The power of listening: How Rahul Suvarna turns dreams into reality
Rahul Suvarna’s dream is to help customers achieve their dreams. A driven and empathetic leader, he finds fulfilment in empowering others, championing development and delivering excellent service. And he credits all his success to one simple yet powerful skill: listening.
Driven to succeed
Rahul Suvarna can still recall the afternoon his dad picked him up from school and pressed the keys to a Suzuki Zen into his hand. Although its manual gears were nerve-racking at first, the freedom he felt driving it was unparalleled. It was what inspired him to start his career as an analyst in the motor industry.
Many years later, Rahul’s role in Great Southern Bank’s Credit Lending team created an opportunity to give another young man the same sense of independence.
“One of our long-term customers was helping her 18-year-old son apply for his first car loan. They’d found a car they loved at a car dealership and needed to secure it that day, so she came into our branch to speak to someone about getting the loan approved. She told me her story and I didn’t interrupt. I just listened and I heard everything I needed to help her.”
What Rahul cherishes most about that memory isn’t the photograph he received of the woman and her son at the car dealership. It isn’t even the gift they sent him. It was the letter attached.
“She wrote, ‘Thank you for listening.’ That made my day. They didn’t even meet me in person, but they still went to those lengths. Helping her and her son was only a very small part of my day, but it put a smile on their faces and made a big difference to their lives.”
Never just a number
Despite common misconceptions, you don’t have to love numbers to work in banking. But it helps to appreciate how much they impact our lives - from your morning alarm to your monthly budget.
Rahul’s days revolve around numbers, but one of the things he loves most about working at Great Southern Bank is that he never feels like one himself. And he's passionate about making sure our customers don’t either.
“When we were CUA, we used the word ‘member’. Now that we’re Great Southern Bank, we say ‘customer’. Although the words have changed, our passion for delivering the best possible experience hasn’t. We cater to a lot of diverse people and communities, so listening to our customers and understanding their needs enables us to make changes to our products based on their feedback.”
Rahul knows that listening is key to delivering an exceptional customer experience. His hope for the future, for Great Southern Bank and his career is a simple one.
“My dream is to help others achieve their dreams. That’s what’s most important to me. Their loans are always for something significant - a new car or their first home. And our job in lending is to listen, learn and work with them to achieve their goal”