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That’s Your Banker Knocking on Your Front Door
Even in Manhattan, where I live, there are few professions that serve its client base through house calls. Just the notion of the house calls conjures up some Norman Rockwellian image of America long, long gone.
Yet, the most forward of all industries – technology, of all things – has embraced the notion of the house call. First, there is Best Buy’s Geek Squad, a sort of IT Dragnet for the iPod set. Additionally, most computer service providers will “take over” your computer via remote access to fix a problem. That might be a virtual house call, but it is a house call nonetheless.
Why can’t banking go down this route? The fact is that most banking transactions – particularly switches between banking institutions – require a great degree of hand-holding and documentation. A “house call” would help greatly.
While I am not certain house calls would be feasible in consumer banking, they are in commercial banking. Even most small business accounts would merit a Bank Geek Squad visit. Wing tips as uniforms would help, too.
For the foreseeable future, the greatest impediment to consumers switching banks will remain the work involved. No bank makes it easy for its clients to switch to another institution. (We can debate at a later date what this does to the general perceptions about banking.) Any attack on this challenge should pay great dividends. Should house calls be a part of that effort, I’m sure Rockwell himself would have approved.
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