THE EDITOR, Sir:
I FULLY agree with the views of my fellow reader C. Bowen on the new BNS bank charges. After advertising and encouraging the public to save with the institution, the bank intends to turn around and make you pay for entering their hallowed halls and granting you the privilege of putting money in their system. This just goes to show the lack of creativity and paucity of intellectual thought among our so-called leaders.
So you have a problem with over-crowding? Why not try something innovative like extending opening hours and operating on a shift basis with contract customer service personnel/cashiers? Why not re-design your processes/back-office work so that it is quicker to do transactions? Study your customers, know their habits and behaviour, and then design a system that will allow you to overcome your problem yet still retain customer loyalty.
Believe me, it may turn out that in the long-run the enmity you make from this move may cause a net loss in deposits. Haven't you heard of migration, where a child progresses from a small savings account to the signatory on a multi-million dollar account? What about the multiplier effect, where one person influences the behaviour of 20 others? Or loss-leaders? Have you ever thought that a person who starts a savings account may end up buying all your other banking/trust/insurance products and want to transact all of his/her other business with you?
You may have done your cost-benefit analysis before this move, but like so many others, you ignored the long-run effect of the 'soft' issues and failed to appreciate that the rules of the game have changed in the 21st Century. (NCB/RBTT, you have a golden marketing opportunity here for attracting new customers).
I thought that two of the hot management buzzes today was customer retention and customer relationship management. It's obvious BNS has not heard of these terms as yet, or do not understand what they mean.
I am etc.,
DUDLEY PETER BARRETT
sweepee@cwjamaica.com
2 Wickham Drive
Kingston 8
Via Go-Jamaica
