Customer Mentors

Customer Mentors

My first customer mentor was Al from Atlanta.  He was the father of “Tillie the Teller”.  Earl, my boss at Diebold, introduced me to him.  Al was an early adaptor of ATMs.  Although he had deployed a competitor’s equipment, he liked our system and customer service philosophies.  Al introduced us to a number of our first customers in the South.  He eventually replaced his equipment with ours and used our equipment when he moved to two other financial institutions.   Al also became a very good personal friend who I could go to for advice on the financial institution markets and new products and marketing ideas as we developed them.

I was also able to develop a mentoring relationship with an executive from each of the two largest financial institutions in the US in the 70s and 80s, Dan at Bank of America and Fred at Chase Manhattan Bank.  Both became good friends and advisors.  They were both very instrumental in getting the market really started.

I also had a great mentor in Las Vegas that helped us get into the casinos.  Another mentor in Miami that moved to the west coast and helped us with both the California and Washington markets. 

There were a number of others that seemed to want to be helpful when you were open to them and delivered on your promises.  I believe these mentors were responsible for our success. 

Lessons learned:

1.  Always be open to advice and assistance.

2.  Don’t over commit and always deliver on your promises.

3.  Get to know your customers on as personal a basis as possible.

4.  Ask your good contacts for advice frequently,  It will serve to solidify your relationships.