One of the reasons we developed the TMClarity Framework is because we repeatedly hear clients say, “Our customers think we’re the best!”, “We have great customer service,” and “We never get complaints.”
These comments often come directly from bank leadership.
Our response is simple:
“Prove it with numbers.”
And often, they can’t.
Measuring your business is a critical part of running your business. For you and your Treasury Management team, measuring performance should be part of your SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures).
If you’re new to Treasury Management or have never measured how your team performs, let’s establish a starting point.
The Most Basic Measurement
We could spend all day discussing the financial performance of your Treasury Management department: new deals closed, growth in low-cost deposits, fee income, and customer retention. However, we believe keeping the business customers you already have is one of the most important things you can do.
One of the simplest measurements that helps predict customer retention is your opened-to-closed ticket ratio each month.
In other words, what percentage of the service tickets opened this month were also closed this month?
Yes, a month is a long time for a ticket to remain open. However, we are not measuring a service-level objective such as, “Most tickets will be resolved within four business hours.” Instead, the opened-to-closed ticket ratio measures how effectively your team solves problems, whether enough labor hours are allocated to support, and how well your customers have been trained to use your Treasury Management services.
How to Measure It
Getting to this ratio is relatively easy if you have a decent service ticketing system. Many platforms already include this report.
If yours does not, simply determine how many tickets were opened during the month and then count how many of those tickets were marked as resolved during that same month.
That’s it.
Most well-run, world-class service organizations consistently operate between 97% and 100%. Some months they may exceed 100%, indicating they are closing tickets that carried over from the previous month.
Which Tickets Should You Measure?
For a starting point, focus on your Tier 1 service board.
Tier 1 is the first point of contact your customers use when they need assistance. Ideally, you will have multiple service boards such as Tier 1, Tier 2, Operations, Sales, and others. However, Tier 1 typically has the highest volume of activity and provides the clearest picture of overall customer support performance.
Getting Started
The first step toward measuring your monthly close ratio is implementing service ticketing.
Without a service ticketing system, you are essentially running your Treasury Management support operation blind.
Many CRM systems include built-in service ticketing functionality, making them a logical place to start. If your CRM's solution is limited, you may want to evaluate platforms designed specifically for IT Managed Services organizations, as they often provide stronger workflow automation, reporting, and customer communication tools.
We generally do not recommend internally developed ticketing systems because they often lack the automation and reporting capabilities required by modern support teams.
Interpreting the Results
After measuring for a few months, patterns will begin to emerge. Here is a simple way to interpret what you see:
Steady 97%–100% Resolution
Your team is performing well. Support representatives are knowledgeable, sufficient labor is allocated to support activities, and customers are receiving the training they need to use your services effectively.
Rising 90%–98% Resolution
You are moving in the right direction. Improvements in staffing, processes, customer training, or support workflows are beginning to produce measurable results.
Falling 97%–85% Resolution
This is the danger zone. Your team may be entering what we call the “reactive spiral of death,” where unresolved issues continue to accumulate faster than they can be addressed. To recover, you will likely need additional labor resources, better customer training, or both.
In our experience, customer education often produces the best long-term results. While improving staff expertise is always beneficial, the underlying issue is frequently that customers are generating too many avoidable support requests because they have not been fully trained on the products and services they use.
Now Go Start Measuring
The best Treasury Management departments do not rely on assumptions. They rely on data. Metrics help you move beyond opinions and anecdotes so you can make informed decisions about staffing, training, customer experience, and operational efficiency.
The opened-to-closed ticket ratio is not the only metric you should track, but it is one of the easiest places to start. Begin measuring it consistently, establish a baseline, and watch for trends over time. Once you can see what is happening, you can improve it. And that is ultimately what great leadership and great Treasury Management teams do: they measure, learn, adjust, and continuously get better.
- Marci and Tim
Recent Blog Postings
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How Treasury Management Impacts Your CAMELS Rating
When you think about your bank’s CAMELS rating, Treasury Management (TM) isn’t usually the first department that comes to mind. Yet TM activities directly influence several of the components that regulators evaluate - especially Earnings, Management, and Liquidity. Read more on the blog...
How TMClarity Can Help
Whether you're building a Treasury Management department from the ground up or looking to improve an established program, TMClarity and Malzahn Strategic offer training, coaching, consulting, and peer networking designed specifically for community banks.
Getting Started
Treasury Management for Directors
Rocket Launch Treasury Management Newsletter
Treasury Management Webinars
Building the Department
TMClarity Implementer Program
Custom Treasury Management Group Training
Treasury Management Consulting
Optimizing Performance
Treasury Management Framework
Executive Coaching
National Virtual Treasury Management Forum
To learn more about any of these solutions, contact us or visit TMClarity.com.
Thank You Members
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