Remember the days when every high street had a butcher, a baker, and a no-nonsense bank manager who knew your dog’s name, your business inside out, and possibly even remembered how you like your coffee? Ah yes, the golden era of banking, when decisions were made in minutes over real world counters, not in algorithms over continents.
Fast-forward to today and, if you’re really lucky (and own a car, a flask of tea, and a tolerance for parking charges that rival your weekly shop), you might just locate a branch of your bank in a nearby town. Once inside, after a brief ten-minute wait behind someone trying to deposit a jar of 2p coins, you’ll be ushered into a “customer experience pod” (translation: desk with a fake plant) by a smiling human whose greatest ambition is to help you… just as soon as they’ve consulted the Oracle (aka Head Office). Estimated response time? Oh, a breezy 7–10 working days…
But all is not lost. There is hope. Somewhere in this digital desert, a rare oasis appears: the bank employee who can act for you. None of the usual being put on hold while “I check with someone”, or an email you eventually find in your spam box a week later asking you to “submit this form to the processing team”, just action and good old fashioned advice from someone who understands what the algorithm needs.
Let’s call him Dave. Dave is to banking what your GP was in the 90s; a trusted figure who doesn’t just push buttons, but solves problems. You need to move funds to cover payroll? Dave’s got it. A fraud flag is blocking your supplier payment? Dave’s on the phone before you finish the sentence. A weird dollar transfer stuck in the ether? Dave knows a guy from the International department …
Dave is the spiritual successor to the business manager of yore. That unsung local hero who wore a tie, even on weekends, attended your opening night, and once signed off a loan after a look in the eye and a firm handshake. In short: a human being who understands the speed of business and the importance of trust.
The benefits of having a “Dave” are huge for an SME, in particular:
Speed: No bureaucratic pinball. Just answers and action, usually within a day.
Accountability: If it goes wrong, Dave will sort it for you, possibly even before you have noticed.
Continuity: No repeating yourself to a call centre in another time zone. Dave remembers everything.
Support: During a crisis, Dave won’t hide behind a chatbot. He’ll ring you up and say, “Right. Let’s sort this.” He will also (off the record) tell you exactly what he thinks of your former business partner who was double invoicing his travel expenses.
Now, you might be thinking: “But surely Dave’s a myth, like a rainbow-coloured unicorn or a straightforward utility bill?” Well, according to a Financial Director I spoke to this morning, not only is Dave real, he’s already pulled off what had, up until then, been impossible: namely advising him about everything needed to finally get a bank account open for a startup. Miracles do happen.
Turns out, some banks still have the good sense to keep a few humans around with a pulse, a brain, and, shock horror: a bit of initiative. You’ll find them lurking behind glossy titles like “relationship manager” or “business specialist” (because heaven forbid a bank will admit it needs to pivot back to proper business managers this soon after ceremoniously axing them).
But don’t be fooled by the rebrand. These are the Daves, some of them even original branch managers.Track them down. Cherish them like a lost sock returned from the laundry abyss of your washing machine. And when they save your bacon at 4:58pm on a Friday? Put them on your Christmas card list, the real one, not the “e-card and emoji” nonsense.
Because while apps are slick and online banking is convenient, no AI has yet replicated the comforting presence of a Dave, someone who just gets it done.
Photo by Claudio Schwarz
