When The Bank's A Small Business Too

Date: 01/02/2011

If your bank is a faceless monolith, try the BOQ approach and get some personal service - or even a game of golf - with your own personal lender.

Mike Meynell is a banker. He's also a small business operator. The convergence - and equal importance - of his two roles bring a whole new meaning to business banking, Mike tells us, and it's unique to the "owner-manager" business model of BOQ. Wearing his small business hat, Mike says he goes out of his way to provide fantastic customer service to every customer - because every touch-point is a referral opportunity for more customers. He must follow proper bank guidelines, he says, when assessing the credit-worthiness of business customers; but at least he understands the local area and local business conditions, and that's a big advantage for the customers he serves. He's involved in the local community, he loves it,and customers become friends. Bank competition is forcing the bigger banks to improve customer service levels but according to Mike Meynell, BOQ is well ahead of the game in the highly personal levels of service it offers its customers.