Hey! WAKE UP!

Sorry, it's been awhile between posts. I was re-grouping, as I think a lot of us are. But that's over.

As reported in Payments News, Wal-Mart just announced that they are rolling back the price on their pre-paid Visa debit card to $3 from $9. Re-loads are $3, and there's a $3 monthly fee, but there is no reload fee if the card is loaded through direct deposit, or through a payroll check cashed at the store. The $3 monthly fee is waived if $1,000 is loaded in a month and there is no fee for withdrawing cash from the card at the Wal-Mart POS.

In addition, they're rolling out a major financial education and money management program for their customers.

Hmmm, a very low cost DDA replacement, a highly trusted brand, locational convenience, aggressive customer education. Looks to me like they might be serious about this financial services thing. And what about their competition? Bank brands are in the tank, fees are going up, not down, and services across the board are being eliminated.

The retail banking value proposition, the core of the business, is rapidly being co-opted by one of the most powerful players in the land. Seems to me that somebody ought to be responding to this, but how do you compete with Wal-Mart?

The only competitive position that works against price is value. And the value that retail banking can bring to customers is knowledgeable, caring people who can help their customers through difficult times. It's time to get back to thinking about the reason banks exist, to serve customers, and let the media and the finance people worry about the rest of the stuff. Get front line people back into a positive frame of mind. Remind people that customers need their help now more than ever. Train people to be sensitive to the very real concerns that their customers are facing. Give managers the flexibility to waive fees to keep a valued customer.

It's always hard to manage customer relationships through down times, and this one is tougher than most. But that's not an excuse to walk away from the basic business of banking, which is to help people.

Because obviously, if banks don't do it, there's someone right around the corner who will. Check out this video and have a good talk with yourself about what you and your organization need to be doing.