Skip to main content

Notary Publics

Did you know that some banks have a free notary public service? A few months ago, on a tip from a friend, I went to the Chase Bank branch a block away from my loft. They notarized my document for free.

This week, I went back to the same Chase Bank branch to get another document notarized. The manager stopped to ask me if I was a Chase customer. I told him no, I don't have a Chase bank account. He then told me that the notary services were for Chase customers only and suggested I go to my bank.

Fair enough. My Bank of America branch is just three blocks away, so I went there. They did the notarizing, and I bumped into a friend who is a teller there.

I wonder whether Chase's policy of only performing notary services for customers is wise. I would never have bothered to set foot in their lobby had I not heard about the notary service. Familiarizing myself with their branch made it more likely that I would eventually become a Chase customer. But being turned away has left me with a bad taste in mouth.

Comments

Roger L. Cauvin said…
It's an interesting question: "On what basis do I choose my bank?" How you or I answer this question may differ from how other people answer it.

While I doubt notary public service per se factors into just about anyone's decision, perhaps familiarity, comfort level, and perception of convenience do.

Sorry about the requirement to get a blogger account. Comment spam has become a significant problem for blogs; anonymous comments unfortunately would aggravate the problem.
Unknown said…
True...But how often does the average customer need a notary service? perhaps once, maybe twice a year. I doubt the few number of visits would bring about a change in banking services.
Roger L. Cauvin said…
On the other hand, how often do customers actually visit their banks these days? An on-site visit represents a commitment from which many banks could benefit.

Popular posts from this blog

Why Spreadsheets Suck for Prioritizing

The Goal As a company executive, you want confidence that your product team (which includes all the people, from all departments, responsible for product success) has a sound basis for deciding which items are on the product roadmap. You also want confidence the team is prioritizing the items in a smart way. What Should We Prioritize? The items the team prioritizes could be features, user stories, epics, market problems, themes, or experiments. Melissa Perri  makes an excellent case for a " problem roadmap ", and, in general, I recommend focusing on the latter types of items. However, the topic of what types of items you should prioritize - and in what situations - is interesting and important but beyond the scope of this blog entry. A Sad but Familiar Story If there is significant controversy about priorities, then almost inevitably, a product manager or other member of the team decides to put together The Spreadsheet. I've done it. Some of the mos

Interaction Design: the Neglected Skill

Your product development organization has a big, gaping hole in it. (Be prepared to feel defensive as you continue reading.) One of the most important roles in product development is the role of interaction designer. An interaction designer designs how the users will interact with the product and conceptualize the tasks they perform. He decides whether, for example, the user interface will be command driven, object oriented (clicking on objects then specifying what to do with them), or wizard based. The interaction designer decides the individual steps in the use cases. Every company has one or more people that play the interaction designer role. Usually, those people have little or no expertise in interaction design. Sadly, they typically don't even realize how unqualified they are. Let's see who typically plays the role at companies. Engineer . An engineer is an expert on building what is designed. Yes, an engineer may know how to design the internal structure of the hardware

Stop Validating and Start Falsifying

The product management and startup worlds are buzzing about the importance of "validation". In this entry, I'll explain how this idea originated and why it's leading organizations astray. Why Validate? In lean startup circles, you constantly hear about "validated learning" and "validating" product ideas: The assumption is that you have a great product idea and seek validation from customers before expending vast resources to build and bring it to market. Indeed, it makes sense to transcend conventional approaches to making product decisions . Intuition, sales anecdotes, feature requests from customers, backward industry thinking, and spreadsheets don't form the basis for sound product decisions. Incorporating lean startup concepts , and a more scientific approach to learning markets, is undoubtedly a sounder approach. Moreover, in larger organizations, sometimes further in the product life-cycle, everyone seems to have an opinio