While visiting the Ohio homeland this weekend I had the opportunity to visit my parents’ local bank. By visit, I mean sit cheerfully in the lobby staring at things, but you get where this is going. The first thing I noticed about the Bainbridge, Ohio branch was how cheerful it seemed. If bottling sunshine and giggles in an professional manner was a design aesthetic, this place had it down. The thing second I noticed was their in-branch advertising tag line, “we treat customers like our neighbors, because they usually are”. I remember liking the ad copy, but thinking, “I bet those people are all stock photos.” The branch seemed welcoming, but also a smidgen fake.
After dissecting the branch visually, I got in discussion with a teller, Tina. But more important than the fact I was talking to her, was how the conversation itself started. While eye vulturing the branch, I realized she had “my daughter is a pyro” written on her name tag. Which of course led me to ask her about it. We then ended up having a delightful conversation about her daughter’s career as a fireworks designer at Disneyland.
After this discussion I realized the strategic beauty of that name tag. That little plastic placard leveraged many of the relationship building tactics socialmediates evangelize digitally, offline.
- It was non-evasive: If I didn’t want to talk to Tina, I didn’t have to. The conversation would have to be started by me, the customer.
- It was easy: The phrase on the name tag gave both of us an easy and immediate discussion point.
- It was neutral: Unlike other badges that say “ask me about bladdity blah promotion” this badge has nothing to do with sales. I knew if I asked about its meaning I wouldn’t be pressured into some savings account I really didn’t want or need.
- It was interesting: The phrase was exciting enough to make me want to talk to Tina. Something I may not have done otherwise.
In the end, I left the bank with a better opinion of it. I also realized that small efforts to build dialogue with consumers can be just as important as a large scale campaign. For example, a little name tag can lead to a change in perception. Well played, Charter One.
