Chase turns back the clock on WaMu branches
As reported in the WSJ (WaMu’s Branches Lose Their Smiles 4/7/09) Chase is ripping out all of WaMu’s “customer friendly” branch designs and replacing them with a traditional teller window (with bullet-proof glass) configuration.
I find it interesting that anything about WaMu would be considered customer friendly, as they have had a reputation for poor customer service (including a BBB ‘F’ rating), which has only intensified since the crisis began for them in the middle of last year.
I personally bank at First Republic Bank, which has a very non-traditional branch setup; their branches consist entirely of personal bankers sitting at desks. You develop a relationship with a personal banker (although anyone in a branch will help you) rather than the next-in-line mentality. It is also nice to have my bankers email address, so I can deal with some things without going into the branch or phoning and have access to someone who knows me personally. On the rare occasion when I overdraft (before I had an overdraft protection credit line) someone from the bank would call personally to let us know there was a problem.
Other banks seem to go out of their way to NOT use all the contact information they have for you when there is a problem. Countrywide did this when I accidentally missed a mortgage payment when on vacaction (forgot to pay it before we left). They left 9 automated messages on our home number but never once tried to contact me using other information they readily had – my mobile number and email address. Banks like WaMu, Chase, and others have become too dependent on fees and don’t seem to want to jeopardize the fee stream by making things easier.
But I digress.
It sounds like WaMu’s “radical” branch configurations were mostly cosmetic, not a redesign of how business is done. It seems to be coming more clear that Chase is more interested in moving backwards with WaMu than forwards. Too bad.
Customer service | admin April 7, 2009
