Built for human scale.

• Author: Hall, Robert
• Position: Viewpoint essay

"All organizations are perfectly, aligned to get the results they get." --Organizational design expert Arthur W. Jones

He stopped loving her today.... So wailed George Jones in mournful country-western lyrics about the end of a lifelong love affair that could never be reconciled. I can relate. Alter nearly three decades, I just left my bank. It was my first breakup with a bank other than when I moved to a new city. The reason was not service, convenience, price or a disagreement that caused the split. I finally came to a simple decision: A banker relationship is more valuable than a bank.

The bank I am leaving is geographically closer, has more ATMs, more products Band better rates. This bank is designed for strong customer service; convenient locations; anytime, anywhere service or transactions; state of the art technology; and sale of diverse products. Efficiency, predictable processes, and interchange able parts and people born of massive scale mean everything goes pretty smoothly about 95 percent of the time.

Went half crazy now and then.... However, about once a year I have a "nonstandard" transaction--like handling a unique draft or some glitch like when they stopped sending copies of my checks, which I use for tax records. My old bank doesn't work well outside the box. This bank is designed for single, efficient, transactions. Each person you deal with does a decent job with what is in his or her purview. However, absent a relationship, I have no one to own a more complex problem and then doggedly pursue it until it gets resolved, especially if it requires crossing department lines. That leaves me to tell the story, many times, to many people, with multiple follow-ups, and often poor results. The absence of relationship represents a transfer of cost--time, effort, frustration and expense--back to me. The price of the remaining 5 percent has become too high.

My big mistake was thinking I could change them--transform a transaction bank into a relationship bank. I invested in meeting the branch manager at the closest branch there have been four of them in the past five years. Every time I took the time to meet one, by the next time I had a need, she had gone. I also met a couple of service people and personal bankers--but they have turned over too. I even met a couple of investment types, but even though I maintained relatively large balances, when I was unwilling to move my investment funds to them, they shuffled me back to the branch...