Quote:
Originally Posted by Barefoot
Jokes aside, this is an interesting query.
I use Citizens for my chequing account because they are welcoming and polite and cheery. And have good apples and popcorn. 
I use Bank of America because their CD rates are better than Citizens.
And because they're a huge bank so I think my money is safe there. Even though I think the Customer Service Reps at B of A must have to attend Snarl School before they're unleashed on customers. |
About that Snarl School thing, you are exactly right -- sort of.
I know a young woman who had worked at a small-town bank as a teller. She loved it there because of the friendly atmosphere and customer service. She got to spend her work day being nice to people.
But then she got married and moved and had to change jobs. She ended up interviewing at one of the big, really big, banks. She was told that in their training, the tellers are instructed to spend the least amount of time possible in an exchange with the customers. In fact, she had the impression that they could be marked down on evaluations if they were too friendly. They were to give a robotic greeting and then get the job done. Human pleasantries were officially discouraged for the sake of speed and whatever else may have been the reason. She was offered the job but did not take it. She knew that she would flunk out of Snarl School.
I will say though that when this bank feels that it is to their advantage to act in a quite friendly manner, they can pour it on. It appears to me that their tellers are instructed that if they see a particularly large balance, they are to ask if the customer would like to meet with an "investment" adviser.
Quite often that person being chatted up is an older person who is just there for a CD. And, of course, those "investment" vehicles the tellers are trying to connect their customers to are often annuities with high, high commissions built in.
It happens. It appears to be part of the teller's job from what I have seen. I don't know if a finder's fee can be involved. Maybe not. But I wonder how a teller's ability to reel 'em in is covered at evaluation time.
Anyway, I stopped this from happening to an elderly person who suddenly was being circled and chatted up when the teller at National Snarl Face Bank saw his CD amount. Fortunately this person asked me about it -- in time. And he went back to an old-fashioned CD -- at a different bank.
Of course, I know that trying to bring in investment clients is part of what big banks do. But having tellers out there as scouts I think is quite creepy.
I do not like big banks at all. Ironically, I was looking hard a few years ago at buying some shares of bank stock. But I just could not do it because I just don't like big banks.
Anyway, Barefoot, you're on to something maybe with that Snarl Face School stuff. I think it might be real. And sadly, I think there are a lot of very nice people who have to play by the big bank rules because they need their jobs.
Boomer