Wretched fees......

We live in a fee crazy world. Buy a car, pay some fees, get a loan at a bank, pay some fees, switch cell phones, pay some fees, forget to feed the meter, pay some fees (and pay them quick or you will pay even more fees). fee fi fo fum, fees. It is a delicate topic with customers, and I have yet to meet one that is excited to pay them. I switched my cell phone the other day at Verizon, sales guy had the best saying when I questioned it. He said "even Mrs. Verizon has to pay this". Got a kick out of that. Ultimately with a good explanation, and keeping the fees reasonable, most folks understand the reasoning.

I had a very interesting conversation last week with one of my clients, some very good people doing some very good work here in CVT. We were contemplating a rate reduction as well as a re-amortization of their existing facilities, and had nailed down all the details but the fee that the bank would charge for these accomodations.

My strategy on this was to handle the fee conversation the way I would want to be approached under the same circumstances. So try this folks, I think it is the most fair way to come to a fee for services that we all can live with. I asked the client to go back to the office once we finished lunch, think about the accomodation we were agreeing to make as a bank, and assign a value to that as a fee. Now the hook here is to ask the client to assign a fee that they feel is fair for the accomodation being made, but also a fee that they can comfortably live with, and won't eventually resent me for. You see I never subscribed to the "fee them and flee" approach to banking, call me old fashioned but I want to have a nice long life with these folks as their partner, and trying to get a "higher" fee because I can doesn't sit well with me.

So guess what ended up happening on the fee? My client came up with an appropriate number, based on sound reasoning, that we both could go to bed tonight feeling ok about (after all it's still a fee). And you want to know the secret here, I was fully committed to agreeing to whatever they came back to me with. I'm confident that allowing them to be a real part of the conversation will garner more trust in our relationship going forward, which after all else is said and done is the most important thing.