By Art Gillis

Solution: If your prospects and customers can get a whiff of your bad breath, then you’ll know you’re providing personal service. In the late '70, I worked on a contract, along with all kinds of other consultants, to help Citibank deploy its ATM network. Working on-site at the new Third Avenue slant-roof sky scraper, I busted into my client’s office one day and said, “I’m starving, let’s go to lunch.” He replied, “I’m so busy I won’t do lunch for several days, but here’s a card that will get you a free lunch at the employee cafeteria, and you’ll love it.” While standing in line, I recognized the CEO, two positions in front of me. Walter Wriston turned to the guy behind him, and in front of me, and asked why he was eating lunch alone. “Take a customer to lunch,” he commanded. The kid nearly collapsed and then turned to me and said, “There goes my appetite.” A few years later, Walter’s successor, John Reed, proclaimed that Citibank was going to get one million customers, one at a time. Do you see the Citibank culture here? One-at-a- time for lunch, for a credit card, for a DDA, for a mortgage, etc. Whatever the customer needs. Recently, the new Citibank culture announced a major transformation - shortening the name to Citi and removing the red umbrella (aka Traveler's logo and Sandy’s bad idea) from Citibank’s identity. Now there’s a campaign that represents real genius. I’m assuming the ad agency got management’s approval, and that’s what’s wrong with some bankers today. Would Walter and John have caved to that kind of insignificance, or would they have gone to the employee lunch room to evangelize the importance of one-on-one marketing?

Community banks have nothing to worry about as long as big bank execs are relying on Madison Avenue ideas to gain marketshare. It’s not about logos, names or slogans. The answers bank customers want these days are, “What are you doing to enhance my financial welfare, and have you taken me to lunch lately so I can tell you what’s really important?”