I’ve belonged to 4 banks over the years: PNC, TCF, Citibank, and Wells Fargo. My Wells Fargo relationship has been in place for about 6 years. During those 6 years one thing has continued to bother me about my banking experience with Wells Fargo: the check deposit process.

This morning I got in the car and headed to the drive thru option at my local Wells Fargo. I had a check (signed by me), my Wells Fargo banking card, and my license. I placed all three of those items into the canister and sent it through the vacuum tube system to the banker. The banker asked me if I wanted to cash the check, I replied, “no, I’d like to deposit it into checking.” The banker then explained I would need to full out a deposit slip. I don’t understand how it is in today’s day and age of digital banking that I still need to fill out a piece of paper. The information that needed to be filled in was information they already have: name, address, date, and deposit amount. Huh? Anyhow, I fill out the slip, drop it into the canister, and send it back to the banker.

Look, I should know better. This experience is the same every time I go to deposit a check. I guess I keep hoping that one day they’ll have it fixed and surprise me. The kicker in all of this, was after making me waste an additional 5 minutes, the banker thought I’d like to come in (at the very moment) to meet with someone about upgrading to a “better” savings account. Really? You some how thought that the guy who took the drive thru and who was irritated at filling out paper (aka wasting time) would now be jazzed about spending more time with you?

In full disclosure, this same problem has existed with PNC ad TCF. It never happened to me at Citibank. At Citibank you simply provided 2 forms of ID (eg check card and license) and they took care of the rest. If you wanted cash back all you had to do was enter in your pin. It was that simple.

Bob Gilbreath has a blog called Marketing With Meaning.  It’s a great blog that grounded in a simple concept: your marketing should have meaning.  Meaning to me is about value and marketing is more than the ad campaign a company runs.  Value and meaning come from the day to day interactions you have with a brand.  If Wells Fargo really wanted to provide me value they’d focus on making my life easier.  Not just my life, but all customers.  I’m telling you, the check deposit process should be better.  Isn’t it in their benefit to make it easier?  The more funds they have on hand the more they can lend out.  The more they can lend out the more money they make.

There has to be a better way, right?