What's your opinion? Florida Bank uses PDAs in the branch to poll customers.

• Position: New Products

Capital City Bank, Tallahassee, Fla., is using a new product to obtain survey opinions from customers within the branch--in a period of less than 60 seconds.

The bank (assets: $2.6 billion; 69 banking locations) is using the Dotcomments InTouch system, which enables bank managers to obtain information about a customer's banking experience using a hand-held personal digital assistant (PDA) at the banking location.

In the office, an associate approaches a customer after a banking transaction has been completed. The associate invites the customer to take part in a brief survey that can be completed in less than 60 seconds, then hands over a PDA while assuring the client that all results will be kept private and anonymous. At the end of each week, the office associate uploads the data from the surveys via a secure online connection to Dotcomments. The information is instantaneously transferred into a Web-based report.

The company says that the methodology is designed to be simple and nondisruptive to the customer's banking experience. Dotcomments says that customers rarely pass up an opportunity to provide feedback. Each PDA is customized for a particular office, complete with the logo and style of the bank programmed...