Barnett Banks Aims for Old-fashioned Customer Service.(Originated from St. Petersburg Times, Fla.)

Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News, September, 1996 by Keefe, Robert

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.--Sep. 16--In an era of high-tech banking, Barnett Banks is trying something a bit old-fashioned.

Barnett is adding "floor managers" to greet customers at some of its branches. It's a sort of Barnett meets Wal-Mart, the discount chain that employs greeters to hand out carts and hellos to its shoppers.

At Barnett, the floor managers offer deposit slips, field complaints or just make small talk with those who look bored.

So far, only some Pinellas County Barnett branches have floor managers. But the company plans to add them to all 48 of its Pinellas branches by Oct. 15. Eventually, Jacksonville-based Barnett may add them to all 600 of its offices in Florida.

"We are in the retailing business...so we thought we needed to...

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