Word Of Mouth Marketing | Joy of Direct Marketing

Last week, with Certificates of Deposit (CD) due for renewal, I called the bank to find out the new interest rate. A woman answered, dithered a bit and then said that nobody could talk to me. They’d call back.

They didn’t.

I called again the next day. Same thing. The bank is a Florida operation with 20 branches, so I tried calling another branch that is near my office, but apparently you can’t do that.

Hmmm. I called my original branch, tapping my feet, and told whoever answered that I’d be in to close the CDs the next day. He said “okay”.

So, I drove over there and, after an hour of waiting to get approvals, I left with my cashier’s checks. The employees didn’t even pretend to try to keep me as a customer.

Later many people tweeted and emailed me that the reason the bank didn’t care about renewing my CD’s is that they really make no money on them and that they’re more interested in investment accounts or loans.

That may be the case, but aren’t I a prospect for all of those programs also? Yes, I am. Plus, I’m on my Condo Board and we have a huge sum of money in that particular branch. They made me upset because they didn’t recognize our long-term relationship. And, as a business owner, I would be so upset if any of our clients were ever treated poorly like I was.

Flash forward a day

I was talking to my right-out-of-college assistant, Rachel, about saving money and investing wisely. One thing led to another, and I called to make an appointment for her with Jack Howell at a nearby branch of Scottrade.

He was happy to meet her and spent a lot of time explaining how to trade online. He answered her questions and was so informative that I, who’ve had a Scottrade account for years, learned a few things – like how to find dividend bearing stocks on Scottrade’s website. Here’s a photo of Jack with Rachel.

Since then, I’ve told all kinds of people about how great Scottrade is, even Tweeting the company’s praises to my 17,700 followers. My cousin, Fran up in Philadelphia, just called to tell me she signed up for a Scottrade account. Maybe others did, too.

I can’t understand the bank’s cavalier approach to customer service. They weren’t always like that. My Mom and Dad banked there for years and loved it. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that a large international bank group bought them a while back and now their marketing focus has changed.

Maybe they just wanted me to leave. It’s possible. But, why? What are your thoughts?

It can change … everything

A few months ago, my friend Jeri told me that her brother was selling tons of art he’d collected over the years. Somehow his collection had gotten out of control and taken over his whole house. Finally he decided that he wanted it all gone, sold, so there’d be room to walk around.

Jeri invited me to get some friends together and go over to play “Let’s Make A Deal” with her brother.

Off we went, and we found sculptures, paintings, artifacts, funky furniture, mosaics, vases, knickknacks, Chinese fountains. Clutter! It was great fun, sort of like getting into Sotheby’s warehouse.

The Circus by Chris Roberts-Antieau

But nothing appealed to me, not even the framed fabric picture almost hidden on the second floor landing. It was charmingly weird and I usually like charmingly weird but it was a picture of a circus and I haven’t liked circuses since I was a little kid. The clowns’ exploding car in Madison Square Garden scared the pants off me when I was about four.

So I moved on to look at giant statues, plush but uncomfortable furniture, massive mirrors, tiny mirrors and more knickknacks than you’d see in the Daytona Beach flea market.

I had to pass the circus picture to get back downstairs. Look at those tiny stitches, I thought, and all the little details. Amazing. And what an imagination. A big white horse with both eyes on the same side of its face, a fire-eater, an elephant, a human cannonball peeping out of his cannon at a tall woman peeping into it.

I noticed the artist’s name, Chris Roberts-Antieau and then it leaped off the wall and into my arms. I bought the darned thing, hung it just inside my front door, and every day I find something new in it. I love it.

My favorite artist's son, Noah

What I didn’t know is that Chris Roberts-Antieau is a pretty important artist. Her work is hanging in the White House and has been featured in a lot of magazines, including Oprah.

I’m as fascinated with the child-like quality of her work and her terrific sense of humor as I am with her astonishing skill, especially sewing everything so perfectly.

So Word of Mouth worked for Jeri’s brother. A lot of people, including me, showed up to take all that onerous art off his hands.

But Word of Mouth started a chain of events.
It brought me to my circus image and all of Chris Roberts-Antieau’s wonderful work. I even made a point of meeting her son, Noah, at Miami’s Art Basel exhibition.

And seeing her work was the final persuader in getting me to try my hand at mixed media. I signed up for a course at the Ft. Lauderdale Art Museum.

My own version of Chris's Work, Black Clothes White Cat

I decided to copy one of Chris’s works, not sewing it finely as she does, but gluing it crudely. Pepper and I went to the Salvation Army to find something furry to use for the cat in the picture.

And, now I’m trying other kinds of mediums and enjoying my new artistic outlet, thanks to my friend’s Word of Mouth Marketing that, at first, just brought me in to her brother’s home to look at his art clutter.

Bless her.

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