WaMu: Hype vs. reality
A marketing/advertising campaign that highlights the differences between your company and your competitors is great, assuming those differences are real. When they’re not, the perception you’ve created will only serve to frustrate customers who expect to experience the image you’ve created.
I had a direct experience with the gap between hype and reality this past week with Washington Mutual (WaMu), the bank that positions itself as the human, caring bank, drawing a line between their casual approach and the stiff, hidebound demeanor of the other guys. First, there’s the language WaMu uses to describe itself on its website:
You???ll know it right away: We???re really not like other banks.
We???re informal, friendly and fun. We take our customers??? money seriously, but not ourselves. We even call ourselves by a fun name that started out as a nickname years ago: WaMu.
We???re the bank for everyday people.
In fact, we believe no one else focuses on consumers, small business and commercial customers like we do. We listen to our customers and give them what they value—yet at the same time we make banking simple and enjoyable.
The advertising features a casually dressed young spokesman juxtaposed against a horde of older, stiff, formal competitors.
Nice image. Here’s the reality:
If you’ve been reading this blog, you know that my son, who completed his three-year enlistment in the U.S. Army two years ago, was activated for another 400 days in Iraq (he spent a year in Iraq with the 101st Airborne during his enlistment). Once he got his orders, he was in a frenzy of preparation for about a month.
Upon arriving at Ft. Benning, Georgia, where he was ordered to report, he realized he was out of money. He called and asked if I could put a couple hundred bucks in his WaMu checking account. I went to the bank with cash, but was told his account had been closed. It had been overdrawn for over 40 days.
I asked about the overdraft amount. It was $5.98, $5 of which was a bank charge. Fine; Ben was preoccupied with preparations for his return to war (and by the interruptions it was creating—he had just become engaged and was on the brink of beginning a new career). I would just pay the overdrawn amount and reopen the account.
Sorry, I was told. We can’t reopen the account. “The circumstances don’t qualify for an exception.”
I explained that Ben had been recalled by the Army and that his WaMu ATM was his only access to cash, and that he probably missed the statement because of the rush to get ready to report.
Sorry, those are the rules, I was told. Ben could open a new account online. Fine, I said. Can the new account be linked to his existing ATM card? No, I was told. It would take about a month to get him an ATM card. By which time, of course, he’ll have been deployed.
I called Ben to explain the situation and he was stunned. “I was in the bank three weeks ago handling the paperwork for direct deposit of my Army paycheck,” he said. “Nobody said anything about my being overdrawn.”
I explained what Ben had told me. The answer I got:
“It’s not our responsibility to tell him. He should have checked his statement.”
Strictly speaking, Ben was overdrawn and didn’t check his statement. His attention was elsewhere. But this is the bank that “gives customers what they value” and makes “banking simple and enjoyable.”
I’ve been racking up sizable charges sending money to Ben via Western Union as he opens a new account with Wachovia so the Army has somewhere to deposit his paychecks. When his ATM card arrives, we’ll have to ship it to him in Iraq. At the end of my last attempt to get WaMu to make an exception and reopen the account, I was reminded that he could open a new account. You think? When $5.98 matters more than the sacrifice a customer is making for his country? When their caring attitude is captured in the statement, “It’s not our responsibility?”
The Stanley Cup Playoffs will be held in hell before anyone in our family has anything to do with WaMu again.
When you hype your company the way WaMu does, you’d better make sure the customer experience is in synch. Otherwise, you wind up with posts like this one.
11/20/07 | 37 Comments | WaMu: Hype vs. reality