After acquisition, familiar faces buoy customer loyalty in banking
2010-04-20
Firms that are acquiring failed banks may not want to be so focused on how many things they can change in their new locations.

Retaining tellers and sticking to the familiar branch names are helping one Connecticut-based bank ensure smooth transitions at some recently acquired locations, according to a recent report by the Boston Globe.

After the People's United Bank of Bridgeport, Connecticut recently bought Butler Bank in Massachusetts, it found successful customer loyalty solutions by having employees of Butler help their new customers through the transition, the article says.

"One major source of reassurance for longtime customers: familiar faces," the article says. "The tellers who worked for Butler last week were back at their same positions yesterday, as People's United employees."

The article mentions that one customer was happy to receive help accessing his online account from a Butler employee when the website wasn't working during the transition.

With about 300 branches, People's United Bank became one of the larger financial institutions in New England but is less well-known because it operates banks that it acquires under original names.

The difficulty of retaining customers throughout an ownership transition is highlighted by recent reports. A study by the firm Sandler O'Neil found that two-thirds of failed bank customers chose to move their money.

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