[Chase] would like all of the new account reps to have someone at their desks at all times. They do this by having the banker walk up to someone in line, ask them what brings them in, and then tell them that they of course can help them with that and leads them to their desk. Here’s the thing: the banker doesn’t actually have a cash drawer or the ability to post transactions. While the customer is sitting at the desk, the banker will send someone else up to the teller line to post the transaction.
This process takes a lot more time than if the customer had just seen an actual teller. While the customer is now hostage at the banker’s desk, the banker suggests that they do a quick review of the customer’s information, to make sure that everything is up to date. This of course leads to product recommendations – in other words, a bait and switch to get the customer in front of a person that has been hard wired to sell, sell, sell.
What a waste of time. You can read the rest of this story here.
Driving home today, I saw something that struck me as funny. Right in front of a Chase Bank branch was a bus stop. As many bus stops do, this one had a large advertising wall on one side of it. The particular ad happened to be for, you guessed it, Chase Bank. Now, it seems to me that Chase could put the exact same advertisement in their window just a few feet away, and save themselves for having to pay for a bus stop ad.
Like a rug store perpetually going out of business, Chase keeps running these “Hurry and sign up for a new checking account because the offer expires soon” promotions. The last one expired on June 30th, and surprise surprise, they now have another one that expires August 14th.
News flash: Washington Mutual ran a constant $100 for a new checking account promotion and Chase has pretty much run the same promotion for years now. Chase, we’ll get excited when you are actually doing something interesting.
Bank of America is touting its new consumer friendly debit card overdraft policy in a full page Wall Street Journal ad in this mornings paper.
Bank of America decided that doing away with debit card overdraft “protection” was in the best interest of its customers, as most people expect debit cards to stop working once an account is out of money. One danger with debit cards that work as credit cards is that you grab the wrong card to make a big purchase. This wouldn’t make you inept at managing your account, just human. A mistake like that is likely to happen to everyone at least once in their lifetime.
Our new approach to overdrafts is getting a lot of buzz. Not a lot of fees.
We’ve listened to our customers about what they expect from their debit card. Beginning this Summer, we will help our customers avoid unexpected overdraft fees by only authorizing everyday debit card purchases when customers have enough money in their accounts to cover them. It’s another way Bank of America is helping customers keep overdrafts under control.
“Bank of America is to be congratulated for this important first step. Instead of launching a hard-sell campaign to persuade customers to opt-in to the most expensive form of overdraft coverage, Bank of America has correctly decided to simply deny debit card purchases on insufficient funds. Other banks should follow their lead.” – Jean Ann Fox, Director of Financial Services, Consumer Federation of America
There are a couple more quotes in the ad which I have left out as the first quote correctly captures the spirit of the ad; they are calling out other banks, especially Chase, which has been accused of fear-mongering tactics to get people to sign up for overdraft protection once they can’t offer it by default.
Like Washington Mutual before it, Chase has been offering a $100 bonus for signing up for a new checking account (with minimum deposit of $100, recurring electronic deposit, account must remain open for six months minimum) pretty much forever. So why does their latest campaign say hurry, offer expires 6/30/10? This sounds suspiciously like the rug store down the street with a perpetual going out of business sale.
Given that Chase sends out its text alerts in the middle of the night, I doubt the scenario in this commercial could actually happen. Unless of course the woman has AT&T and the text didn’t arrive for 7 hours. 🙂
I come across a lot of sites that contain no real content, a ton of ads, and exist only to get high placement in search engine rankings so as to monetize clicks. This one I came across today is notable in that their “article” is about low refinance rates with Bank of America, Citi, Chase, and WaMu? Apparently they didn’t get the message that WaMu doesn’t exist anymore as a bank. If you do visit that site, please don’t click on any ads, it will only encourage them. 🙂
Advertising, Customer service | admin August 2, 2010 | 
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