Allegiance Banking Survey Got Me Thinking …

Patrick Barnard
Group Managing Editor, TMCnet

Allegiance Banking Survey Got Me Thinking …

A while back, I blogged about EFM firm Allegiance’s recent survey of bank customers, showing that banks could be doing a lot more to earn their customers’ loyalty. I think I came off sounding a bit bitter and I might have left the impression that I hate the banking industry, which isn’t really true, I appreciate what the banks do, for all of us -- and I don’t really believe that all banks are run by evil, greedy people.

But the Allegiance survey did get me thinking about some of the things I’d like to see my bank do, in order to serve me better. So here goes.

Like a lot of people, I keep a “coin jar” which I use to offload my coins when I have too many rattling around in my pants pocket. Actually, my coin “jar” is really a heavy duty freezer bag that I keep on top of my refrigerator -- I started using a bag because it forces me to deposit the coins sooner than when I used a glass Crystal Rock jug, which would sometimes reach a weight of over 100 pounds when it filled up with change. Sometimes when my seven-year-old daughter comes into the kitchen and sees the bag, she asks me what I’m saving the coins for, and I jokingly tell her that it is her “college fund,” upon which she usually laughs, because she knows I’m only joking (at least for now). When the bag gets too full to be manageable, I take it to an area grocery store which has a Coinstar machine – a fabulous device which quickly and conveniently turns your coins into bills (usually for a 10 or 15 percent “cut” of the total). To me, this is a far better option than throwing all that change into all those “tip jars” that are turning up everywhere (at the quick oil change place? You gotta be kidding me ….)

Not too long ago, I read an article which said that West Coast Bank, a leading Pacific Northwest community bank, was one of the first banks in the country to offer the new Madison coin-counting kiosk from Coinstar. According to the article, the service is being free of charge to bank customers in 10 Oregon and Washington branch locations.

I would love to see my bank put a Coinstar machine at every location. In fact, I think it would be really cool if you could deposit your coins into a slot right at the ATM machine, so that you’re not limited to banking hours (plus, as I mentioned, I have service free checking, so I don’t feel like I’m allowed in the bank building anyway …). This would be huge for the “little minnows” like me who see significant savings potential in coin currency. In fact, I’d even be willing to give my bank a small cut of the proceeds.

Sound trivial? Not at all when you think about the results of the Allegiance survey

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