An open letter & a challenge to Johan Burger

Johan,  You are the heir apparent to the throne of  the FirstRand group. In October you are taking over the reigns and everything will change. Or apparently not. According to press reports you will not bring about much change to the success formula of the group.  That is fine and will most probably see them growing better than the banking fraternity in South Africa as has happened over the past 5 years.  It will however not propel the company from mediocre to great  

You are most welcome to stop reading right here and now. Or you might just want to take note of some points I am trying to make:

A while back I wrote an article on one my blogs called Life lessons : From mediocrity to greatness. and I listed the following :

•         Mediocre says   “Do it Someday” Greatness says “Just do it and do it Now”

•         Mediocre says  “There are Things to do and They must do it”   Greatness says:      "This is what needs to be done and I will do it". 

Banking I believe is the core business of FirstRand.  I have a small business account with FNB and I would like to stress this very clearly here: My personal experience with the Bank can only be descibed as stunning !.  Maybe because I do not owe the bank any money. I only contribute a measly R200 per month to your gross income.  I recently went into my local branch and was served with a smile and I was on my way in 2 minutes. Stunning !  Living up to the slogan "How can we help"  I told them and they helped me.

If this was the experience of all your clients it would be absolute bliss and can propel the bank into the Greatness arena overnight.  Unfortunately this is not the case.  Clients owing the bank money and coming under financial stress does not find solutions to their challenges when walking into a branch let alone trying to sort out a problem over the phone.  Heaven forbid.  

Imagine this scene :  The client walks into a branch - pick up a ticket to see a consultant and (sometimes) are being ushered into a seat in front of one of them.  Big smile......Good morning sir, how can we help - stunning - living up to the slogan.  HI there, I am Joe Soap and have a home loan with the bank and I am currently 3 months in arrears.  I have had these unfriendly phone calls from, I presume a call centre agent and I would like to see your manager about this. - Do you think that is possible?   Sudden change in smile quality. (We are not here to help these fools ).......No we do not see clients for that in the branch...................You have to call.............XYZ at this call centre number......................

This is the basis of why I am writing this letter to you.   Would you take the challenge to become a modern day Gengis Khan ?  One that think outside the box.  Do things no one has dared before? Do some things everyone says is doomed and will not work ?  At the time of his death Gengis Khan controlled an area larger than Africa whilst all he started off with was a group of nomads. - pretty much like the nomads you have in your collection departments.

What are these things I am talking about ?   Finding a way of assisting clients in distress within a system that recognize their human existence.  Come up with a solution that will see them through this difficult time. Offer possitive encouragement and guidelines. All in an evironment that is in line with your slogan "how can we help?"   We as concerned consumers have been trying to talk to the banks about this but the only thing banks are interested in is their archaic collection systems utilizing call centres, attorneys and selling off bad debt to unscroupelous debt collectors.  

As a group of concerned consumers we would like to talk to you PERSONALLY about our suggestions which we will offer to you free of charge .  All we ask is that you TALK TO US. And just maybe You and I (referring to the concerned consumers group) will work out a world class solution .