Great service doesn't come from SOPs

BCA, one of Indonesia’s biggest banks, used to be nicknamed “Bank Capek Antri”: roughly, the bank where you get tired of queuing.

Now it’s the opposite. BCA is one of the banks people praise most for its service, at any branch.

What made me curious was how it could change that much. It turns out there’s one important name behind it.

The person behind it

It’s Ibu Lianawaty Suwono. Ibu Lianawaty joined BCA in 1991 as a management trainee and spent most of a long career in HR, working up from HR operations to director of BCA, in charge of HR strategy and learning and development.

That background helps explain the service: the person shaping the staff knows HR inside out.

What earned my respect is how Ibu Lianawaty looked after employees in the hardest times. During the pandemic, when nothing was certain, the message to employees was roughly this: you’re not alone, and this organization is here to keep developing you, whatever happens.

This year Ibu Lianawaty also received the Outstanding Leader in Human Capital Transformation in Banking award from CNN Indonesia.

What I took from it

Great service doesn’t come from SOPs alone. SOPs work when someone is watching. But employees stay warm with no one watching when they feel valued.

For anyone building a team, this is what I wrote down:

• Stand by your team in the hard times, not just the good ones.
• Develop the people, not just their targets.
• Treat your employees the way you want them to treat your customers.

Honestly, if I ever got one chance to learn from someone directly, I’d want to learn from Ibu Lianawaty.