ANOTHER YEAR... with new adventures (Part 151a)

ANOTHER YEAR...  with new adventures (Part 151a)

The offer for Elle to teach for a few weeks was certainly a surprise and exciting for her. However, my focus was on the next morning as it would be the real test for all the planning and work that had gone into the conversion of all the deposit records over to the service bureau. I’d requested that the staff report to me arrive at 8:30am. I wanted to review all the training that we’d all done and to answer any questions that they had. Also, at the suggestion of Albie at the data center I’d made up what he called a “cheat sheet’ with answers to some questions that customers might ask. As I reviewed it with them I felt a bit more confident and dismissed them to get ready for the customers. Albie had also given me a direct line to his office should we have any problems. Now it was ”show time“.

My most vivid memory of those first few minutes was of disappointment. In my mind I’d figured on being able to wait on customers in half the time as when we were still using ledger cards. I’d based that on how fast we’d been able to download the data to the center. I’d forgotten that it was now a two way transaction and not just the one I’d gotten used to during the conversion. Now, when we sent information to the computer it would have to do the calculation and sent the result back. There was no doubt it was faster but not as fast as I’d expected.

We’d been processing transactions for about a half hour when I realized that our customers were more astute than I’d given them credit for. My guess is that over half of them had questions about the changes. Some were far beyond Bret, Hobie and my ability to answer. One or the other of us had been on the direct line to the data center almost from the time the doors opened. I happened to be talking with George in the computer room when all of a sudden Albie cut in. He told me he was sending help and then I was back with George. I had no idea who it might be but I didn’t care. By that time any help would be welcomed.

As I impatiently waited (Bret and Hobie included) we found the questions ranging from mundane to profound. One common complaint was that since the tellers weren’t using ledger cards to make the entries they didn’t believe the information printed in their passbooks. I found myself getting ‘short’ with customers when they couldn’t grasp the idea that their information was stored in a computer some sixty five miles away and that we were using telephone lines to transmit it.

When I saw Gracie, the lady who’d trained me and had spent a couple of days with our tellers, walking across the lobby I let out an audible sigh. It was about 11am and the lines were still about eight to ten people deep at all teller stations. It was time for the tellers to start their lunch hours and I made a decision to cut them short. It was not a popular one but I took the time to speak to each one separately and that helped. I also had the tellers stop trying to answer questions and had them directed to the ‘platform’ where Bret, Hobie and I had our desks. Gracie was to be the ‘traffic cop’, making a determination as to how difficult the question was and then directing the customer to one of the three of us. She was exactly what was needed. Knowledgeable and pleasant, she managed to keep the customers calm (as well as the three of us) and by around mid afternoon the lines had been cut in half.

It was after 3:30pm when the last customer left. Right after that Bert, the president, appeared at the foot of the stairs and called for everybody to listen up. Bert was not an emotional person and sometimes it was hard to hear him. But he wanted to thank everyone for going ”the extra mile“. Then the tellers went back to doing their proof. I fully expected that there would be problems and I was right. While the problems were being researched and solved Gracie came up to me. I thought it was to say she was leaving but I was totally surprised when she said she was going to be back the next day. It was her opinion that it would be a repeat of the one that we’d just experienced. I, without thinking, offered to have her stay with Elle and I, like she’d done when she was doing the teller training. She thought about it for a few seconds but told me she didn’t have a change of clothes. I don’t remember what my response was but I did make a plea about the fact that wouldn’t have an hour and half drive in the dark and would be able to get a good night of sleep. I could see her wavering but decided not to push her and went to help in the proofing process.

Gracie could’ve left at that point but didn’t. I saw her talking with Lorie who had been in her first day as chief clerk. Because Lori had to continue to post deposit and withdrawal transactions to the ledger cards we used prior to the conversion there had been little time to partake in any training. She was pretty much ‘lost’ all day. She couldn’t answer most of the questions and had tried, as best she could, to keep customers calm. Gracie didn’t have to do that but I’d been impressed with her right from our first meeting. She had a way about her to get the best out of people and I was excited that she’d taken to helping Lorie. It was almost 6pm when she came up to me and made me promise that Elle wouldn’t be upset if I did bring her home. It really wasn’t until then that I remembered that the next day was to be Elle’s first teaching day. I think I took a deep breath before I answered. Standing there and thinking about it I just knew Elle wouldn't be happy. I'd told her not to wait for me for supper so that wasn't the issue. It was that the house wouldn't be "perfect". Sooooo... I lied to her and said it wouldn't be a problem. But I knew I had to get on the phone to warn Elle and to plead with her not to "make a fuss". I also knew that I'd pay for it sometime in the future.

To be continued...