A switch in time: you can attract big deposits by making it convenient for prospects to transfer their accounts to your financial institution. Banks today are using a variety of approaches to accomplish this goal.

• Author: Albro, Walt
• Position: Switch Kits - Editorial

What's New with Switch Kits?

Editor's Note: In this article, we sample some of the different programs that banks today are using to encourage prospects to switch accounts to their financial institutions. One bank opted for a traditional printed switch kit; the second developed an online kit; the third created an intensive program that included the designation of an "account transition coordinator" to oversee switch progress.

When MidSouth Bank, Murfreesboro, Tenn., opened its doors in January 2004, it had special needs. As a de novo institution, it was looking for customers--lots of them--to switch their accounts from the area's 12 existing banks.

Making it a snap for customers to transfer accounts was critical to the bank's success. MidSouth quickly concluded that a traditional switch kit was not going do a sufficient job. Instead, the bank opted for what it terms "a switch kit on steroids."

The bank's solution was not so much a package of forms (as is typical for a switch kit) as it was a process: With the assistance of BLF Marketing, Clarksville, Tenn., the institution came up with the name "Easy Move" for the program. MidSouth assembled a package of forms and assigned one person to work with customers as an "account transition coordinator." By this May, a total of 189 new customers representing more than $10 million in deposit balances had completed the Easy Move process.

MidSouth took this route because it realized that it was the high-balance customers--precisely the group that the bank needed who were the most resistant to the idea of switching their accounts to a new bank. Stable, high-value customers often have many automatic deposits and debits made from their checking accounts. Each deposit or debit has to be switched separately--using different forms from different companies that follow divergent processes. Customers who try to switch by themselves face an intimidating nightmare of paperwork.

"The main reason that people don't move is that there is so much work involved," says Abby Moore, who is the bank's account transition coordinator.

The process is designed to make it easy on the customer. "Our product is much more than just a switch kit," says Bruce Plummer, vice president of marketing.

Here's how the program works:

Customers who want to switch to MidSouth physically come to the bank. They bring copies of their old bank statement or bills drafted from the old account. In many cases, they can simply sign a series of forms...