Would You Be Willing to Lose $1,000,000 Over $10?

Customer Service: Going the Way of the Dinosaur

Anyway you look at it, losing $1,000,000 over $10 is bad business. You wouldn’t think that could possibly even be a real conversation, but I’m here to tell you it can be, and here’s exactly how it went down.

Many of you know my buddy Jim Fasnacht and I are in the process of opening the ABV Barrel Shop. The rewards of being an entrepreneur far outweigh the problems, but it’s not an easy road. After more than a year of work, with investor meetings, planning meetings, even meetings to plan meetings, it’s all finally starting to happen. We’ve got the location, our LLC, and now we have a checklist of administrative things like licensing, banking, online support accounts, etc.

Banking seems like it would be the least of your worries, right?

There’s a bank on every corner so the competition has to be stiff and our small business probably represents good business for a bank. At about a million dollars in projected sales revenue for a year (that number sounds better than it is because bourbon is a fairly high ticket item ringing the register and the costs of barrels is expensive) it would seem that we would be big enough to hit the radar, but not too big we can really anticipate any sort of status with a financial institution. Just that sweet spot of big enough to be good business. At least that’s what I would think.

For me, the place we would bank was a no-brainer. My Dad opened an account at Anheuser-Busch Credit Union back when he worked security as a policeman for the St. Louis Cardinals. The team was owned by Anheuser-Busch, so those working secondary for the company were allowed to an account in the fairly exclusive credit union.

I’ve basically banked there my whole life. My first paycheck I received went to the AB Credit Union. My house was purchased through them, my daughter’s education was financed through them and most of my cars. When I started my company, the ABV Network, I opened a business account there. So, with this new venture for Jim and I, it made sense we would do what I always do, open an account at the credit union. Of course, it’s no longer the Anheuser-Busch Credit Union, there have been several mergers and now it's a much bigger organization known as Together Credit Union. Still, I continue to bank there and since there was a branch within a mile of the store we’re opening, it made sense to once again look to the credit union for this new store.

I set an appointment online, and Jim and I went in there as scheduled. Our mission was twofold, to get our account set-up so we could begin banking with our company, and to get credit report authorization forms notarized for our new landlord. We walk in and it definitely wasn’t any sort of warm welcome. To me, it was like going to the DMV. The woman assigned to help us had a checklist of what we would need to open our business account. Just like at the DMV, we had some of our paperwork, but not all of it. Of course that means there is no way she can process our bank account. I actually understand. I mean it would have been nice to get a checklist when I set this appointment up online, but we didn’t have everything we needed so I get the need to come back. The kicker was, the woman looked into the system and informed us we weren’t even registered with the State of Missouri. Just like a good DMV worker, she managed to convey her disregard and disrespect to two individuals trying to invest in the community without being confrontational or mean. She hands us the checklist and says get this and we’ll get the account.

Now, I don’t know, but depending on how you look at it, we’re either customers or partners in this business. The financial institution we choose plays a big role in what we do. Is that a way to treat people who are trying to invest their money in you? I’m not saying she could do anything to remedy this situation, but for her, we were nothing but a checklist and because we didn’t check all of her boxes, it was like we didn’t even rearrange our schedules to be there. Get out of her realm, set a new appointment and start from scratch when you get your act together. Again, not stated, but that’s exactly how it was presented.

That’s not the kicker, though. The real part of this story comes when we ask to get those credit applications notarized. She notarizes mine because I’m a current credit union member. Jim, though, he’s not a member. Again, from this employees perspective, we didn’t get all of the check marks completed to be “credit union worthy.” Now, I’ve been with some iteration of this credit union for about 40-years. My whole financial life has run though that place, and I’m about to invest in them once again, but she’s not budging or even willing to ask for authorization to notarize this for Jim because “he’s not a member.” Now, he’s not a member because he didn’t have his checklist complete. There is no room to say, “well, your going to be a member,” or “we don’t normally notarize anything for non-members, let me check what I can do.” This is all black-and-white. You don’t have every box checked, you are out and she’s not going to notarize something as silly as a request to run a credit report.

There was nothing left to do. She can’t move forward without every box checked because the DMV, I mean the credit union, tells her that how it is.

So, what can we do?

We left. I drove home and Jim had to make a stop at his bank to get the credit report authorization notarized. Luckily, he banks at BMO Harris and they also had a branch in the area, so he strolled in there. They asked him what he wanted, and he said he needed to get a document notarized for business he was starting. The branch manager overhears the conversation, and steps out of his office to talk to Jim. Tell me about your business. Jim starts talking about what we are doing and the manager is really interested. He asks questions about the business. He inquires if he’d like to open a business account with them. Jim tells the story about how he didn’t print off some of the forms we needed and it looks like we aren’t even ready because our lawyer must not have registered us with the State of Missouri because we just tried to open an account down the street and we were told our LLC wasn’t on file. The bank manager asked the name of the business and inquires to Jim if he wanted him to check the system to see if was in there. Jim says yes, and sure enough, there is the ABV Barrel Shop, LLC registered with the State of Missouri. The bank manager asks Jim if he would want him to print a copy for Jim’s records, so he can open an account. Jim says yes, and the manager prints him the document we were told would keep us from opening an account down the road.

The manager then walks Jim over to the notary at the bank. He tells her what business are opening and the notary expresses an interest. She’s a bourbon fan! She is enthused we are coming to the area and notes she and her friends will be customers. She notarizes Jim document, and he’s now got what he needs.

Before he leaves, Jim asks, “What would it cost to have my application notarized if I wasn’t a member.” The notary notes, “We do notarize for non-members. It’s a $10 fee.”

Okay, so now we can go back to the credit union with the document the manager at BMO Harris printed off for us to open our account and the credit union, or we can just bank at the place that offered real customer service.

Yes, we’re doing exactly what you would do, we’ll go with BMO Harris. Now, I get maybe the other credit union doesn’t even notarize for non-members, but in reality it was a $10 service and poor customer relationship skills that costs a bank a million dollar account.

As Jim and I prepare to open our own store, it’s an important lesson in customer service, that every customer is important and not an annoyance… even if they don’t get that checklist filled out in its entirety.