Easy Enrollment – Only in America!

I just returned from visiting family in Florida.  I try to go once or twice a year to enjoy my father’s retirement lifestyle of 8:00am power-walks along the beach, afternoon spring-training ball games, and traffic at 4:00pm trying to beat everyone to the early-bird special at the local seafood restaurant.

In a previous post, I discussed the frustration I had with setting up the bank accounts for Gremolata.  While visiting my Father, we decided to choose a new local bank and open an account.  I won’t share the name of the bank but they are well known across the US.  I was floored at how easy it was to open an account and how customer-focused they were in the process development.

First, the process was completely on-line.  The financial representative entered all of the information in about 10 minutes then proceeded to show us how the on-line banking site worked for an additional 5 minutes.  The site was intuitive and a kit was provided with step-by-step instructions.  At the end of 15 minutes, she hit print and we were provided with one sheet summarizing all of the details and the requirement for us to sign once.  That’s right folks, no multiple copies and no multiple release forms.  It was all consolidated into one simple print-out.  All in all, with the leisurely chit-chat from the bank representative, the entire process took 30 minutes.

I think Canadian financial institutions could learn a lot from their colleagues in the US.  While I understand that regulations are different here, the key to my superior experience in the US is the fact that technology made the process faster and less of a hassle for the customer.   You have to agree to just as many terms and conditions (perhaps even more), but because it was consolidated into one form and the process was done using a series of questions and on-line authorizations, it was much easier to follow and far more efficient.

Now if they could just find a way to stay out of asset-backed commercial paper and high-risk mortgages…