Are you a man or woman of refined taste based in the UK? Have you been looking for a new bank and require the following:
* A grand opening that involve waitresses toting giant trays of ice cream, batons, “dancers sporting vermilion fright wigs parading on stilts,” white balloons embossed with the legend JOIN THE REVOLUTION!
* A pooch-friendly environment
* A disco-themed lobby
* A founder who lives in an “Italianate mansion in New Jersey”
* The Meredith Whitney stamp of approval
Vernon Hill knows. And he’s got just the place for you.
In the hidebound world of British retail banking, the launch of a new bank last July — the first in 138 years — was certain to make a splash. Even so, the grand opening of Metro Bank was something completely different: On the sidewalk at Metro’s glitzy flagship branch, across from the Holborn tube station, dancers sporting vermilion fright wigs paraded on stilts. Dixieland bands tooted, shoeshine crews buffed, and waitresses toted giant trays of ice cream, 5,000 cups in all. Jugglers’ batons filled the air, along with white balloons embossed with the legend JOIN THE REVOLUTION! Inside, the giant floor-to-ceiling windows and long, open granite counters lined with smiling tellers, sans Plexiglas, recalled the lobby of a fancy Las Vegas hotel. Signs rallied customers to LOVE YOUR BANK AT LAST and pledged NO MORE STUPID BANK RULES. Bicycles stood parked on the polished marble floors, alongside corgis and poodles (DOGS RULE! posters proclaimed) downing bowls of dog biscuits as their masters opened accounts. “I’ve never seen a bank like this,” says a street musician in attendance. “How can you not love a place that’s open on weekends and looks like a disco?”
The impresario behind the party was Vernon Hill, a flamboyant, tradition-stomping American billionaire. Hill, 65, founded Commerce Bank in the U.S. and outfoxed the giants in the business by putting lavish customer service first — the model he’s now transplanting to Britain. Before he was forced out of his own company by regulators, Hill built himself an Italianate mansion in New Jersey that’s almost as large as the White House.
Hill did little to dispel his image as the P.T. Barnum of banking at the VIP party following his grand opening in London. Blond comb-over plastered in place, he wore a double-breasted silk suit with a gold collar pin and cradled his Yorkshire terrier — Sir Duffield, or Duffy for short — in his arms, feeding him canapés from trays that passed by.
And yet consider the guest list. Jamie Reuben and Harrison LeFrak, representing leading real estate families in London and New York, were there — both are investors in Metro. Meredith Whitney, the prominent banking analyst and a longtime Hill fan, was in attendance, as was Gene Lockhart, former CEO of MasterCard International (MA), now a Metro director. Billionaire investor Wilbur Ross, who’s backing a fledgling banking venture by Virgin chairman Richard Branson, made an appearance. What these people understand is that Hill — nicknamed “Vernon the Barbarian” by rivals in the U.S. — may just have the best brain in retail banking.
Also:
Hill has another big idea, this one a business that he’s helping to transplant from Britain to the U.S.: pet insurance. He’s a major investor in Petplan USA, which holds the U.S. franchise from Petplan of Britain, the world’s biggest provider of policies for companion animals. “People used to put down their pets when they got sick,” says Hill. “Now they’re members of the family. People will want to save them with kidney transplants and hip replacements. This business will be huge.” Hill’s own dog, Duffy, recently had 11 teeth pulled, and Petplan paid the $2,400 bill. The terrier has since returned to his regular diet of kobe beef and dulce de leche ice cream. Recently Hill persuaded both Tom Fazio and Meredith Whitney’s husband, the former professional wrestler John Layfield — whose ring names have included “Vampiro Americano” and “Death Mask” — to take out insurance for their pets. It’s always showtime for Vernon Hill.
Vernon Hill is the best damn banker alive (Just ask him) [Fortune]
G-G-G-G-G-G-Good luck Vuh-vuh-vuh-vuh-vernon.
PFluger, a relative of yours?
PFluger, a relative of yours?
Does “Pfluger” sound like a Brit name to you?? Ask again if Bess posts some photos of krauts who have terrible attitudes, but real dogs….
Commerce Bank in the US was incredibly revolutionary. Before Vernon Hill came around, banks were open just a few hours a day on weekdays and not at all on the weekend. He completely revolutionized the model. I’ve heard banks in the the UK are even less customer-friendly than the banks here were, so this sounds like a good business idea.
Sure. May as well go across the pond. He has been investigated enough in the U.S.
How’s the pussy? Meow!
How’s the pussy? Meow!
How’s the pussy? Meow!
How’s the pussy? Meow!
Kobe beef and dulce du leche ice cream diet for the terrier? With that kind of diet Duffy would be delicious on the grill.
Top 10 Companies With the Most Customer Service Complaints on Twitter: AT&T Worst, Apple Sixth
We analyzed thousands of customer service complaints on Twitter (from 13 Aug 2010 to 16 Aug 2010), to find out which corporations caused the most frustration.
Data was first collected from the Twitter Search API, using a search for “customer service” together with any one of: fail, sucks,worst, poor, bad, terrible or awful. Tweets that included links were filtered out, as were re-tweets, to maximize the likelihood of personal experiences and reduce tweets about articles or stories (e.g. Jet Blue, Santander and O2 customer service stories were prevalent over the survey period).
The extracted tweets were placed into an Excel spreadsheet and manually verified over the course of a day, to check the validity of the complaints (i.e. to ensure that tweets like “I’ve never received bad customer service from X” weren’t included), and to extract the correct names of corporations (i.e. some people use the full company name, others use Twitter usernames, hash-tags, or abbreviations). Where described in the tweet, we also recorded the cause of the frustration, e.g. slow service or rudeness. http://www.groubal.com/top-10-customer-service-complaints-twitter/
Have you analyzed expected life of a blog spammer’s comments?
Good Content….
some good comments! Nice article.
Dixieland bands tooted, shoeshine crews buffed, and waitresses toted giant trays of ice cream, 5,000 cups in all.
A grand opening that involve waitresses toting giant trays of ice cream, batons….!
Really incredible post.Thanks.
On the sidewalk at Metro’s glitzy flagship branch, across from the Holborn tube station, dancers sporting vermilion fright wigs paraded on stilts
Have you been looking for a new bank and require the following:
Metro Bank is terrible. I had a horrible time there and wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole. They treat you worse than a dog. (dogs get water to drink). I’m a home owner and went there with all my proofs, it took an hour and half for them to say no, because apparently a credit card at my address has the wrong birthday for me. They didn’t say that this might happen, then they didn’t explain what this meant. Instead they called over a bouncer to throw me out. The manager said – to my later complaint – that the woman on the desk felt threatened by the fact that I walked out “during a meeting” despite the fact she hadn’t said anything for 15 minutes and I had said I was too hot and was clearly outside on the telephone. I had been attacked in the student riots on the way to the bank by an anarchist – I told the woman this (ringing in ears, a little confused I was) and she said “oooh, good thing I’m not out there”. I mean. Really. One and a half hours “just a little bit longer” – no tea, no water, no toilet, no newspaper – just being insulted. I’d asked her if it would be possible not to have MRS or MISS or MS on the bank documents and cards because my mum didn’t like that and had changed to a different bank because of it. She basically said “yes, it’s necessary and you’re an idiot – how can we tell what sex you are otherwise?” So much for ‘no stupid bank rules’. Going to Metro Bank was like getting my teeth drilled. I think they are awful and are going to fail very soon because they are uncivilised idiots
These scam artists got kicked out of the US and are now trying to ply their snake oil here.
This man(Vernon Hill) is THE best employer to work for!
Kimberly Ducati, Pine Hill NJ