Page 73 - A Banker Down the Rabbit Hole

20. New insights from New Year

calendars

S o this was the year, we got one hundred New Year calendars for

our branch customers from Zonal office. "A Thematic calendar"!
Great job done by a Brand consultant in selecting 12 awesome
breeds of the homely feline family for the 12 respective months!
And as always, to economize on scale, the Head Office had got them
printed to fulfill the requirement of all the bank branches spread over
length and breadth of the country. Single design calendars for all types
of branches and locations throughout India were to be distributed to 500
valued clients we had listed at our branch. And we had only 100 of those
calendars! How challenging it was to hand pick the valued ones who
would be proud recipient. The chosen ones were those loyal customers
who had a total deposits with us in all accounts exceeding Rs. 200,000/
- then. We warmly personalized the distribution. Why didn't we see them
excited though? We were hoping that they would desire at least one
more calendar for their other family members! (Though we were not
prepared for any such give aways).

During one of these meetings, we also met with our valued customer
who had shifted huge amounts of deposit from a local post office, and
also separately given us fresh fixed deposits. This prized customer had a
younger brother in his joint family who was a regular accomplice during
his entire bank visits. Some deposits were made in this brother's name
as well. We thought the duo were worthy of our wall calendars. We
warmly handed them the calendar; he courteously opened it, flipped
some pages, closed it and kept it on the table. We offered him another
one for his brother. He said he was okay with one piece. Upon our
insistence to accept a second calendar, he retorted "even one will be

70 | A Banker down the Rabbit Hole