I just got back from a much needed vacation and am presently working my way through a seemingly interminable to do list. One of the items on my list today was simply to make a deposit at the bank. Who knew that would lead to the idea for today’s post?

Today’s thought – Excel where your competition sucks.

Why do so many otherwise good companies find a way to alienate their customers? Customers have a natural affinity to stay with their current vendors. It is far less trouble. Most of the time, when you do move to a competitor, it isn’t because the competitor has that much better of a product or service, it’s because your existing vendor ticked you off in some way that a competitor doesn’t.

Today Bank of America may have crossed my threshold of irritation, and made me consider alternatives, by simply botching the regular process of making a deposit. I went to the BofA drive through teller to make a deposit with check in hand and checking account number available. Seems simple enough, I didn’t want money back, I just wanted to make a deposit in my personal account which was the same name as payee on the check. For this most basic of services here is what I heard.

• Irritation #1: The teller asks me, “Are you making a deposit? If so you need a deposit slip.” Why make is seem like I made a mistake instead of offering to be of service? How about just, “Do you need a deposit slip?”
• Irritation #2: After giving me a look and passing me the deposit slip she informs me that I need to leave the window, fill out the deposit slip and circle back. This would bug me even if there were a line, but there wasn’t even anyone behind me.
• Irritation #3: After circling back, and giving my freshly filled out deposit slip she tells me that I filled out the wrong deposit slip because I have a Texas bank account not an Oregon account and I need to fill out the out of state deposit slip. She says, this time she will help me out by filling out the out of state form, but in the future I should keep a stack of these deposit forms to use when I come back.

This is a seemingly small annoyance, and I’m not averse to following procedures, but what makes this particularly irksome is that I have a separate account for another entity with Key Bank. Their process for deposits? No deposit slip required, just hand them the checks. They make Bank of America seem downright rude and antiquated.

This has nothing to do with the basic checking service and my feeling of banking value I get from BofA. They have simply become more difficult to business with and it was enough to make me question my future in banking with them.

Now think of your own business and what kinds of opportunities or problems this presents. Want to steal your competition’s customers? Identify areas where they may be irritating their customers and fix it in your own offering. There are plenty of examples of where you can do this.

• Key Bank is doing it to Bank of America and other banks by not requiring deposit slips
• Southwest Airlines is doing it to the airline industry by continuing to promote their “Bags Fly Free service”. Contrast this with my weekend experience of $15 for the first bag and $25 for additional bags with Alaska Airlines and many others.
• Does your competition charge to pilot their product or service? Find a way not to.
• Does your competition have complicated, line-item pricing? Find a way to simplify your own pricing. This is an ongoing effort in the telecommunications industry.
• For customer support, does your competition offer live support, or do they subject customers to a maze of automated phone tree responses? Get a person on the line with a command of the english language.

The list can go on an on, but the essential point is that existing market problems are your own opportunities. The converse is your problem. Where are you causing friction in your prospect and customer interactions? Find them and eliminate them if possible.