Chase to target affluent customers
As reported in this Wall Street Journal article, Chase hopes to target more affluent customers, those between the average Joe and the high net worth individuals targeted by its private client services group by naming a new head to its Retail and Affluent Investment Services group, which oversees 2,700 financial advisers in its 5,100 branches.
Chase is doing this because it realized that these types of customers, while around only 8% of all banking customers, represent 2/3 of all deposits and investments at retail banks. I can only think that by specifically targeting these customers, Chase is admitting they don’t have their fair share of them right now.
That is all well and good, but the real kink in Chase’s strategy is its inability to get basic customer service working properly. With all the nightmare stories of pure ineptitude and systems failures (or poor design of systems) reported by a wide variety of Chase customers, I an easily imagine a scenario where affluent customers are signed up but then quickly depart when the realize that their most basic banking needs are not well handled. It is no secret that wealthier individuals put more credence on good customer service and less on pricing.
On the bright side, Chase’s desire to court such customers might actually force them to improve operations (make less mistakes) across the board, although I doubt it would cause them to change the way the actually treat the average customer.
Good luck Chase.
Customer service | admin July 1, 2010
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By David, February 7, 2012 @ 9:09 am
The implementation and rollout of the Chase Private Client Services platform is well underway. It rolled out in IL quite a while ago, in TX, CA and other states and is continuing in stages in other markets like AZ, WA, etc. What this essentially means, is Chase is taking it’s 2700 or so series 7 licensed Financial Advisors and segmenting them into two distinct groups. Those who are PART of Chase Private Client and those who are not. It’s basically a way of putting more savvy and experienced Financial/Investment Advisors in front of larger clients, typically those with $250k or more in net investable assets. Those outside of the CPC will continue to work with the client needing wealth management services with LESS than $250k in net assets.
If you’re an advisor looking to hunt ‘whales’ this may be good for your career. If you’re a client with less than $250k invested at Chase, chances are you can or may loose your FA and your future dealings would be handed off to a more junior advisor. If you’re an FA at Chase and you’re not included in CPC, chances are you’ll get the short end of the stick as you watch larger potential business referrals fly past you to the CPC advisors in your area.
This strategy ‘can’ work well for Chase providing they execute well at the branch level and stay communicate very effectively. However, it’s unlikely that many current advisors at Chase will be willing to work in this divided and segmented world and many will seek better opportunities in my opinion.