I am very impressed with Bank Simple (a neat project I came across via HN). Banking startups are an interesting (and hard) area so, in the spirit of “why not”, I left them my email a few months back. As a brit it seems unlikely they will cater for me any time soon but keeping track of their efforts seems worthwhile.
Anyway, they just sent me an email.
At first it reads like a typical marketing mail – “don’t forget about us m’kay” (which, after all, is why I gave them my email). But after a first scan my brain did a backflip as it read the following:
Even if you don’t want to talk about banking matters, I would love to hear more about how you started you own social networking site and be updated on its progress.
Wait. What?
In the past (i.e. 3 years ago) I was involved in developing a social networking site. How the hell did they find that out?
I am guessing that what they did is use one of the social discovery tools to track down some information about me. Then read and digested what they found to choose something relevant to talk about.
I’ve run it over in my mind and there is no way this could be from an automated process. For a start the email address I gave is not easily linked to my personal or the Live Meta site. So finding me is non-trivial (2-3 minutes at least). Figuring out the connection is also non-trivial; someone either read my resume or the Live Meta site and clicked through to make the link (another 2-3 minutes). Those 5 minutes are not a lot – but it’s more effort than the vast majority of companies make.
Ok, so this is gimick; but it’s a completely genuine one. Bank Simple make a promise on their home page: “We treat you with respect“. So, yes, it is a gimick. But it is also them sticking to the promise – and I do feel respected. Particularly as there is a high chance a goof number of us signed up….
I think that bodes well for them as a service.
Which is good because starting a bank like that is a very difficult problem. I c0nfess prior to this my feeling was “cool, but I have a feeling this will fall apart”. I still think it is a very hard task they have set out to work on, but on an emotional I damn well hope they do it.
But for that pesky Atlantic Ocean they’d have a new future customer 
I received the exact same email, but the text you highlighted is missing from mine. Apparently, I’m just not that interesting.
“Social discovery tools” – you are expecting too much from us
While some people might find it creepy, we simply Google you. If we find something worth asking you about, we try to.
The way we see it, you’ve taken the time to learn about us, so the very least we can do is learn a little about you.
It takes quite some time to launch what we are launching. While we are waiting for a few regulatory partnerships to be locked down, we can’t think of anything better to do than have real conversations with prospective customers.
A new online bank is kinda scary. Banks certainly don’t have a good reputation right now. And deservedly so; they treat customers as deposit vehicles, rather than as people. We see the only route to success is via using technology to help us have a more fruitful and human connection with our customers.
Conversations are just the starting point. Just wait till you see what we’ve built!
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Josh, thanks for popping by
I wouldn’t blame you at all for using Rapportive etc. The reason I jumped to that conclusion is because that is a simple hack to get to relevant info.
The fact you are actually just Googling us is pretty cool
EDIT: sorry for the comment problems ppl. They are coming through just throwing errors… I moved to a new host a few weeks back and there are still outstanding issues
I had a similar experience with them. I was pleasantly surprised that Josh not only read up a bit about me & personalized the email, but he seemed genuinely interested in understanding my banking experience so far and what I feel is currently missing from that.
Good luck, looking forward to the launch!
You just raised the bar, Josh.
Wow, I went back and read my email, and I completely missed the personalized part in mine.
“Meanwhile, we’d love to hear about your banking experience and what you’re looking for in a bank. Given your experience, I’d also love to chat about development.”
I’m a developer. That’s pretty damn cool. It’s so small, but it means so much to me now.
Nice but could be spooky to paranoid customers. “What? You’ve been stalking me?”
Disclaimer: I’m advising another ‘new bank’ in stealth mode.
Damn – that is cool! A bank that is actually proactive about customer service. When they expand to the UK, I’m so using them. A couple of things spring to mind – I wonder if they are subtly keeping in contact with developers who have done interesting things in case they need to hire more people in the future and…..how sustainable is that kind of personalised customer analysis once they have a substantial user base (given that it is obviously currently a human resource intensive type thing)?
That is really impressive. I found out about Bank Simple on This Week In Startups.
This email is good evidence that these guys are sincere about delivering on their promises. I want this bank to open up as soon as possible, I am ready.
I like how you call the personal response a “completely genuine [gimick]“.
I agree that it’s great to see a bank (a bank of all things) taking the time to get to know their customers on a personal level, but in my case, I found their email a little unnerving:
Am I being paranoid, or is that taking things a bit too far?
(just kidding, in case that wasn’t clear…
)