First Bank Shop

I did my first bank shop today and loved it! The personal banker was on her game and I learned so much from a thirty minute interaction. I really want to open an account at this branch so she can get credit and to be able to ask for future advice, but there are other branches more convenient to my home and job.

Can I go back to this location to open an account without jeopardizing the shop? Should I wait and do a few more so I have a basis for comparison? I don't know if I'm patient enough for that. Also, they have a great $150 new account bonus running through 4/15 which is tempting me even more.

I can see where this type of shop might become a problem for me. I'm not so good at "playing the part" yet and use too many personal experiences and details. I need to learn to de-personalize my shops and think in more business-like terms.

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You may want to check your board or contact your scheduler to see if there are account opening shops. These typically pay better than the information gathering shops, and then afford you easy customer shops at any of the branches in the future. You can also still do non-customer shops at branches where you're not regularly doing customer shops.
Glad you had fun, but you're right in thinking that you probably ought to streamline your visits. Give the rep just enough time to throw the perfect pitch, but don't try to connect. Fewer details from you will make you less memorable for the sake of viable future visits.

Thanks for the tips. Your suggestions were exactly what I needed.

I kind of disagree about using personal experience and details. If at all possible I stick to my own personal story in any interaction. That way you don't forget that you make $75k as a nurse instead of $50k as a teacher, or whatever. Obviously some things you have to have a "story" for, especially if you're shopping a bank 4 hours away as I will be tomorrow. But if you're shopping a local bank, no reason not to be as entirely "you" as you can or need to be.

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind

I use a mix of personal and role playing. I am not about to tell them that I am retired from the financial services industry, for example. I have had some outstanding bankers over the years who have made perfect suggestions based on the role I have played with them and some that have stepped way over the boundaries to suggest investment products for which they were neither licensed nor had adequate knowledge of my experience or risk tolerance. But my purpose in being there is to see whether they do an appropriate presentation of usually a specific product. In real life I would take home the information to go over it and decide, so that is my approach on a shop as well unless I am specifically to open an account. In real life I would not volunteer lots of information and on a shop I take the same approach.

Right, but if you're go into a bank and they ask how much you normally keep in your checking account, I answer truthfully. Or how often you use your debit card. Or if you write a lot of checks. If you have a direct deposit. Things they always ask and I always answer with the truth, because then I don't forget what I told them.

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind

I am guessing you are doing the bank with numbers in its name. I too really liked what I heard. After I did a few "questions about opening accounts" shops I got slightly more money by doing an account opening shop (at a different branch.) Sadly I moved a lot of money and my 401K over but now am not so happy with them.

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