A trip to the bank

Had to go to the bank the other day to do something other than fast-deposit (or whatever Westpac’s cute name for put-your-cheque-in-the-pastic-baggie-and-drop-it-in-the-shute is) and I got to thinking how much the in-bank experience has changed during the last few years. To get to the right lady, the one that could open an account for me I had to:

• Check in at reception – well stand in line for a good 5 minutes, to tell lady 1 at reception what I wanted to do so she could take me over to the ‘lounge’ for people who needed to see those kind of bank people.
• Wait on the couch – lady 1 didn’t even tell anyone that that’s what I was there for, just for me to wait on the couch and they would call me over when ready. I guess it’s the latest thing, having a couch in your bank colours to make the wait seem more personable – however in the end I was glad of a seat.
• Be reassured several times by lady 1 rushing backwards and forwards directing lounge traffic that lady 2 would be with me shortly – I’d already guessed that myself as lady 2 had just arrived at the only desk that was ‘open’ and didn’t have a customer at it and she was doing her best to not make eye contact with me while she fiddled around and took off her corporate bank uniform heels for something a bit more comfortable for resting her feet under the desk and fiddling with her computer
• Get called up – lady 3 finally came to my rescue after returning to an empty desk and seeing my best ever god-how-long-do-I-have-to-sit-here expression, calling me over to sit down (yes my request was important enough that it was a sit-down appointment). So 25 minutes after walking into the bank, outside of the lunch hour (chosen purposefully so the whole thing wouldn’t take any more than 10 minutes) I had my new account.

Perhaps I should’ve taken the majestic staircase up to the priority banking wing to find my personal banker seeing as I have several accounts and mortgages there and owe that bank a fair amount of money! Whatever happened to the old days of walking in and going up to a teller who could pretty much process all requests, even if you did have to stand up for the duration of the transaction?

Don’t get me wrong, this is not a complaint about Westpac, just one of my random observations about how my banking experience has changed.