Pros
Commerce Bank, "Americas Most Convenient Bank" that's what we truly were. Vernon Hill was a marketing genius creating a retail banking experience. His mantra was to hire marketing and retail experiencd people, and teach them to be Bankers... it was all about the WOW! Experience!!!! We had so many satisfied and happy customers, because the customer always came first, as did all his employees. The competiton was stymied and envious of the success of this bank. We were paid excellent salaries for excellent work. We were deposit driven, not widget driven.
When the Canadian bank TD Bank North bought Commerce Bank, they paid a lot of money for the right and privelage to be called "Americas Most Convenient Bank", and blew it by becoming as one customer told my Manager, "TD Bank is terrible! I am closing my accounts because this bank has become Americas Most Inconvenient Bank!!" TD Bank talked a good talk, but never walked the walk as Vernon did. He really "put his money where his mouth was!" TD Bank never treated their employees well in the United States, but in Canada, the employees had better benefits, better salaries and better working conditions.
TD Bank thought they paid too much for Commerce Bank, and the employees were being paid too much as well, so they tried to make back the money they paid for Commerce Bank by restructuring the pay grades, so that the employees who came in contact with the customer, the face of TD Bank, the "bottom feeders" were blessed with $0.25 raises, while asking them to do more and more, taking on more responsibilities to do more supervisory and managerial work, and when the full-time employees left, they were replaced with inexperienced part-time people, because all they needed was "bodies", not talent/experience. And they thought that by changing the metrics from delosits to widgets, i.e. checking accounts, savings accounts, CD's, etc.....that was more profitable than bringing in deposits???? Helloooooooo!!!
Now they're struggling to gain market share.... in the city that I worked in, there are 12 banks in a 2 mile radius of the TD Bank that I worked for. The only thing that differentiated Commerce Bank from all the others was the amazing people that worked for the bank, giving awesome and legendary customer service!!!
Cons
Management was not accessible to the employees, and could care less about correcting the inequities that existed. There was no balance between work and family. Managers and Assistant Managers rarely worked during the weekly evening hours, or on th weekends. We were always short staffed and worked most weekends... not good for family relations. There was no appreciation given employees, not even a "thank you!!" This is truly the worst bank to work for and it's a shame that they drove the legacy of Commerce Bank into the ground!!
