A recent article about PNC Bank charging a non-customer 5$ to cash a check drawn on PNC (yep, you read that right...the check is drawn on an account in their bank), provides many lessons to other businesses on how to alienate potential customers.
Company A did business with Company B. One of the partners at Company A left and Company B was then nervous that the check they had just received would not be paid. Most banks hit you with a hefty penalty if you present a check that bounces so to avoid that, Company B took the check to the bank it was drawn on.
When Company B presented the check, they were told that PNC would cash it but they'd keep 5$ as a fee because Company B doesn't have an account with PNC.
But the check was drawn on an account at PNC and all the money was in the account....
According to PNC this is done to encourage the presenter to become a PNC customer.
According to me, this would do the exact opposite (and Company B apparently agreed because they refused to open an account with PNC). There is absolutely no way I'd open an account with a bank that would treat my clients so badly. I don't want to be associated with such a stupid organization.
Is PNC so desperate that they need the 5$? If that's the case and I worked at PNC I'd be looking for another job.
What does this mean for us as business leaders and brand builders? It means we need to be sensitive to the entire message we send clients. Our brand is not just made up of what we do and say. It's also made up of those we associate with.
In other words, our mothers were right all along -- hang out with trashy people and others will assume you're trashy too.
In this case, do business with stupid, thoughtless, customer repellant organizations and you run the risk of being thought of that way too.
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