Little back story though and a serious point of frustration is that I used to work in the bridal department of a major retailer, I could outsell almost anyone and could talk even the most fussy couple into registering for fine or casual dinnerware, stemware, and flatware. I guess it’s harder to sell someone something they can’t touch and benefit from immediately. In the banking world you have to sell them a future and some people don’t really like to plan.

Just today, I was in line at a different branch of the same bank that started this. It’s a branch of Chase.

Once again, a teller was sure she’d found her calling by trying to help a customer, who had only wanted to deposit her check, set up online access to her account.

I stood, with 6 people behind me, as she tried to help this poor woman, who I’m sure had never used a computer in her life.

Finally, the Manager came over and asked the poor lady to come to her desk to finish, as the poor teller looked like she’d just lost a puppy.

I made a 5 figure deposit, in about 15 seconds and walked out, knowing full well I was going to try another branch from now on.

I’m now using the 4th, soon to be 5th, branch of Chase, inside of 24 months, just because of such tellers.

Is it purely their fault?

Of course not, it’s a joint effort of stupid managers and stupid tellers, who really, truly believe some of the foolish notions you laid out.

I hope someday you guys will realize, it ain’t all about you and your wishes, it’s about the customer.

Thanks for taking time to comment, but it’s too late for you, you’ve already drank the banking koolaid!

Though it’s been a few years since you wrote your original post, I hope this still reaches you. I am currently a banker with a bank that has policies similar to what you are describing.

1) Do you believe a bank is an institution or a business? A business. I think this one has been discussed enough.

2) Do you feel comfortable waiting in line behind another customer while a teller tries to sell them more services? No, despite the fact that I am an employee, I still frequent other locations and this bothers me too. That being said, at my particular bank, tellers are REQUIRED to have some type of conversation around a particular product in order to get credit for the sales. In addition, the tellers are REQUIRED to meet a minimum number of sales per quarter to keep their job. So please, the next time you have this feeling, don’t take it out on the teller who’s trying to pitch to you.

3) Do you think this method of marketing their services will be effective? Apparently our managers do! Honestly, from what I’ve experienced the answer to this depends on the skill of the teller. There are people in the position who are natural salespeople (although generally they don’t stay tellers for long if they have talent), and will make you want to open a minor savings account for your great niece and leave happy about it.

4) Do you trust bank tellers to give you solid financial advice? No, and they shouldn’t be. At my particular bank, tellers are expected to have their customer’s transaction finished, and piqued their interest enough in some particular product to get the customer to sit down with a banker within 3 minutes. They are not meant to be advising the customers on specific details about products and services, just generating interest. This is supposed to be done within the time that they are doing the transaction anyway, but some are not at smooth as others.

5) Do you go into your bank to perform a service or to be sold new products? There are not many customers who come in with the purpose of buying new products. Since this is the case, those of us who are bankers rely on tellers referring customers over to us for most of our business (which our own jobs also hinge on). The theory behind this model is that the tellers will detect a financial need that is unperceived by the customer (I.E., the customer has 3 overdrafts in the last month and doesn’t realize they can save money with a savings account for overdraft protection), and send them over to the banker.

How can bankers earn your business if they can’t talk to you? Banking should be a personal service. You should have a relationship with someone you can trust in your local branch to help you tackle your financial problems, not to push products on you.

I rally appreciate you adding A LOT of info and backup to this post.

Here’s a quote I just had sent to me:

” This may seem simple, but you need to give customers what they want, not what you think they want. And, if you do this, people will keep coming back. ”

- John Ilhan

They want as much of your money as possible, and they want to tie it up for as long as possible (CD anyone?) so that they can make money off of your money. The more loans a bank has open, the higher their share-value gets, and the happier their stock-holders become. Those bean-counters see more value in loan holders than account holders.