Tellers work mostly with a bank’s clients. They cash checks, deposit money, and transfer money to other accounts. They take one customer request at a time, with customers often forming a line behind the teller’s desk. Other tellers may work positions at drive-thru areas if their banks have them. Tellers also set aside time to work with payments sent through the mail. Today, most tellers verify transactions through online banking or e-banking.
Another new development in teller jobs is the necessity to know about all the goods and services a bank provides to customers. Even rural banks may offer investment services, retirement services, real-estate services, and trust services. In the wake of the recent economic downturn, more banks are also offering financial-planning documentation and seminars to their customers. Many banks also offer their customers to hold stock with them. Even though each bank has a separate staff for each service, tellers are necessary to first introduce new customers to these services. Therefore, more tellers are being trained in each product and service their bank offers so they can tell clients about them at opportune moments.
Tellers usually answer to a supervisory teller, who apportions each teller’s cash drawer each day. The head teller is also responsible for training new tellers, enforcing disciplinary action on tellers, and scheduling tellers. The head teller also makes sure all tellers have counted their cash drawers correctly at the end of each shift. Furthermore, the head teller may respond to customer complaints beyond a non-supervisory teller’s resolution.
As a teller advances at a bank and has gained more exposure to the bank’s transactions, he may take on more defined job responsibilities. These duties include selling savings deposits, converting dollars into foreign currencies, and selling charge cards. Other tellers may specialize in commercial or business accounts for which they do payroll. Still other tellers may review and verify Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) transactions.
At large banks, a prospective teller may first have to work as a contact center representative. This is a customer-service job that mainly introduces the bank to new customers. Therefore, this position is a good indicator of whether an employee will perform well as a teller. This representative regularly answers phone calls, faxes, and e-mails sent by new and existing customers. The representative also transfers calls to other branches of the bank, and uses a computer to check accounts and modify them. This person is also trained in bank compliance regulations and sales procedures, since the representative is supposed to analyze new customers’ needs and provide bank service options to fulfill those needs. The representative usually needs to know as much bank information as a teller, but does not do the actual withdrawals, deposits, and so forth that tellers perform.
Even if a teller works part-time, banks offer them so many benefits that many people regard teller jobs as the best customer service jobs. Banks often provide tellers with a medical, vision, and dental insurance package. Moreover, banks also give them a 401(k) plan and tuition reimbursement if they are college students. In addition, most banks provide paid vacation days and hold professional development programs for their tellers.
Bank recruiters most look for excellent customer-service skills when employing new tellers. Like all businesses, banks survive only because they attract and retain a sufficient clientele. Besides being congenial, tellers also need to be completely trustworthy, since they handle extremely sensitive information throughout their shifts. Furthermore, recruiters prefer if tellers have previous experience handling cash, whether at a previous teller job or from a former job. It is also recommended that tellers have strong numerical skills and high attention to detail. Even if they count one digit incorrectly when processing money, the bank may suffer for it for a long time.
Part-time tellers often work 25-30 hours per week, while full-time tellers often work 35-40 hours per week. Most tellers choose to work part-time while working another part-time job because tellers’ annual pay falls short of their cost of living. Most full-time tellers make about $22,000 per year. Head tellers, however, may receive as much as $30,000 per year. Despite the low earnings, a number of tellers decide to stay with banking. Their retention helps them earn promotions to head teller jobs or other more lucrative positions at their banks.
Job outlook for tellers is fairly positive. More tellers will work at supermarkets and shopping malls for their banks, since many banks are trying to attract more clientele through these high-traffic areas. Moreover, teller jobs have a high rate of turnover because most people do not stick with them for the long term. This opens up many new jobs for tellers. Yet teller job growth will be resisted by e-banking and other banking technology, which makes teller jobs somewhat redundant.
Also reducing teller jobs is the mounting use of ATMs, debit cards, credit cards, and direct deposit of paychecks. All these items automatically transfer money without a teller’s mediation. However, these trends will not entirely slow down job growth because many people still distrust e-banking’s security.
