I have owned a business for over 25 years and I have never, never had a banker call and ask me for my business.
I did have a very large bank (SunTrust) send me an expensive pen in a nice wooden case, but no one ever bothered to call me. I’m sure their marketing department spent months and thousands of dollars trying to acquire more business customers, but somehow they forgot the most critical part: they forgot to have someone call me to follow up!
Did they really expect me to drive across town, walk into their bank, and stand in line for 20 minutes just to move my account and get the same bad service?
Banks will run ads in the local paper promoting their CD rates and occasionally offer car loans or free checking accounts, but it’s not enough. Customers today won’t move their accounts over a higher CD rate or a free toaster.
When will banks learn that they are no different than any other business? When will bankers learn that they must get out from behind their mahogany desks and go call on a potential customer? Bankers need to get back to the basics: pick up the phone, call a business owner, and set-up an appointment to go out and show this person how your bank can help him become more efficient or profitable.
For example, there are thousands of companies that could and should be using remote deposit capture. But these companies aren’t going to learn about this new technology unless a banker goes out and shows them how it can make their business more efficient.
I recently found out that the large church I attend was sending an employee to the bank every day at lunch to deposit thousands of dollars.
Most of these deposits were checks, but a robber doesn’t always know this. All I had to do was mention the church’s potential liability to the administrator to get remote capture implemented.
Think about all of the churches that would be interested in remote capture if they received a phone call from a banker that mentioned how their current liabilities could be eliminated. But, unfortunately, most bankers are afraid of the phone!
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Neal Reynolds has worked with hundreds of banks and credit unions around the country helping them to grow core deposits and market share without growing their marketing budgets. Contact him at [email protected].
