Are you Invisible to your Bank?
Recently, much has been written about the correlation of a company’s size and its ability to gain stimulus money under The CARES Act. If you do not have an assigned Relationship Manager looking out for your business at your Bank, you need to ask yourself: “Have I become Invisible to my Bank?” A dialogue around how to have a friendlier, open channel of communication with your Bank, seems to be ideally timed for this week’s Blog.
As a Commercial Banker for over a quarter of century, I saw my share of various types of businesses, spanning the entire spectrum of personalities among their owners. Shaping my own behavior to be able to work with each, advocate for each, and educate each, took the majority of my time over my career. For the most part, I was successful in achieving a very open and friendly relationship with my clients. But, even in more challenging discussions over the years, respect was the most important aspect of our communication. Indeed, it saw us through The Great Recession and I imagine it is seeing my clients through with their new assigned Bank Representatives today.
You may ask “What can a Small or Micro Business do to improve their relationship with their Bank?”. With all the emphasis in the Media about how Banks, especially the largest among us, have been allegedly assisting larger businesses with expansive and profitable banking relationships, one wonders even how to get the attention of your business bank. But, despite not having an assigned Bank Rep and/or a small amount on deposit with your bank, it can be done.
Choose your business bank wisely. And, regardless of the extent of the financial relationship, remember you are still their customer.
Some of the steps I found particularly helpful as a Micro Business when I decided to embark upon the Illuminate Business Consulting journey were as follows:
1.) Choose a bank that suits your particular financial needs. Hopefully, that bank has a physical Banking Center nearby where you can become acquainted with the staff, and most importantly, the banking center manager.
2.) Forge a personal financial relationship with the Bank. Open up a personal deposit checking and/or savings account, and add personal overdraft protection, a personal rewards credit card or a Home Equity Line of Credit, refinance or take out a new automobile loan. Whatever additional personal product you can use, try and open it with your business bank.
On the business account side, always ask your bank for a quote or proposal on Merchant Credit Card Processing (where your business accepts credit cards). And look to share milestones with your local bank, such as an anniversary or a financial statement update. As your business grows, it will need more products or different services.
The more products you have with a Bank, whether on the individual or business side, the better. In the trade, it is referred to as “share of wallet”. If you know your business will not have the big dollars to garner unsolicited attention, you can easily make that up with “share of wallet”.
3.) Open up your business account in person, not online. Most of the smaller community banks do not allow you to open new accounts over the internet. However, the larger banks do. This is a quick way to ensure your anonymity with a Bank. And, that may work, until there is a Global Pandemic and you need to talk to your local banker, who possible has no clue who you might be if they were in the same room as you!
4.) If your account has been in existence for awhile, you can always improve your relationship with your Bank by simply walking into the closest Branch, Post Pandemic, of course. Exchange pleasantries with the Staff, perhaps even ask to meet the Branch Manager just to simply introduce yourself. All banks are bound by the Patriot Act and its requirement to “Know Your Customer”, so an in person introduction, regardless of the reason, helps both parties to get to know one another.
5.) Perhaps the most important step is to “stay in touch”. As simple as that sounds, it may be easy to go months without real contact with your local banking center. Do not let this happen. Send them a thank you card or a holiday card, at a minimum, for all the help they have given you, even if there has not been a lot needed. You can also do a social media review - Yelp, Yahoo, Facebook, tweet about the friendly service, or if you are on LinkedIn, search for your Branch Manager and link in with them. Consider posting a photo of the Branch on Instagram and tagging the institution. If your banking center manager is willing to give you their Business Card, likely it includes their direct email address. Take advantage of that, and use it to keep in communication. Use all these channels available to you, whichever you are most comfortable with, but DO stay in touch.
6.) The final, and perhaps most important, recommendation I would make is to “Be Visible” to your bank. If your local branch is participating in any type of volunteer efforts such as collecting nonperishable items for the hungry or you local food bank, toys for children living in poverty, backpacks for children in underserved communities, flowers for Hospice - be visible and participate in whichever of these efforts are best suited for your engagement with your bank.
Employing some or all of these forms of behavior above, is how Illuminate stays in touch with their local community bank that houses our business account. Frankly, I feel more connected to Illuminate’s business bank than I do the bank I worked at for all those years, which still carries all of my retirement accounts. It is interesting how quickly one falls from the eyesight of others when no longer visible to them.
Please learn from my unique perspective, both as a commercial banker and as a small business owner. You do not have to be invisible to your bank because your small or micro business funds are not eye-catching to them. Do not be a ghost to your business bank. Engage in action to make yourself visible. And, guaranteed, the next time you need them to ask for assistance with an overdraft refund, or a new check register, or a disaster loan when a global pandemic occurs, they should be there for you with a quick and engaged response.
Be Visible & Be Well.
