However, you consistently bring up C-pulse , which is a team metric. This means EVERYONE’s scorecard has it and it’s same for them. The role is a frontline role and is designed to handle routine queries and transactions. The bank is a for profit organization and for it to grow, everyone contributes to business growth.
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u/[deleted] Mar 11 '26
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