I used my bank for 66 years. They lost my relationship in one day

If your first thought here is that I am off on another one of my rants about customer service in banks … OK, I am, but there is a point at the end I am driving to. Hang on.

I opened my first account with a bank (without naming names, it was one of the Big 3) in 1959. It was a school savings account (remember them?). I had had a checking account with them for over 50 years. And man, I was a low-maintenance customer. I never called or visited them for anything. Direct deposit, debit, some auto-pays, and the occasional ATM visit. And I kept enough balances in several accounts that I was profitable to them.

Recently, I really needed their help. I was notified via online banking that a large one-time EFT debit would hit my account a week earlier than I thought. Like that day. And I did not have enough money in my accounts to cover it. Hmmm. No problem, I thought. I went to another bank where I had additional funds, got a cashier's check, went to the branch and deposited it. All by 10 a.m.

Problem solved, yes? Uh, no. I was told that all but $5,525 of my deposit would have a hold on it for seven days. On a cashier's check. Yes, Reg cc allows this. Yes, there can be cashier's check fraud. But surely I could talk to somebody who would quickly see that this did not apply here. Knowing the teller would not be able to help with this, I asked him to speak to the manager and was told, “He’s not here just yet.”

No problem, I thought. I’ll call the contact center. They must deal with this stuff all the time. I called the 800 number, was told that the wait time is really long, chose the call-back feature, and had an agent on the line in an hour. Not bad. I explained the situation to her and politely pointed out that:

• In 50 years, I was never overdrawn or had the slightest whiff of fraud. An analysis of my relationship would show that the chance of them taking a loss on this transaction was zero. Zero.
• On most days (although technically not that one), the combined balances I held at the bank equaled the hold amount.
• This was really, really important, and it needed to be resolved today.

Her answer: “I’m sorry, I cannot do that. The system puts the hold on, and nobody can take it off.”

And, lest you think I then threw a tantrum, not even close. I was the epitome of civility as I asked one clarifying question: “Your bank has over 150,000 employees. Are you telling me that nobody can remove a check hold?” “Nobody here can.”

Sooooooo, dead end. But, while this was going on, I was on their website trying to decide how to escalate this and came across their “Social Media Advocate” chat connection that offered to help with any issues. Voila! So, I texted them and asked to speak to somebody. To their credit, I had a call back in two hours. And, she had looked up my information and thanked me for being a customer for 28 years (I guess the school savings account was pre-computer). I explained the situation again and was told that while she certainly understood my situation, she and her team could not remove the hold.

Tantrum now? Perish the thought. In perhaps a slightly firmer tone than in my previous conversations, I asked if she could transfer or refer me to somebody with the authority to deal with this. Answer? She did not know.

Again, in as genial a tone as I could muster, I told her that although I understood her position, the fact was that if the hold was still on my account the next day, our 66-year relationship would be over. I know it was probably not fair to her, but she was the person the bank told me to contact. Her answer? She sincerely hoped I would remain a customer, but in this case, there was really nothing she could do.

Fast forward to the next day. Hold still on the account, relationship being dismantled. Some community bank or credit union will be getting a new customer who is loyal, profitable, and turns into a cranky old man about once every 10 years. And the bank? They’ll probably never even notice that I left. After 66 years.

What’s the bottom line here? I was reminded of some important things that I am going to keep top and center in my client relationships:

• I am not upset at the three employees I dealt with. They were very nice, polite, professional, and sincerely wanted to help. I don’t put any of this on them. They all said and did exactly what they were trained to say and do. Exactly. Say no, with no coaching on when to escalate. Have your customer contact employees been trained this same way? Now might be the time for a process update.
• The “moment of truth” moment when you prove to customers that they are valuable is not when everything is fine. It’s when there is a problem to solve or a request that puts you outside the comfort zone of policy. Those moments don’t happen very often – perhaps once in the life of a relationship. For my part, I am going to make sure I know when those moments occur with Cornerstone clients and bust my hump making sure they know how important they are. Does your team keep that same focus? Double check.
• A lot of your customer-facing employees may not have many chances to obtain new relationships – lots of new accounts are opened online without customers talking to anybody. But, every one of them can lose relationships every day. Three people had a chance to save mine. Figure out how to reward your team members when they do.

Let’s never forget that even as we become more digital, even as self-service gets better, even if there are fewer branches and customer-facing employees, those people matter. More than ever.

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them roll their eyes.”
–Robin Williams

Terence Roche is a founding partner at Cornerstone Advisors. Follow him on LinkedIn and X.