Erin The Great

For many months now… I’ve been trying to decide whether or not I’m going to retire from the clutches of retail banking. As many of you know, I’ve been a bank teller for longer then I’d like to admit (five years) and although I like customer service ‘as a whole’ I must say that the banking industry is a whole other ballpark. People seem to be whole lot meaner in retail banking, I’m not quite sure why. I would almost prefer to become a Wal-Mart greeter because, believe it or not, they get a whole lot more respect then tellers do. Apparently we are less then human and deserve to be treated as such… no bueno!

In light of my soul searching I’ve decided to write a one-sided letter to the patrons of the bank.

Dear Bank Customers,

As you may or may not know, my name is Erin and I’ve been serving you for a really long time now. I can’t tell you how I feel when you walk in the bank with a sour expression ready to give me the tongue lashing of the century for your account being over drawn. Even though you call me names I’ve only heard from the construction workers across the street, I know that deep down you think of them as pet names and sometimes have a hard time showing your appreciation and admiration in normal human ways.

I know that when you think I’ve shortchanged you or haven’t given you the denominations you so clearly desire in your mind, you’re going to look at me like I’m an idiot and should have TGIF (toes go in first) written on my shoes, I know you understand that some days my clairvoyant talent just isn’t up to par… I’ll try to work on it though… just for you.

You can pretend that you’re angry with me, and verbally abuse me all you want when you receive an overdraft fee or any other kind of fee for that matter. It was clearly wrong of me to personally attach that to your account. I would like to offer up an apology for that. I should have been stalking your accounts to make you sure you didn’t over-spend or write checks to people when you didn’t have money in your account. What was I thinking? I will try to do better next time.

I would like to offer up one last appreciation note to you. Thank you so much for calling in with a question that I can answer, but immediately requesting my manager who doesn’t know the teller side that well, only to have the call redirected back at me. You are so wonderful and patient as I take care of something that could have been done the first time. I know you believe in my competence as a teller and that you were just calling my manager to tell him how much you love me. I do appreciate that immensely.

Lastly thank you for all the joys and mean faces and requests that take me all day to fulfill, only to have you act like I should have gotten it done sooner. It was rude of me to not operate on your timetable. I know that all the mean faces, disgusted looks, flat out rudeness and verbal abuse is just you showing that you want to help me become a more patient and well adjusted person. Thank you for all you do and I’ll see you again around noon. Until later…

Sincerely,
Erin