Thursday, November 8, 2018
Issue #31 – Thursday, November 8, 2018
http://dennyhatch.blogspot.com/2018/11/31-bankers-that-trashed-beloved-usp.html
Posted by Denny Hatch
The Bankers That Trashed a Beloved USP
For my money, loose change is a pain in the neck.
(Actually that’s a good deal. It costs the Mint 7¢ to produce a nickel!)
For many years we had a change jar into which went our spare change at the end of the day. Every three months or so, the jar overflowed. So began sorting, stacking, squeezing stacked coins into paper tubes and carting them down to the bank.
It probably takes one hour to sort, stack and stuff coins into tubes. This is not only boring and time consuming, but also a lousy ROI (Return on Irritation).
Commerce Bank’s Crown Jewel
Imagine our delight when two blocks from our house in Center City Philadelphia, Commerce Bank opened a branch with all normal banking services.
Plus a crown jewel—the magnificent Penny Arcade coin counter you see at the top of this post.
We immediately opened accounts at Commerce Bank—personal checking, corporate and savings. As a welcome goodie, they gave us a free safe deposit box for a year.
Easy Peasy No More Squeezy!
Instead of squeezing stacked coins into flattened paper tubes, we could take a plastic shopping bag of mixed coinage down to the bank and dump it into the Penny Arcade.
We ended up with a little printed receipt that could be presented to a teller who would give us cash (bills and a few coins) or simply deposit the total in our checking account.
In terms of P.R., the Penny Arcade was brilliant.
Little kids were delighted because a goofy recorded voice talked them through the process. The whirring and clanking sounds heightened the excitement—like a circus orchestra.
Kids could also win a prize for guessing in advance the total amount their coins would bring it.
It was a hoot—a veritable automated Frank Brock, who was The World’s Greatest Banker! Brock, president of the First Bank of Troy, Idaho had 6,000 active accounts worldwide in a town of 555 residents. How? He got children into the bank and kept them for life.
The Penny Arcade Was a Beloved USP!
Remember the USP—the memorable Unique Selling Proposition—that feature/benefit that makes your product or service stand out from the competition:
Memorable USPs—Unique Selling Propositions
“99 and 44/100% pure.." —Ivory Soap (Procter & Gamble, 1892)
“The skin you love to touch.." —Woodbury Soap, (J. Walter Thompson Co., 1911)
“When it rains it pours.." —Morton Salt (N.W. Ayer & Son, 1912)
“We try harder.." —Avis (Doyle Dane Bernbach, 1983)
“We’ll leave the light on for you.." —Motel 6 (Richards Group, 1988)
“Bags fly free.." —Southwest Airlines (GSD&M, 2010)
Trashing the USP
In 2007, TDBank (Toronto Dominion) bought Commerce Bank for $8.5 billion. Nine years later Peggy and I moved six blocks and began doing business with the Penny Arcade at the TDBank branch nearest us.
Two years ago I lugged a bag of coins to my TD Bank branch.
The Penny Arcade coin sorter was gone!
“Where’s the coin sorter?" I asked a young officer at desk in the lobby.
“We’ve discontinued the service.."
“What? Why?."
“Management decided it wasn’t worth the trouble.."
“Does another branch have a coin counter?."
“They’ve been removed from all 1,300 branches.."
“Can I take these coins to a teller and get them counted?."
“Bring them in rolls and we can accept them. You won’t be charged for the service.."
Enter Lawyers
The bank was the subject of both a New York lawsuit and a report on NBC, which found the machines short changed multiple deposits of $300 worth of coins by as little as 5 cents and as much as $43.10. "Offering free coin-counting to our customers has been a long-standing service at TD," said Michael Rhodes, the head of TD's consumer banking. "However, recent accounts regarding the performance of our Penny machines have led us to reassess this offering. We have determined that it is difficult to ensure a consistently great experience for our customers." —Chris Isidore, CNN Money
Here’s How to Get Your Money Back
The bank, headquartered in Cherry Hill, removed all the coin counters. But they still faced a class-action lawsuit from plaintiffs in three states seeking to recoup the amount they believe they were shortchanged over the years. Now, after four mediation sessions and much back and forth, the bank has agreed to a settlement that would cost it more than $9 million dollars. Of that, nearly $7.5 million will be shared among customers who used the machines, if the settlement gets final approval. —New Jersey Real-Time News
The End
Takeaways to Consider
• With no Unique Selling Proposition, TDBank can no longer call itself “America’s Most Convenient Bank.." It’s like every other dreary local bank.
• If 50 Penny Arcade users in each of TDBank’s 2450 U.S. and Canadian branches are unhappy, that’s 122,500 pissed-off customers.
• Commerce/TDBank exhibited sloppy research by lazy incompetent decision makers.
• The result: CRM (Customer Relationship Misery).
• All banks have machines in the back that can measure coinage to the penny.
• It seems to me any one of the above would be delighted with an order 2450 coin counters, would be thrilled to gussy them up for consumer use and keep them running perfectly under a maintenance contract.
• “Always go first class.." —Bob Teufel, President of Rodale Press
• The only people who make money on class action suits are lawyers.
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Word count: 880
At age 15, Denny Hatch—as a lowly apprentice—wrote his first news release for a Connecticut summer theater. To his astonishment it ran verbatim in The Middletown Press. He was instantly hooked on writing. After a two-year stint in the U.S. Army (1958-60), Denny had nine jobs in his first 12 years in business. He was fired from five of them and went on to save two businesses and start three others. One of his businesses—WHO’S MAILING WHAT! newsletter and archive service founded in 1984—revolutionized the science of how to measure the success of competitors’ direct mail. In the past 55 years he has been a book club director, magazine publisher, advertising copywriter/designer, editor, journalist and marketing consultant. He is the author of four published novels and seven books on business and marketing.
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Denny Hatch
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Philadelphia, PA 19106
215-644-9526
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