tag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:/discussions/online-banking/606-bank-of-americaInfinite Kind: Discussion 2016-03-19T05:05:13Ztag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/372130422015-06-25T12:13:30Z2015-06-25T12:13:30ZBank of America<div><p>Hello,</p>
<p>We are a relatively small company, and our ability to
"negotiate" with a bank the size of Bank of America is quite
limited. Usually we have a similar experience as you when talking
to bank representatives, where they insist they only support
Quicken. We sometimes have had better luck talking with smaller
credit unions or community banks that are more responsive to their
customers, but rarely have any success with explaining the
situation to larger financial institutions.</p>
<p>What error messages are you receiving when you cannot connect to
Bank of America? Sometimes it is hard to convince them to enable
one's accounts for direct connections without Quicken, but I can't
think of cases where they regularly turn off someone's connections
for no apparent reason.</p>
<p>Ethan<br>
Moneydance Support</p></div>Ethantag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/372130422015-06-25T16:42:25Z2015-06-25T16:42:25ZBank of America<div><p>This is a marketing issue, Ethan. Big banks, like the BoA,
present much<br>
bigger opportunities for MoneyDance than smaller ones. Right?
More<br>
prospects for you among big bank customers who hate Quicken. You
get<br>
that, right? Small banks and S&Ls establish that MoneyDance
works. It<br>
was a good way to start out. Now, go for the big guys.</p>
<p>I do not want to use a smaller bank for a lot of reasons. I
tried it.<br>
Didn't like it. Ditto the majority of people. That's why the banks
are<br>
big. They have more than 500 million customers, many of whom
HATE<br>
Quicken, who would become MoneyDance users if the big banks
supported it.</p>
<p>But, of course, big banks, with many times more customers than
small<br>
banks, require support for their depositors who might use
MoneyDance,<br>
depositors like me who want the services and convenience of big
banks.<br>
The big banks balk at the high costs of training and maintaining
that support staff, when they don't know if it will be worthwhile
or<br>
not. So, they stick with Quicken, and, of course, their own in
house<br>
bill pay system, which is very limited in what it will do compared
to<br>
Quicken and MoneyDance.</p>
<p>So how can this situation work to the advantage of both
MoneyDance and<br>
big banks?</p>
<p>There are many ways, some will prove to be more effective and
successful<br>
than others.</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p>Offer to provide the customer support for the big bank. Be ready
to<br>
respond on behalf of the bank to support MoneyDance customers'
needs,<br>
which means providing live telephone and chat support, which you do
not<br>
presently give to customers like me. BoA, for example, does give
live<br>
telephone support for Quicken, and I can, with extraordinary
effort, get<br>
MoneyDance problems fixed, too.*</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Offer to train the bank's Qicken support staff, so they can
handle<br>
MoneyDance inquiries, and provide a small MoneyDance support staff
on<br>
site at the bank to back up the bank's support staff. (IBM did
this<br>
back in the day for their computers and thus became "Big Blue")</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Offer the big banks a marketing program, with branch
promotional<br>
material, statement stuffers, on-line ads, etc., to draw in
customers<br>
for checking, savings, and credit card accounts tied to
MoneyDance.<br>
Give them a kick back for new MoneyDance signups. BoA, for
example,<br>
has 50 million depositors; a bounty of $5 for each new MoneyDance
signup<br>
might drop $10 million to the bank's bottom line.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Promote the Big Bank in MoneyDance campaigns to shift customers
from<br>
other big banks to YOUR Big Bank because it offers MoneyDance. If
Wells<br>
Fargo, say, or US Bank, supported MoneyDance, I would switch from
BofA.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>As I said, Ethan, this is a MARKETING issue, not a support
issue. You<br>
need to do the research and put together the numbers that show
the<br>
rewards to the big bank and to MoneyDance for alternative
marketing<br>
programs.</p>
<ul>
<li>The BoA support people do not know why their servers suddenly
decide to disable bill pay for my checking account. They do know
how to enable<br>
bill pay for me, and do so when I finally get through to a
supervisor.<br>
Then everything is fine for a month or for several months. This
has<br>
happened five times in two years. They do not know why it stops<br>
working, why bill pay is suddenly disabled at the server. They
don't<br>
want to look into the problem because the bank's position is that
it<br>
does not support MoneyDance.</li>
</ul>
<p>So the solution is a MARKETING one. There is no TECHNICAL
reason<br>
MoneyDance bill pay does not work at BoA. It does work. I make it
work<br>
for me. It is a pain but I would rather put up with it than use<br>
Quicken. And therein is your business development opportunity.</p>
<p>Find someone at MoneyDance in Marketing or Management who can
understand<br>
this.</p>
<p>Laird</p></div>Laird