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#61593 - 02/14/03 07:06 PM Are you a "personal" banker?
Anonymous
Unregistered

While teaching a seminar a few weeks ago, I had an interesting conversation with several bankers about the increasing use of the term "personal banker" as a marketing hook. Several of them laughed and said, "Well, I guess my customers consider me their personal banker, because they don't hesitate to call me at home when they need something." I could not imagine, but one said he always carries the NADA book with him, because even on weekends customers will call and ask the value of vehicles. Another recounted the time she was in the grocery store checkout lane and had a bank customer ask if she would mind taking her deposit into the bank for her the next day.

Then there are the confessionals. One banker said some folks confide in them like they do a bartender. One guy said, "Do you know why my wife and I got a divorce?" "Well, no sir, I don't", she replied (thinking she didn't want to know, either). "It's because I had my prostate removed and can't have sex anymore." Gee, thanks for sharing.

I enjoyed their stories and thought many of you would have your own to share. How much of a personal banker are YOU?

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General Discussion
#61594 - 02/14/03 07:21 PM Re: Are you a "personal" banker?
Skittles Offline
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Skittles
Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 13,965
TN
I probably have a few, but one leaps to mind. I was an administrative assistant for a few lenders and spoke to a bookkeeper at one customer's on almost a daily basis. One day she called me up and told me she 'had just been canned'. I was speechless and didn't have a clue what to say.
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#61595 - 02/14/03 07:22 PM Re: Are you a "personal" banker?
Anonymous
Unregistered

Having been a personal banker for the first 7 of 12 years at my bank, with a specialty in auto lending, I got and still get that all the time. A large majority of my customers still call me up for personal banking things. I purposely fought to keep my lending authority so that I can accomodate them, since my # 1 mission in Marketing is customer service without being transferred all around. That said, why these people feel like I have ingrained in my head what all of our current interest rates are, what the loan/wholesale/retail value of any car/truck is, and most frustrating of all, what a 4 year payment would be on $12,376 at 8% is beyond me! Maybe instead of a pcoket protector for mathematicians, I will invent a "banker buddy bag" that includes an HP, black book, rate sheet, etc. that's easy to carry to the grocery store or bar. Although, I guess that is what one of those pocket PCs could be useful for.

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#61596 - 02/14/03 07:24 PM Re: Are you a "personal" banker?
Michelle M Offline
Gold Star
Michelle M
Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 422
In reply to:

Another recounted the time she was in the grocery store checkout lane and had a bank customer ask...


This is why I love winter (probably the only reason I like winter). Everyone at the bank calls me frosty because I bundle up SO much (I usually walk to work, even in the winter) SO when I stop at the grocery store on the way home, NO one recognizes me.
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#61597 - 02/14/03 07:24 PM Re: Are you a "personal" banker?
Anonymous
Unregistered

Oh wait - I forgot to include my best story, and it just happened two weeks ago. I approved an unsecured loan for a customer to consolidate a bunch of debt, and when he yawned from across the desk as he was signing the papers, he apologized because he had just had a shot of vodka before coming there and hoped his breath didn't reek. think that one will end up on the delinquent list? (not a chance - he's aces)

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#61598 - 02/14/03 09:08 PM Re: Are you a "personal" banker?
EllenA Offline
Platinum Poster
EllenA
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 598
Flushing, NY
I'm a lector for my church and have to walk "in procession" holding up the Book and walking just in front of the priest. One sunday, an elderly lady jumps out of the pew, grabs me by the arm and starts yelling at me "You're not supposed to charge me for checks -- I ordered checks and you charged me 16 dollars -- I was never charged before..." I told her see had to wait until Monday.
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#61599 - 02/14/03 09:52 PM Re: Are you a "personal" banker?
Lestie G Offline

Power Poster
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 3,608
Near the Land of Enchantment
So far, Ellen is winning. That's hilarious! I can just see that little old lady accosting you during the processional!
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#61600 - 02/14/03 09:53 PM Re: Are you a "personal" banker?
Anonymous
Unregistered

You mean there are bankers who are not stopped in the grocery store and asked questions, for advice or to do favors (such as taking in deposits the next day)? I have worked in the same bank for 26+ years. I have had customers show me their surgical scars, drop off their baby cause they were desparate for a babysitter for 10 minutes, been invited to be a witness at their wedding and an honorary pall bearer at their funeral. I buy sympathy cards in bulk and have even bought groceries and delivered them to a customer who called and disclosed how ill they were. Can it get more personal than this? I now work upstairs in compliance and not with the public anymore. I miss the personal side of my banking career more than I can say.

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#61601 - 02/14/03 10:02 PM Re: Are you a "personal" banker?
EllenA Offline
Platinum Poster
EllenA
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 598
Flushing, NY
The poor itty-bitty alter servers were scared to death -- didn't know what to do, keep walking, turn back, protect the priest -- it was quite a scene. Everyone who was there remembers it, my big claim to fame.
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#61602 - 02/14/03 10:08 PM Re: Are you a "personal" banker?
HRH Dawnie Offline
Power Poster
HRH Dawnie
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 7,353
Anchorage Alaska
When I was in branch land I had so many similar stories, but for some reason the funny/bad ones really stick with me. One of my favorite being the divorce I performed (witnessed? Notarized?) as a huge jerk turned to the East? West? (some important direction to him) and pronounced the sweet little woman with him (who did not speak english) as his divorced spouse (I divorce thee, I divorce thee, I divorce thee). They were back the next week happy as clams...

I turned down a loan and a client climed on my desk and quacked like a duck til the police removed him.

Was egged by another client...(Egglands best eggs of all things)

Was asked out by a regular client who murdered his wife the next week...(I said no)

Suffered severe intestinal difficulty after eating the funny brownies a "sweet" old lady brought us for the holidays. (Gad whatever she cooked with wasn't chocolate)!


Helped the police in a possible robbery late at night by opening the vault...it was a mouse and I'm suprised the six big guys with guns didn't blow the thing away! We all jumped miles.

I can't count how many cars I've had dropped off for repo, with filthy notes claiming many mis-statements about my possible ancestry steming from a female dog....

But now in Alaska, Planes have gone down, planes that won't go up, dogsleding behind some smellllyyyyy dogs, being the ONLY person with red hair in a village full of children (they hadn't ever seen a red head!), being asked to marry I don't know how many sweet old eskimo men...

I think people take the term "Personal" too literally sometimes But..I love every duck quacking moment of it! (It's sure nice to pick and chose my clients now though LOL)
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Dawn Coursey VP/CRA Queen

CRA Rating is in...Oh who cares...I'm home with the baby.

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#61603 - 02/14/03 11:02 PM Re: Are you a "personal" banker?
Ted Dreyer Offline
Diamond Poster
Ted Dreyer
Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 2,245
In reply to:

a client climed on my desk and quacked like a duck til the police removed him.

Was egged by another client




Now if the eggs had come from the guy that quacked you'd REALLY have a great story!!!!!

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#61604 - 02/14/03 11:07 PM Re: Are you a "personal" banker?
Anonymous
Unregistered

You guys are blowing my mind! In all these years as a bank customer, I have never imagined such services being offered. You folks have had some amazing adventures.

Maybe I bank at the wrong banks. . .

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#61605 - 02/14/03 11:09 PM Re: Are you a "personal" banker?
Anonymous
Unregistered

Holy Schniekees Dawnie!

I agree with what you said about clients getting a little TOO personal sometimes.

I have the alltime "Personal" horror story - but I must remain anonymous for this one, I really don't want this story attached to me...

Back in my days of customer service I had a lady that used to tell me about every problem in her life - her failing marriage, worthless husband, and personal alcohol problems.

Well, one day I got an "up close and personal" view of the latter when she came in totally and completely sauced. In an attempt to 1. Change the subject; 2. Give my coworker time to get to another room to call my extension (pardon me - I HAVE to take this call!); and 3. Still appear polite, I complemented her on her beautiful hair color (red). She proceeded to pull down her sweatpants to show me that she was, indeed, a true redhead!

I somehow managed to keep my eyes averted while she giggled away, returning her waistband to its true and proper position before making her way to the teller line.

Aye Carumba!

I am happy to report, however, that she has been to the Betty Ford clinic now (twice) and really seems to have it together. All the same, I'm glad she no longer knows where my office is.

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#61606 - 02/14/03 11:13 PM Re: Are you a "personal" banker?
SMQ, CRCM Offline
Power Poster
SMQ, CRCM
Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 4,828
Between the lines

MBG send him/her a shirt for that one! Oops, he/she is anon!! (I would be too!!!)
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#61607 - 02/14/03 11:14 PM Re: Are you a "personal" banker?
HRH Dawnie Offline
Power Poster
HRH Dawnie
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 7,353
Anchorage Alaska
Heh Heh, We had a home for "Special" clients near the branch I worked at Mary Beth. One of my favorite from the residence always came in with a bikini top or bottom on her head like a scarf. Other than that...she seemed quite normal.

On a serious note, one of my favorite stories about what bankers do involved a client who was dying. She and her husband had banked with me for years and as her time came near she confessed to me that she was worried about her husband as he never handled the money. I spent a Labor day holiday at their home, refinancing the house, their business, moving their investments and consolidating all of their banking relationships to my bank as well as assisting him in understanding everything they had. It was a positive call for the bank, but for me it was the personal touch that always stuck with me. I could visably see her relax as he and I worked through everything while she was laying on her death bed. She died about a month later and I felt very good about that "personal" banking call. Sometimes we forget the good we can do for people while doing business.
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Dawn Coursey VP/CRA Queen

CRA Rating is in...Oh who cares...I'm home with the baby.

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#61608 - 02/14/03 11:17 PM Re: Are you a "personal" banker?
HRH Dawnie Offline
Power Poster
HRH Dawnie
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 7,353
Anchorage Alaska
Good gravy! A real red head! LOL

Have any of you ever said in passing "I used to bank him" and had people look at you like you said something ENTIRELY different? I always have to be careful to pronounce the K carefully.
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Dawn Coursey VP/CRA Queen

CRA Rating is in...Oh who cares...I'm home with the baby.

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#61609 - 02/15/03 04:51 AM Re: Are you a "personal" banker?
Don_Narup Offline

Power Poster
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 3,708
Las Vegas Nevada
Ah! a banker life MB, if you only knew. Many customer look on us as a friend, and as a friend seek advice on personal matters as well as business.

We all have had difficult things to do like telling a father his son was running the company into the ground, and the father using us to square away his son for him. Or a wife having a problem with her husband hating the man their daughter was marrying, and asking we help to bring the family back together, or the couples that separate over the weekend and hit the front and back door of the bank on Monday morning, demanding to draw the balance at the same time, with the husband always threating bodily harm if we gave the money to the wife. Or the ex viet nam vet that burned his brain out on drugs and couldn't put two sentences together that made sense, and received a direct deposit government disability check each month. He couldn't handle life to well, and one day freaked out in my office. It took 5 policeman to wrestle him out of the bank, and a long 10 minutes to show up to do it.

The sad ones are like the little old man who dressed in his best suit and dapper hat each Tuesday, and escaping from the rest home, walked almost two miles to talk to us because he thought he had an account, and the girls in bookkeeping were nice to him. Every time he sat down he wet the chair and as cleaning bills mounted, we made sure he got the same chair on each visit. One Tuesday he never showed up. We sent the chair to the rest home with a plaque that just said Bill's Chair.

There was a 4th of July parade that my Marine Reserve Infantry Company was marching in, and in the parade assembly area I noticed a person who was a skip, and very delinquent on an account, walking down the sidewalk. I was a platoon sargeant and dressed in fatigues with helmet, pack and rifle, I managed to catch up to her, get the new address and without even asking, managed to pick up a couple of payments. The manager was happy when I turned them in, but not happy to write the letter to corporate HQ in response to the customers complaint letter explaining why I had a gun in my hand when I collected the money.

One day Mad May showed up. May had two dresses one pink and one blue and a big floppy hat. She bathed in the ladies room, ate sandwiches the staff made for her, One of which she took each day for her husband. Every day she saluted the flag behind my desk, and said the pledge of allegiance. She lived in an upstairs apt over a retail store, and in a fire inspection of the building fireman found her husband had passed away in his chair about 2 months previously. There was a pile of stale sandwiches beside him.

A memorable occasion was as a brand new assistant branch manager with one whole day on the job behind me and, while having lunch in the restaurant next door on day two, being arrested and hand cuffed at gun point by local police as the person that robbed the bank the week before.(It was a mistake) Seems we had similar features. The manager chewed me out for returning from lunch late.

Of course having a person lug in several suit cases and ask for a private meeting was somewhat unusual, but not as much as when he opened them to display several million dollars in a foreign currency he had smuggled out of an african country, and wanted to exchange for dollars. While not illegal at the time, we opted not to exchange them because it would have had an adverse effect on the economy of that country. He then smuggled the money back into the country and purchased diamonds, which he then took to England and exchanged them for pounds Unfortunately, about a week before the pound was devalued.

Catering to Physicians was a specialty, and standing out side operating rooms with loan papers to sign between operations, was a common event. Making the doctors rounds and observing the heart wrenching and the triumphs is a character builder.

Being able to see new inventions and products brought to market because the bank financed them was always exciting. A couple I still see on the shelves today.

There are 30 years of these memories, and of them all, are those of the wonderful people bankers are, and the great service they do everyday in helping fellow citizens get through life a little better. Thank You all
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#61610 - 02/15/03 12:56 PM Re: Are you a "personal" banker?
Bear Collector, CRCM Offline
Diamond Poster
Bear Collector, CRCM
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,830
District of Columbia
When I first started in Banking in Wyoming, we had a client who was a cross-dresser. "Beverly" would come into the bank every payday to deposit money into "his" savings account. If you were unfortunate enough to be new, he would tell you all about how he was saving for his sex-change operation! He always came in dressed in a long red wig, a blouse, a white pleated skirt with a red slip hanging out, and high heels, No nylons, though, just his hairy legs hanging out!

Of course, years later when I was a private banker, I was required to maintain a very close and personal relationship with my clients, including wearing a beeper so they could reach me any time of the day or night. Some of the stories I heard I can't repeat, but my favorite was a foreign private banking client who sat at my desk folding about $20,000 in $100 bills into little tiny squares. He told me it was becasue he planned to sneak the money out of the country, and didn't want to have to report it! When I reported the information to our compliance officer he told me they were afraid he was (foreign) mafia-connected and if he was arrested and figured out who "squealed", they might have to put me in a witness-protection program! To my knowledge nothing ever happened, but that's when I decided Compliance was safer and better for my health!!!
Leslie
Last edited by Leslie; 02/15/03 03:57 PM.
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#61611 - 02/17/03 04:51 AM Re: Are you a "personal" banker?
Deepa C Offline
Junior Member
Deepa C
Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 27
Dubai, UAE
All the anecdotes ring a familiar bell. I guess these do not apply to "personal banking" only. When I was a foreign exchange dealer, I had clients living down the road, stop me and ask my view on the GBP or the Yen. And this was while I was taking the dog out for a walk.

Weddings, funerals, babies, education plans for children, trouble with in laws - we've seen them all....The fact remains that the personal touch helps to retain clients.

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#61612 - 02/17/03 02:46 PM Absolutely!
Gray Mare Offline
Junior Member
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 39
I attend many sports activities - I always end up doing some type of personal banking services from quoting rates, blue book values or taking depsoits to the bank. I always have my financial calculator in my pocket with the current rates.
I think personal banking also means personal relationships (friendships) with our customers.
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#61613 - 02/17/03 02:55 PM OMG
Gray Mare Offline
Junior Member
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 39
Oh my goodness, I've had a lot of experiences - but - none like that one .... thank goodness!1 lol
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#61614 - 02/18/03 06:09 PM Re: Are you a "personal" banker?
Elwood P. Dowd Offline
10K Club
Elwood P. Dowd
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 21,939
Next to Harvey
When I was a Trust Officer we were having a small dinner party at my home on Christmas eve. A caretaker for one of our elderly, bedridden clients called and said the electricity was off and her house was beginning to chill. The power company confirmed it would be off for several hours. I called the client's doctor and he arranged to admit her to the hospital overnight for "observation." I met the ambulance there to sign her in and make certain she was settled before returning to our guests.

As I walked past the nursing station on the way out I heard one nurse said to the other, "Isn't that nice, her banker came out on Christmas eve just to take care of her." I smiled to myself until I heard the other nurse respond, "Nice nothing...can you imagine how much money she must have?"

As for the confessionals, I heard several, but they go to my grave with me.
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