Jillian Chuck has learned about providing a high-touch customer experience through an unusual avenue — by working in her parents' Jamaican restaurant.
Food is what initially brought her parents together. Chuck's father immigrated to the U.S. to attend school and met her mother, who was working in his uncle's bakery.
"Jamaican food was what we grew up eating. We didn't even realize it was West Indian food at the time," she added. "That was important to our family, and he wanted to start a restaurant. It ended up being successful."
The venture has been a hit, in part, because of her parents' frequent analysis of the ways they can do things better. "My parents are constantly reevaluating their menu, their pricing, where they can reduce the costs," said Chuck, who described cooking as her way to relax and something that she is passing on to her young children. (Both, at 3 and 5 years old, can already make a basic cake.)
"What do your clients actually want?
"What they deliver is very similar to how we think about product management," Chuck added.
That's a skill Chuck is currently applying in her role as director of commercial deposits, revenue and liquidity at Comerica in Dallas. She stepped in that job a few months before Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank failed in March 2023. The role, which oversees wholesale banking deposit and liquidity products, works more directly with customers than Chuck had in her other jobs, something that appealed to her. Overall, she is responsible for the product team, commercialization for liquidity and revenue strategy. She has been with Comerica since 2014.
The $79.5 billion-asset institution's high-touch customer service was key to weathering the crisis. These types of relationships allowed the bank "to understand what customers need and what they were concerned about," she said.
Given these expectations from commercial clients, Chuck helped launch Comerica Maximize, which combines an interest-bearing checking account and cash management services, in August 2023. It was a way for commercial clients to manage certain financial needs, such as payments, loans and receivables, while still earning some yield on their money. "How can we make it seamless for them to run their business and meet all of their operations needs?" she asked. "The idea has been there before but the SVB crisis changed things. We just had to adapt quickly."
Being a banker wasn't Chuck's initial career plan. While a student at Xavier University, she majored in international affairs with a business concentration and played on the soccer team. But an injury forced her to sit out a year. "I was given some practical advice. If I had a free year of school, why not get your MBA?" she recalls being told.
"When I did that, I actually loved everyone I interacted with and I switched directions," she added.
After graduating, Chuck ended up joining a finance and accounting leadership training program at Fifth Third Bank. Through that experience, she was able to spend time in several different departments, including one that participants were allowed to select. Chuck decided on corporate treasury, which included learning about funding and liquidity.
"I loved that role because you had your pulse on the balance sheet," she said.
