My Mac Genius and My Personal Banker

I have fallen completely in love with the Apple Store and all of the Mac Geniuses that work there. Then I found myself wondering why I don't feel that way about my bank (weird, I know, but I am always thinking of ways to make my bank and my clients even more successful!).

For my birthday, I bought myself a Macbook laptop and am using it for everything. But that's not what this is about. When I made the purchase, I was given the option to also purchase 52 sessions of one-on-one "Personal Training" with a Mac Genius. It was $99 and I bought it. I am now able to go to the Apple Store once a week for a one-hour personal training session for A FULL YEAR to learn about everything from how to get started with my Macbook to how to take better digital pictures (and edit those no so great photos!).

It got me thinking about us bankers and the jargon we use. Do you really think that your typical consumer understands this conversation:

"Oh, you want a HELOC? Well, let's take a look at your LTV and see if we can't decrease the percentage first."

HUH? He-lock...Is that what you call the armed guard at the door? And LTV...I don't want an off road vehicle. And why on earth would I want to decrease anything at a bank...except a loan rate of course.

You and I have been doing this for a long time and understand the terminology. But do our customers understand it? NO. I would argue that most of our customers don't understand what we do outside of checking accounts, savings accounts and mortgages. And that's not even the cool stuff.

Many of you have staff whose title is "Personal Banker." But what does that mean? To me, that means that there is one guy claiming to be my account manager that I can ask for when I walk in the front door. He does not know my name and doesn't understand what I do because he doesn't ask.

So, as an industry, what if we got into personal training? Helping our customers understand what we do.

What if we committed one hour a week for a full year to each of our customers...or maybe just those who opted for it by purchasing the right account or paid for the service?

It should be by appointment only, and if you don't come this week, the session is lost...you can't get it back or come twice next week. It gives our customers a reason to be faithful, make better financial decisions, better understand their financial needs and set some longer term goals.

This could be the opportunity of a lifetime to create the perfect customer. It may seem like a huge undertaking, but really, many of you already have the staff in place with the appropriate titles. Why don't you make them live up to it?

Go to an Apple Store and ask them what they do. Ask about the Genius title and how they earned it. If the banks that experience the most success are modeling their service standards after Disney, Ritz-Carlton and Starbucks, why not consider the Apple Store as well?

Go for it. Take a risk, and improve financial literacy along the way!

Jenna