Dave discusses the evolution of his career, the importance of data-driven decision-making, and adapting along with consumer behavior.
Dave discusses the evolution of his career, the importance of data-driven decision-making, and adapting along with consumer behavior.
Welcome to Elevating Brick and Mortar. A podcast about how operations and facilities drive brand performance.
On today’s episode, we talk with Dave Tarantelli, VP of Systems at Citizens. Citizens Financial Group, Inc. is one of the nation’s oldest and largest financial institutions. Citizens offers a wide range of retail and commercial banking products and services to individuals, small businesses, middle-market companies, large corporations and institutions.
Guest Bio:
David brings 20 years of hands-on experience managing large scale projects, while keeping a pulse on the underpinnings and details that make those projects successful.
As Vice President of Systems in the Real Estate Operations Group, David oversees the implementation and management of all business support systems that Citizens uses to operate and manage their real estate portfolio, as well as identifying and executing on continuous improvement opportunities. A long-time advocate of data-driven insights and process improvements, David has planned and executed the implementation of 4 software systems including major modules within those systems and custom integrations. He believes a 360° approach to addressing Citizens’ physical space needs – from managing work orders to capital planning, under one umbrella of integrated systems is crucial in effectively managing the Bank’s assets.Guest Quote:
Timestamps:
00:26 - About Citizens
01:31 - Dave’s journey
02:53 - Do you need a four year degree?
10:38 - Breaking down silos
12:38 - Thinking about Facility Condition Index (FCI)
27:30 - Facilities’ importance in banking
31:19 - Training as a labor shortage solution
44:11 - The cycle of brand-to-consumer interaction
48:02 - Where to find Dave
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[00:00:00] Welcome to elevating brick and mortar, a podcast about how operations and facilities drive brain performance. Today, we'll speak with Dave Tarantelli, VP of systems at Citizens. Dave talks about the importance of data-driven decision-making and adapting along with consumer behavior. The views expressed in this podcast are those of the individual and do not necessarily reflect those of citizens. Here's your host industry and FM technology thought leader and chief business development officer at service channel, Sid Shetty, along with our guest, Dave Tarantelli.
[00:00:32] Sid: Hello, everyone. Welcome to Elevating Brick and Mortar. Thank you for joining us. I'm here today with Dave Tarantelli, VP of Systems at Citizens. Dave, welcome. Thank you for being here.
[00:00:44] Dave: Yeah. Thanks for having me, Sid.
[00:00:45] Sid: We're excited to have you on as well. So Dave, for folks in our audience who might not be familiar with Citizens, can you tell us a little bit more about what Citizens is and what do you do there?
[00:00:57] Dave: Yeah, sure thing. Yeah. Citizens recently rebranded, actually. We were Citizens Bank and You know, our parent company, Citizens Financial Group, we're one of the nation's oldest and largest banks actually. So pretty neat. Based right here in Providence, Rhode Island. We do a mix of business. So, one of the reasons for rebranding, right? We're not just a bank. We do commercial banking, retail banking, we have a private bank. Make sure we service our customers full cycle. So like every bit of their life, we want to be there to support their needs.
[00:01:27] Sid: There you go. On the retail side, on the retail banking location counts, like where are you present and how many locations do you have?
[00:01:35] Dave: Yeah, we have about a thousand retail locations and currently we're in about 14 states. It's mostly northeast. We do have some locations in Michigan and Ohio and then we just move across east and pretty much that whole east coast, anyways, we have a presence.
[00:01:52] Sid: Got it. So I want to dig in more into citizens but before that, I'd love to talk about you and your journey. How did you get here?
[00:02:01] Dave: It's a wild ride, right? So, the whole corporate world, super new to me. Though I've been here 10 years now before that I have done landscaping. I was an electrician in the union here in Rhode Island for 15 years. So I've, I've done a whole bunch of stuff. The market took a downturn and I was looking for something new. And decided, you know, Hey, citizens had this open job for HVAC programming, which I had already done as an electrician. So I decided, ah, what the heck, right? Take my shot applied for the job. I met with the hiring manager and, you know, we clicked and he, he had actually, he was an electrician as well.
[00:02:41] I started working in what we call the control center. So we monitor and program all our own HVAC.
[00:02:47] So, you know, heating, cooling, we even do generators, lighting, all that stuff remotely, but we all, we do the programming in house. So that's really how I got my start. And then from there it was just, you know, where else can I, you know, show some of my talent? So I moved into managing systems for real estate operations. And really just took off.
[00:03:08] So Dave, that's a fascinating journey, right? can you share with us, did you go to like a traditional four year degree college or did you take a different route and go to like a trade school? Sure.I was a union electrician, so they have their own school. That you attend. It's five years versus the required four, and that fifth year, they actually send you to our local college to do some certification courses. We did instrumentation and some other things but I did attend that.
[00:03:36] It was night school, two nights a week while I was working days, so 40 hours a week. Plus I don't know how many hours, a lot of hours of school and homework at night, but eventually got my license journeyman's license from there. I didn't stop always been kind of curious. So, you know, what other certifications can I get and how can I make myself more valuable as an electrician? So,
[00:03:58] It was really interesting. I learned lots of different programming, yeah, we're going to run wires to everything, but, everything's computer controlled these days, and so you have to program that stuff too. So it was a really good, you know, foot in the door when I, when I went to Citizens, but yeah, I didn't do a traditional four year college or any of that stuff.
[00:04:17] I get the citizens and there was definitely things I didn't know, so, use the Google as they say, right? I watched a lot of YouTube I did a lot of those like all you can eat subscription packages, so I tried out a couple different ones where you pay a monthly fee and then you could take as many trainings as you want and all that good stuff, so, Basically targeted learning.
[00:04:39] I was introduced with a task and immediately went to learn how to do that thing. And that's really how I've learned over the years. I've never been really good at just sitting in college and learning theoretical knowledge. Just doesn't get me excited about what I'm learning because I can't apply it.
[00:04:56] So I typically like when I'm presented with a challenge and then I learn how to tackle that challenge.
[00:05:03] Sid: Dave, that's a, that's a fascinating journey. And I think a lot of the problems that we have today in, in the world of skilled trades is that, as an industry, as an, as, as a country have kind of made it look like the only way to get ahead is the traditional four year degree.
[00:05:22] but that's not the case. Your testament that you can have any future you want. when you decided that you wanted to change your career, you were able to use all those skills to grow into the role that you have today. So I commend you on that and congratulations. And I think more folks need to hear about your story because it kind of just proves that there's a need for skilled labor. And just because you know, you're in the skilled trades does not mean that that's the only path you can be anything you want, right?
[00:05:53] So thank you for sharing that. In your role today at Citizens, can you share about, like, what are you responsible for.
[00:06:01] Dave: Yeah. So even that's been an interesting journey. I hear this from a lot of folks where in that real estate world. So that's, you know, the world I live in real estate operations. It's very siloed, you know, specific teams working on specific things. And I think that's very dangerous and we were definitely that way.
[00:06:20] So where did I start? Right. I moved out of the control center and I started managing our work order system. Which is a beast of a system, right? It's your day to day everything in real estate operations. Things are broke, the work orders come in, you have to go fix them, right?
[00:06:36] All of our planned maintenance in that tool, asset management, everything is there. But what's not there? Project management, capital planning, all those other pieces, lease management, that aren't, you know, connected, they're disconnected. What did we run into? Things like, you know, our we call it our BAU, like Team basically doing small projects going to a branch Carpet needs replacement.
[00:07:00] Great. We'll do that to BAU task. We won't involve our projects team Here's the problem They didn't know that a project was slated maybe a couple months down the road for a complete renovation So now, you know, you're spending money on replacing carpet when it's going to be replaced in a few months So I immediately saw things like this starting to happen and I thought I started to put the puzzle pieces together and talking to different teams and, you know, you try to gauge their appetite for maybe a new system, right?
[00:07:29] We weren't using a system to manage projects. Stuff like that. Capital planning, we weren't doing at all. So. I first attacked it from a project standpoint. So that's probably, you know, where we're going to get the biggest bang for our buck. So we implemented project management software.
[00:07:45] And from there, you know, there's many different teams that do different types of projects. So we started with a small team, implement, see how it goes. And then we rolled out team after team after team. And actually this year we just implemented our largest team in that, in that tool. And it's been fantastic.
[00:08:02] And what does that do? It breaks down all those silos. So now you have a team that's in charge of your day to day, they can log into that tool and see what projects are either currently planned or planned for the future.
[00:08:14] And so currently we actually have lease management, our project management, our capital planning, our space management, and work order management, all under one roof. It's all under my team, which started out as just me.
[00:08:28] It's now a team of four, thankfully because it is a lot of work. And I think a lot of companies struggle in the real estate operations world with. Well, that's an IT function and it is, the problem is IT never wants to take that on. And if they do, they don't do a great job because they don't know the business.
[00:08:48] So we're kind of hybrid where we can do the IT work, but we know the business. And I think honestly, my untraditional, you know, lead in to where I am actually helps me a lot. And I would say that it's probably where everyone should start because now I was the guy in the field that we're sending work orders to, right?
[00:09:09] I saw that stuff. Project management. Well, I've been on big projects. I could see how it was applied instead of this like theory. Hey, I went to college and now I'm running this piece of software, but I have no idea how it actually works in practice.
[00:09:22] So I have all that background. So I was able, you know, to build trust. With all the teams that I was slowly introducing into our software, like, Hey, listen, we did it with a small team. Don't take my word for it. Go ask them. Next thing you know, they're banging on our door. Hey, we'd like to do our process in that tool too.
[00:09:41] It's been a long journey. Like I said, I've been here 10 years and it didn't happen overnight. Every couple of years we're doing something new and it's just because word of mouth. You know, we're doing a great job. Things are more efficient. That gets out. People see it, they realize it, they want a piece of the puzzle too, so.
[00:09:59] Sid: Yeah, that's phenomenal. I mean, Dave, that's, that's spot on in terms of what challenges exist in the industry. I mean,
[00:10:06] You've got real estate and, and lease management and, and you've got, construction, energy management, facilities, and to your point, they do operate in silos.
[00:10:17] When you identified this as a problem, what was the path you took? Which was the first department you went and said, Hey, we, I recognize this problem and let me help solve it for you.
[00:10:29] Dave: We had leadership buy in. They were the ones who were like, hey, we really need this thing. Who can do this? You know, good, bad, or different. I never fail to raise my hand. Like sometimes it's you know, it's a curse cause I get myself involved in a project and it's just, you know, enormous, but we've never failed to deliver.
[00:10:49] Sid: Yeah.
[00:10:50] Dave: Someone has an issue. I'm right there and I have a great team and every one of my team has a different background.
[00:10:57] So between those three guys and myself, we're literally ready to take on any challenge. And. Just starting small, like I did with the projects team, with a very small projects team. Showing that, you know, here's what we can do. Here's our capability. We can show you the evidence. Go talk to that team.
[00:11:16] These tools, the most important thing is you can't some people are so guarded when it comes to this stuff. Like, no, you want to log in, here's a login, go check it out. You can't break anything. You have read only access.
[00:11:28] Go look at what we're doing, you know? And, and that's really where the strength is. Oh, you want a quick demo? Sure thing. We'll set something up. People love to see stuff. They have visual learners more than anything. So, you know, log into the tool, give them a quick walkthrough, show them how it works, show them what we're doing.
[00:11:45] If you keep everything so guarded, like, nope, you can't get a login to this tool or that, they're not going to trust you. And that's the key.
[00:11:52] You have to build that trust.
[00:11:55] Sid: you've solved for these disconnected functions or that are in silos. And now I presume like workflows are connected. Information is flowing through better. What has that done for Citizens as a whole? What do you think it does for the consumer that, you know, is walking into your doors?
[00:12:18] Dave: Yeah, I think the easiest way to visualize that piece is through our capital planning tool. And we've done, you know, a few presentations on that day one, like early in the process, and now we still do them today, like gather the data, present it. And what do you see? You see a story of buildings in disrepair, a lot of deferred maintenance.
[00:12:41] We didn't have a great planned maintenance program, so a lot of the work was reactive, and you know, reactive work stinks because you can't schedule around it. So we developed a strong planned maintenance program to lower that reactive work coming in and then, you know, we started using our money in the right places. So with the capital planning tool, you're able to really see, all right where's, where's the biggest bang for my buck, right? Is that if I fix this thing, like, you know, what is that going to do to my FCI, right?
[00:13:13] Facility Condition Index. Love that. So if we fix like 10 things. Versus that one big thing, right? How does it impact what the customer sees, what that score is, the condition of the overall condition of the building? So we started using that tool to really pick at the things that matter to us. And, you know, we really, really refined what fCI means to us. So things that maybe don't affect customer appeal that, when you look right, that brand you see when you drive by, you're going to choose one bank over another. So we really focused on those items and then drove our FCI down and we communicated the FCI to leadership so that we could get more money to do the things we needed to do to bring the condition of those facilities up.
[00:13:58] Now, conversely, we used FCI. Also communicating that and saying, Hey, listen, there's just too much work to do here. There's just too much. We let it fall behind for way too long. But our lease is up in a couple of years, so. Let's just, you know, leave it, status quo, repair it, we have to, and then we're just going to let it go, and we'll move into something newer.
[00:14:21] That affects, you know, customer appeal we're opening new, nicer branches by getting rid of those bad ones, but we would have never known which ones to get rid of or what to fix if we didn't have software, if we didn't have that data. Right. So we're all about data driven decisions. And you know, when I started here 10 years ago, we didn't have any data. We had zero, we had a lot of reactive work and that's it. And we had a lot of third party vendors telling us you know, Oh no, this is great. Everything looks good. Why? They were also the ones doing the work. So when you insource all that stuff, now you have, you know, insourced people doing the work, a different team of people keep seeing it, and different team facility managers, you know, overlooking the QC guys and everything else.
[00:15:04] You have all that people care because they have skin in the game. They work for the company. They want the company to do well. It's just, it's been a great story. But really it's all about the software. We're using You know, software to drive decisions on where to do planned maintenance by pulling reports on reactive work. Hey, what are the things we have problems with the most? Oh, doors? Door hardware? Great. Let's develop a planned maintenance program around door hardware. Now, we almost get no reactive door hardware requests. And just building that out and then, you know, do our facility condition surveys and then develop a program, you know, on the capital side, what to fix, where to fix it, when to fix it. And it's really developed, you know, a really solid brand across the portfolio.
[00:15:49] Sid: Wow. So did, you know, you mentioned you went in source. I mean, so Did that journey start because now you had access to better information, came from a place where the data showed that you could service your locations better by just having a hybrid program or in house techs?
[00:16:12] Dave: Yeah, we actually started insourcing with our work order management software. It was the very first thing we insourced in 2014. And from there we just expanded. So we did the software, then we did the Facilities Call Center which takes all the calls from our colleagues. If they don't You know, they have access to put the work order in themselves, but if they want to talk to somebody, they still can, so we insourced that team.
[00:16:36] That team also reports to me. So, we figured it was really connected with the software anyways, so From there, we insourced our facility management team, but outsourced maintenance. And then we slowly tried little pilots in pockets and areas that we knew it would make a difference.
[00:16:53] And we in sourced our maintenance team and then our janitorial and this year our landscaping. And so we have this full in source program. I think the only thing we don't do is like HVAC due to different licensing requirements. And we don't do snow removal, but a lot of our other stuff is all in sourced.
[00:17:11] And, you know, right away, the biggest thing we noticed. Is all right, maybe you save a few bucks, right? That's, that's fantastic. Everybody wants to save money, but your quality goes up. It goes up leaps and bounds because the people doing the work actually care. They're making meaningful relationships with the people in our facilities. And, you know, they have to go there every day. So they don't want someone at the facility You know, maybe not saying the nicest things, right? So they're trying harder. Plus it's the brand they represent anyway. So, like I said before, it's that skin in the game, right? They care that this place looks great, functions well, and we just, we just get a better product overall.
[00:17:53] I mean, it is night and day. You really can't compare it. We don't assume anything. It's all data. And we do have surveys that go out every time a work order is closed. And what I could tell you, that when we run reports on that data, which we do quarterly, anytime we have a vendor completing those requests, typically the surveys are not nearly as good as the responses we get from the in house staff. It's always the survey responses are calling out text by name, you know, they're doing a great job, thanks for the great job, you know, it's, it's really, really cool to see, especially when you have that data to look at.
[00:18:32] Sid: That's fascinating. So, what has been your relationship with the folks that are in the bank and running your, your, your retail banking sites?
[00:18:42] What have you found they have come to expect of you, your team, and all the functions you support?
[00:18:49] Dave: Excellence, right? That's what they, they just know to expect. That if we don't know how to do something, we will figure it out. We will get it done. And you know, that is being driven from the top down. One of the big mantras is if you're posed a question by someone, absolutely do not just shove them off and say, Oh yeah, contact this other team. They handle that stuff. Your job is to figure it out. Even if you have to contact that other team and get it done. So that person that contacted you doesn't have to take another step. Right, their job is to be there for our customers. Our job is to be there for them. So if they're contacting us, you know, and sometimes I'm not going to lie, we have folks call our service center. They don't have a question about facilities at all. They have a different question, but they know that we can somehow, some way get them to the answer. You know, even if we're not directly solving the issue, we know who to contact, and we can get the ball rolling. So, it really is a great reputation that we've built.
[00:19:54] And I can't take all the credit. Like I said, this is, this is being pushed from the top down, which I feel is very important. If you don't have that kind of support, it's really hard to get these types of things done. You need that buy in.
[00:20:06] Sid: 100%. Especially if it's cross functional. In, in your perspective, have you found that a role like yours or a function like yours exists, you know, and, and is ubiquitous where, where brands are like we know that there's a problem here and we need to solve it or do you think that you're way ahead of the curve. Yeah
[00:20:34] Dave: rare. You know, I'm talking to, and not even in my industry, right, in different industries, it's still rare. And I think the biggest problem is the leadership in real estate operations or a property group. I don't think they necessarily see the need for a group like mine. And I'm, and that's, what's funny is when I first started, I was just managing our work order management system. And I was told that it's not a full time job. I needed some other stuff to do. Like, there's no way that can be a full time job, right? And then they started to realize all of the gaps we had when a third party was managing it that I could fill. And it quickly became, you need a team. Because you can't do all this work alone.
[00:21:20] So, I think it's really hard. Like, people just don't When they think of real estate operations or property management group, they're not thinking about that underlying software component, which is relatively new. You know, when I was an electrician, everything was on paper. I got paperwork orders hand scribbled by somebody in the office.
[00:21:38] I would scribble my notes back on them and hand them back into the office. Heck, even my time card at the end of the week was done on paper. So, I mean, that was only, you know, 10, 12 years ago. And now we have mobile apps to do all this stuff that put the power of a computer in your hand. So I think, you know, some folks are just slow to realize that technology is a part of what we do. It has to be, it's going to be even more so going forward. And you need a group to manage this stuff who's connected to the data. and connect it to the work. So that's the big thing. You know, you can't hand this stuff off to somebody who doesn't know any better. A good example is we have a huge suite of dashboards that display all this data so we can make real time decisions or near real time decisions on what we're doing. And not long ago, an IT person was the person who used to build those for us. I would provide them with basically a statement of work, and it was a citizen's colleague, but not in our group, in IT, and they would build it out. They'd build out the automation and grab the data from the various tools and put together a pretty dashboard.
[00:22:47] The problem is, they will almost never write the first, like, five iterations. Because they didn't know exactly how the different pieces of data were connected to the other pieces of data. So they would join these things together how they thought, but they didn't really know what any of it meant. And that's the problem.
[00:23:06] So my team took that over not long ago, and now you have someone who not only knows how to do the code, you know, write all the code to make these things happen, right? Write the automations, create those dashboards, but they also know what's going on. They know how each piece of data relates to each other in the different systems, because we're part of that team, right?
[00:23:29] So I think it is important to have that. I think that not a lot of folks think it's important. I don't know, hopefully they'll get there soon. Maybe they'll watch this episode and they'll be like, hmm.
[00:23:41] Sid: Yeah. You know, what's interesting Dave, is that in most situations, I think organizations underestimate the impact facilities and all of the functions that are part of the built environment have on the overall customer experience. I guess it's seen in a very transactional way. Like we have to build a location, the locations built move on. Now it's like, if something breaks, we think of facilities. And apart from that, like, it's not really thought of as part of the equation necessarily in terms of delivering on a particular brand promise, you know, being on the inside, you know, I'd love to talk about banking.
[00:24:23] I'll get to that in a second. But just generally, you know, within our industry, do you feel like it is understood in terms of impact that you have on, on delivering on a particular kind of experience consumers today expect?
[00:24:39] Dave: Yeah, I mean, just look around. You know, some of these larger chains, you could walk into five different stores and they're all completely different. Or, you know, You know, how many times do you walk into, I don't know, say a Home Depot in different places? It actually just happened to me not long ago. We have a few stores around me and I know exactly where to find certain products because the stores are laid out the same. They look the same, stuff's in the same place. And then I just went to Virginia and visit my in laws and their store was completely different. Not even like close. It's different sides of the building, every, and I was lost and it took me twice as long, you know, you get frustrated and then you're like, gee, should I gone to a different big box store?
[00:25:22] So I think, you know, brand is important. I think people do realize it more and more now. I think COVID too changed the way we look at things. And what's interesting is after that happened, I feel like people wanting to go in store actually ramped up a little bit. You know, people want, because they were so deprived from being able to go and touch and feel something before they purchase it or, you know, now they want that interaction. So, I do think it's important, I do think that, Most companies are starting to realize it because I've seen a lot, you know, new renovations and modifications, you know, making things easier for the customer. You know, I know we're going through the same thing as well, and banking has shifted in so many different ways over the years, to everybody does their banking in a bank, to everyone wants to do it on their phone or on
[00:26:15] Sid: That's right.
[00:26:17] Dave: People actually want to bank in banks again.
[00:26:20] So, you know, it's, it's hard to follow those trends. I think our leadership definitely has a finger on the pulse. 100%. We are really agile and we tend to shift and move how customers want, even if we pilot some branches in one way and then do something completely different in another market, at least, you know, they're the same basic overall anyways layout and style.
[00:26:45] So you know what you're to expect when you walk in. But yeah, it's, it's definitely important. I do think that folks are getting there, you know, there's plenty of data to support it now too, and I think businesses that take advantage of that are definitely ahead of the curve.
[00:27:00] Sid: If you look at the banking space to your point, it, there's so many different kind of waves it goes through, before you had no option. You went into a bank when you needed it, to do something, you know, a transaction. Now everything is digital first.
[00:27:16] So, I'm curious, like, in the banking world, how are physical spaces thought of? What is the experience with physical spaces, you expect consumers walk in with and when, when do you think they actually believe they need to interact with someone in a physical space? I'd love to hear that perspective.
[00:27:38] Dave: I consume a lot of podcast content, surprise, and I've heard quite a few things in this, you know, around this topic, and, You know, listening to what the trend is, and I actually get to see some of it too, first hand, but what's funny, my father is technically a boomer, right? So, he's of that mindset where I have to go to a bank to do my banking in a bank.
[00:28:04] He won't use the computer. And then I think, probably my generation, we're more like, nah. I don't need to go to a bank. I could do it on my, on my mobile or whatever. And, you know, I think we generally think it's secure enough. And then you have this younger generation which is super interesting. I would have thought they would be just like my generation.
[00:28:28] I don't want to have to go somewhere or talk to someone or look at someone. I want to do it all on my phone. I don't know if it's TikTok or those scrolling videos that all the kids love to watch that short content. That they get so frustrated with something if it takes longer than a minute that, okay, now I need somebody to do this for me. So, you know, and I can speak to that because I have a 19 year old son and a 14 year old son, and they're definitely in that boat. If my 19 year old can't figure something out in like one click and read one little blurb, he's done. Dad, I need help.
[00:29:00] When you look around in some of these places, there's a lot of younger people in stores, and it's because, yeah, that instant gratification. If they can't figure it out right away, we're They don't want to deal with it, you know, so they're, they're walking in, hey, show me how to do this, I can't figure it out.
[00:29:16] Sid: That's so fascinating because, you know, I was talking to Tom McGee, of ICSC, and he was saying very much the same thing, which is even if you look at traditional retail, The, the, the generation that is in the location and is, wants to shop in person, you know, is, is Gen Z and so on, whereas, you know, the bigger cart sizes are probably more on the boomer side and probably millennials too, right?
[00:29:48] But Gen Z wants the human interaction. It's pretty fascinating to hear that that same trend, you know, transcends into, into banking as well. Wow. So, so if you, if you look at your, your physical spaces and, you know, you're relying so much on your in house techs to deliver a great experience and to ensure that you're delivering service to your operators that now have very high expectations. How are you dealing with the challenge of the labor shortage.
[00:30:24] How have you solved for it?
[00:30:29] Dave: I don't know that we have yet.
[00:30:31] Sid: Okay. Yeah
[00:30:32] Dave: No, I think, I think the approach we are taking now is training and the name is escaping me right now, but you have definitely had the company and CEO on as a guest.
[00:30:44] Sid: Oh interplay
[00:30:46] Dave: interplay. Thank you. Yeah. So we,
[00:30:48] Sid: we had doug donovan on the show. Yeah
[00:30:50] Dave: Yes. Yeah. So we partnered with him and his company to provide training to our field technicians. And it really is starting to pay off. So, you know, whether they just use it on their iPad or we have a few of the headsets that, you know, in key areas where techs can go to a central location and go use one to do some training, but really it comes down to you have to promote from within, right? So we have a robust program starting with janitorial and typically those folks are, you know, Non experienced.
[00:31:21] Some of the folks we hire have never used a cell phone until we put one in their hand and say, Hey, you need to do work orders on this thing. So it's a lot of training. My team actually goes out and we train typically once a year we'll do the entire portfolio and make stops in key areas. And we'll do hands on training when everything that has to do with tech.
[00:31:41] So how to use your phone. In general, how to use the mobile app for a work order system. Any other issues they're experiencing, questions, you know, we give them that hands on training, super important. And, you know, I'll say they're, they do that role for a couple of years and they want to do something else.
[00:31:59] We have some great programs here at the bank and it's all about promoting from within. So, you know what, here's a course, take this course, learn these skills. And maybe, you know, you could step into a maintenance tech role or a landscaper role. So there's lots of different roles. We have a quality control team, facility management team, programs, teams that develop overall programs, and then project delivery teams.
[00:32:23] So there's a lot of places to go. And I think the way we've solved is, you know, you just take those guys that come in and, you know, maybe they, they, like I said, they start out just cleaning branches and they want to develop their career. So, right now that's where we're at. because like you said, I think, you know, it is very, very difficult to hire, you know, skilled labor.
[00:32:47] Even when I was exiting the electrical trades, there were very few apprentices. They just don't want to do that work. It's really hard work. If it's a hundred degrees out, you're working in a hundred degree heat. If it's zero out, you better bundle up and people don't want that. So. You know, maybe they are going to get that four year education and they want an office job. And it's worse now. I mean, I'm getting postcards from my union hall like, hey, come back. You know,
[00:33:14] Sid: wow.
[00:33:15] Dave: we just signed this great new package and here's the new pay rates and stuff like that. So, you could tell if they're spending money on mailers that, you know, They're hurting. So, I don't know. I think we need to do our job as employers, you know, in, if we're in that space, then we need to train our staff and train them up, you know, keep hiring those people with no experience, train them up.
[00:33:38] Sid: What does the new generation need to hear, according to you, to feel like going into the trades can lead to a great career?
[00:33:46] Because clearly something wasn't done right, you know, a decade or two ago, which is why we are in the situation we're in. Right.
[00:33:55] Dave: Yeah, it's funny sometimes people ask like, oh, if you could do something different, what would you do? Like, I wouldn't do anything different. You know, I made a lot of mistakes. I did a lot of interesting jobs. You know, as an electrician, I worked at sewer plants, airports, high rises, you name it. Was some of it gross? Yep, you just trudge through it, and I'll tell you what, some of the stuff I learned at some of those places, like sewer plants, I mean, you can't learn it anywhere else. I don't care what anyone says, that stuff is all process. You talk about perfection, you have to be perfect. One machine has to do a certain job, and then the next one has to do a certain job, and if one thing breaks down, the whole process breaks. So. I don't think I'd do anything different. And when I was in high school, I remember sitting down with my guidance counselor, talking about my future and some of the courses I had taken.
[00:34:46] I took all college prep courses and I loved math. I love science and I was a band geek and I did technology in school as well. And my guidance counselor, you know, he, he asked me, well, when you go to college, you know, what do you think you're going to focus on? What if you had to guess what would be your major?
[00:35:05] And I said, I don't plan on going to college. I knew right then I knew pretty early on, it just wasn't going to be for me. I like to work I like to work hard, my family owned a couple restaurants, so I worked in those as a kid, and he looked at me and said, Well, unfortunately if you don't go to college, you probably never amount to anything.
[00:35:26] Sid: Wow.
[00:35:27] Dave: me laugh at the time, but, you know, as a, as a teenager, I'm like, oh yeah? Now fast forward a few years, right? I go through my apprenticeship, which I got in right when I was 18. As soon as they could accept me I got right in the program.
[00:35:41] And a few years after that, who called me was that guidance counselor. And he needed some electrical work done in his home. He didn't know who to call. So he remembered that I wanted, I had told him I wanted to be an electrician, and he remembered that, and I think he must have asked around, and I did electrical work at his home, and, you know, it was just so ironic, you know, I never amount to anything, but here I am doing work in his home and I guess if I had to tell kids today, it's, you know, Don't be afraid to get your hands dirty, roll up your sleeves, do some hard work, right?
[00:36:15] I know that it's so cliche, but it does build character, right? And I thought, back then, like, yeah, whatever. But it literally does, and there's so many things you can learn from doing a really crappy job.
[00:36:27] I mean, so many of those skills come in handy later in life. And now that I'm in software, it's like, well, how do you apply those skills? Well, it's so easy. We just rolled out a landscaping program. I have insight now to how that should be done.
[00:36:40] If someone says, Hey, I get this, you know, weird job, don't be afraid to say yes, and then learn it. You know, I I'll tell you like our leader, our head of property and procurement I love listening to him talk cause he also had an interesting journey to where he is and he's got some fantastic stories and one of the things that he said is don't be afraid to take something on, even if you don't know how to do it, if someone says, Hey, can you do this job?
[00:37:04] I started a call center when they were like, Hey we're gonna, we're gonna open a new call center in house. Can you do it? Yep. I ever run a call center before? No. I was an electrician and a landscaper. But I know that I can figure it out because I'm curious. So, you gotta stay curious, you gotta stay hungry, you know, and don't say no just because you've never done it.
[00:37:26] That's an opportunity to learn how to do something new. And it's really, it's something I've always done, it's something I know I'll never stop doing.
[00:37:33] Sid: There you go. I love that. Yeah, I believe Richard Branson also said, right? If someone offers you a job and you don't know how to do it, say yes first and then figure out how to do it after that, right? That's exactly what you're saying. I love it. As you look at where we are today and then into the future as well with all the new kind of emerging technologies that are coming into physical spaces, things that are reinventing how you interact with the brands that you love. Is that gonna touch banking?
[00:38:07] I think it will because it's inevitable. I love all that technology, but I think I approach it all with a healthy dose of skepticism. And what I mean by that is You know, there's some people that literally they're headfirst. They're in, they don't care. They're going to use it. They're going to trust it. I don't think I'm there yet. I do use it. I use it all over the place, wherever I can, however I can. But you know, I'm always skeptical of its responses, which is good because you're able to test it. You know, how accurate is this information? I don't just. You know, type something in, read the response and accept it.
[00:38:48] Dave: I usually will fact check it. And I found some things that are not right. And most of those tools, you can actually give them feedback. So that's, you know, hopefully that they'll learn from that too. I think it will touch banking. I think right now. It's all about trust, right? There's not a lot of trust around these tools, especially when it comes to your personal details.
[00:39:11] Sid: That's right,
[00:39:11] Dave: know, what does it know about me? How much? And, and once it knows it can it ever unknow it? And then once it learned it, who else learned it? I don't know. I think that we're a long ways off from some of the really cool stuff it can do because of that trust aspect. You know, but I think that there are ways to leverage it that maybe don't have to interact with a person's personal information.
[00:39:37] You know, can a company use it to develop code easier. If someone's developing something new, you know, Hey, help me write this line of code. Yeah, I think we can use it in that way. If we have a giant database of information and we need to surface something quickly, I think it does a really good job at that.
[00:39:55] Even today, you know, instead of scouring through hundreds of articles and reading them and coming up with your own summary, I think it, it does a decent job at summarizing some of that stuff, especially if you're able to build your own. And not rely on some of the, you know, mass available products.
[00:40:12] So it's really geared towards your business. I think that's a really great use case. But I'm not sure some of the other ones I've heard people talk about in banking they even have me scared a little bit, like, I don't know, like user agents and having an AI user agent act on your behalf to do something actually in your account, I think we're a ways off before someone trusts it to actually do that.
[00:40:37] Undoubtedly they could be used in a lot of other small ways to improve what we're doing. And, you know, I hear a lot of people like, oh, it's going to replace all your jobs, you know, you guys are system guys, you're IT guys, it's going to replace you guys. Like, it won't replace an electrician, but it'll definitely replace an IT guy.
[00:40:54] and I actually had some conversations recently with family when I visited family down in Virginia and they're saying all these things, right? It's going to replace you. It's going to replace you. I think those folks haven't actually used any of these products yet.
[00:41:08] Because as soon as you do, you learn really quickly that if you don't know how to prompt these things, they don't work they're junk if you can't prompt it correctly, so, you know, when people learn how to prompt them better You know, and you have to really feed that information in and be very specific.
[00:41:25] I think until we all learn how to do that, I think they're a great tool for us to use. I don't think they're ever going to replace us, honestly. There's just so many things, inferences and other things that humans can do that a machine can't. It's a machine that's literally predicting the next thing we want to say or do or whatever. It's, it's consumed all of the things us humans did, you know, things we wrote, things we drew all that stuff. For people that really aren't in the tech industry, you know, AI is a new word, but what it is, machine learning, it's been around for decades. Right? When you've turned on Netflix and it predicts like, Hey, these things might be something you might want to watch. What's been doing that for years. And that technically is what we're classifying as AI nowadays, but that's just machine learning. It learned your habits, predicted the next thing, right?
[00:42:18] So I think they're great tools. I think we will see it. I think different banks have a different appetite for how much risk they want to, you know, have some more than others, and so some will probably adopt some of this stuff sooner than later but yeah, I think we will see some of it.
[00:42:34] Sid: Yeah, it's definitely interesting, right? I mean, machine learning, AI has been around for a long time. It's just, I think in the recent couple of years, it's, it's become more accessible. It's been, it kind of got democratized, right? Tools like ChatGPT has become more normal than it has ever been, right? So it'll be interesting to see how that kind of makes its way into all industries and Of course, the banking world is definitely a lot more sensitive, so, yeah, it'll definitely be interesting to see how the future plays out. As you look at how brands in general are going to interact with their consumers. What do you think they need to think of? What does the consumer of the future look like in your view?
[00:43:25] Dave: I don't know that it's going to change all that much, and I think what we're seeing today, it's already occurred. it's this huge cycle. In the town I live in, you know, we went from mom and pop shops, everything privately owned, to chains, just big chains everywhere to now where I think the only chain in my whole town is a Dunkin Donuts and a McDonald's, right?
[00:43:48] Everything is again, all family owned, small business. And so why is that? It's because of the consumer, obviously they're driving that, right? If they don't shop at the big box stores, they end up leaving town and, you know, something new crops up and if that business does well, it stays. So it's definitely a cycle.
[00:44:08] As things evolve, you know, for a while, probably the next quite a few years, there's going to be this big push for that in store, you know, people want to go in, they want to touch and feel stuff. But like anything else, it's probably going to fade off again. And we'll see that push for, you know, more digitization, which, you know, I don't think that'll slow down either.
[00:44:29] I think there'll be a healthy balance between both. And I think when that happens, it's important to make sure that, you know, your digital brand matches your physical brand. There's a lot of times I see where I might start shopping for something in an app and I almost get frustrated with the experience and I'm like, forget it.
[00:44:49] I'm just going to go to the store and go see the thing that I'm, I was looking at on the app, you know, and maybe I'll even finish the purchase or what On my actual device, but more often than not, I ended up going to the store and buying way more things than I intended because, well, that's what we do as humans.
[00:45:05] Right. The consumer will evolve. It'll, it'll probably change a little bit. I don't think it's going to be a huge evolution though. I think it'll be a slow push. You know, you figure the boomers will start to fade out and then you'll have a new generation, right? So it's like that whole cycle. The same thing goes for everything else, right? My, I still have a grandfather alive, which is really cool. And he lives in the house with us. So there's four generations all in one house. So I have a grandfather who's 87, my parents, myself, and my kids, we're all in the same, you know, large home in a historic part of town. And, you know, we sit on the porch in the afternoons after work and drink wine. It's great. We have these really in depth conversations. And he talks about certain things that we do today that are just ridiculous, in his mind, right? And I'm like, yeah, but when you were a kid, so was rock and roll. You know, I was like, what are you listening to?
[00:46:01] You know, your parents said, and, you know, so I get them to think, which is, is great. And he's like, oh yeah, that's true. I'm like, yeah, in a few years I'll think that whatever my kids, well, I already do think that some of my kids are doing and content they're consuming is ridiculous and things they're purchasing. I think that we learn as we go, we evolve as we go. The business will evolve because the consumer drives it, you know, as long as the business is paying attention, which I think nowadays it's a lot easier to, because they have so much more data. It's easier to get your hands on it. It's not a lot of paper pushing. I think the businesses will do fine. They'll evolve with their consumers just fine. And yeah.
[00:46:41] Sid: That's so interesting. I love that. There's a lot of information. There's a lot of data. If you're paying attention, and you're open to evolving, you probably will be okay as a business, will stay ahead and come out ahead as we look into the future. Dave, I've really thoroughly enjoyed this conversation. For folks in our audience who want to find you where can they look you up?
[00:47:05] Dave: Yeah, bestBet is LinkedIn. If you just search for my name, it's pretty unique. David Tarantelli. I have a banner in case there's more than one. It says PVD. I'm based in the Providence area. So
[00:47:16] Sid: But there you go again, with that, I would really like to thank you again for being on the show. I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation and for all those in our audience, thank you for joining us. And we'll see you on the next episode of Elevating Brick and Mortar.
[00:47:30] I hope you enjoyed this conversation with Dave Tarantelli, VP of Systems at Citizens. You know, we all recognize that within the built environment, there are multiple functions that all, at a very high level, serve a singular purpose. To plan for, build, maintain, and operate the physical built environment.
[00:47:50] And yet these functions today operate in silos, which creates waste and is not really conducive to informed decision making. Dave and the leadership team at Citizens are way ahead of the curve in solving for this, and they're already making a big positive impact. We also talked about the future and how the consumer of today and tomorrow will tell you what resonates with them.
[00:48:16] All you have to do as a business is pay attention and be ready to evolve. With that, I'm your host Sid Shetty, and I'll see you on the next episode of Elevating Brick and Mortar.
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