The other day while entering my #1 bank I noticed that the old banking sign had been Chased away by the NEW & improved logos, labels and shirts. I thought another force it down my throat banking merger. It really looked impressive and in the lingo of some of my marketing friends it was sexy, primal, and emotionally provocative.
But isn't that what all advertising is supposed to do? Make us feel something on the inside. Who needs a pretty airbrushed face with a Rembrandt (teeth whitened) close up smile and that Chase you away bad breath service. I sure don't, you sure don't and the world sure won't stand for it.
Now if they could only put a few million into training tellers on how to treat people they might make a huge transaction and open a few hundred thousand new accounts. But it's not really about customer retention anymore. As a matter of fact it's not even about customer expansion.
It's only about "hey Sponge Bob, how can we replace the few hundred customers we lost last week, so that it doesn't really look like our customers are migrating?". "Well don't worry Patrick, we have a few new customers just coming through the door and since they don't know how bad our service is we'll make a few hundred off of them before they catch on and leave for good. How does that sound?"
Well I guess if you can't give them good service why not just give them slick posters and bright lights...Oh yeah! And don't forget the suckers in the basket. Must be a freudian metaphor. Banks giving away suckers. They say there's a sucker born every minute. Or maybe the suckers to remind you that their service sucks. Either way somethings wrong with that picture.
I do not speak as one who lacks experience in the banking industry.
Past Employment: Harris Bank & Bankers Life & Casualty Insurance Company.
In my day I've seen great service and then I've seen the other kind of service. But it's time for the Banking industry to get back to the basics. Serving your customers with PASSION is making one heck of a come back. And it's time the banks did more than borrow the peoples money, over charge the customer for errors and then pay them almost nothing in interest for using their money. But I guess if we keep on sucking their suckers we'll eventually be up for the "All Day Sucker" Award.
I guess thinking I was going to be engaged by a teller who would make me remember her unforgettable service was a mistake. I was Chased away by bad Customer Service...again.
Being a Customer Passion Evangelist is not easy. On a day to day basis you see so many companies transacting millions and sometime billions of dollars through key customer relationships almost by accident. Well if you're going to be working with generating that kind of money you might as well focus on serving the customer so that you get automatic business (I'll talk about that in a future issue).
No time to train your tellers? Don't worry! Soon your customers will be flocking to Citibank, Harris Bank and all the other huge banking organizations to try their service. And if they get the kind of service I got the other day they've Chased away another customer that has relationship leverage.
The best relationships in the B 2 C industry will be those who leave a deep mark on the hearts of their clients or shall I say a deep impression in the souls of their customers.
Well when I walked away the other day I walked away wondering...can major banks who dominate the market place still afford to leave their workers untrained on how to deliver "Unforgettable Service"? Sure they can.
They even can afford to CHASE a few away. Maybe I should write the president and tell him about the CHASE me away customer service I got or maybe I should see it as an opportunity to help the president improve service? One things for sure they won't CHASE me away with bad Customer Service anymore.
A great management guru named Peter Drucker once said, "the purpose of a business is to CREATE a customer".
A great Customer Passion Evangelist named Deremiah, *CPE, interpreted this to mean "Don't CHASE your customers away"
by Deremiah *CPE
