Banking must follow Major League Baseball …..on speed. As a purist, I was getting fed up with MLB and College Baseball World Series games taking over 3 hours to complete (and one of the many reasons I became a College Softball fan). Commercials would drag on forever and both pitchers and hitters would go thru superstitious regiments to no end. Plus, since my Atlanta Braves routinely start at 730, games would interfere with my preferred bedtime. This year, both baseball leagues instituted a “pitch clock” where the pitcher and batter must be ready for action within 20 seconds. What a game changer!! Games now routinely last two and a half hours and you guessed it—-viewership and attendance have risen with customer satisfaction as well. Not only can I make my bedtime but many times catch up on news as well. There are ballparks that have extended beers sales beyond the 7th inning since games are quicker. It is a win for everybody ! This change should be implemented throughout sports to include the PGA as well.
So you ask: what does this have to do with banking? Well I have my own “pitch clock” when I conduct transactions at my bank(s) whether it is online, mobile, drive thru and ATM. And it drives me bonkers when I feel like the clock has run out—why doesn’t the drive thru have deposit AND withdrawal slips in the tube? Anyhow, successful banks understand the new kids on the block desire SPEED and have very short attention span in this new 7 second video world and all channels must be superior. Or else, the pitch clock will run out on them.
