I just received the following SMS from Nedbank: “Not enough time? Internet Banking is quick,easy on your Nedbank Current Acc. Make payments, buy airtime and more! Call 0860 633 2265 of visit a branch.”
Yes, I know the SMS would have cost Nedbank no more than 17c if they used a decent bulk SMS provider, but that’s not the point.
I have had my current account with Nedbank since November 1998. I signed up for internet banking the same day that I opened that account and I have used that same account and the internet banking as my sole account since then. They’ve had me as a client for over 12 years, I’ve used their service for over 12 years and yet they’re still too stupid to be able to filter their client list and only market their products to those clients who don’t already use them.
Now I have no idea if every current account holder received this SMS, but if I got it, I can’t see why the others didn’t. Let’s do a few quick sums then.
The SA banking council says there are 35 million banked South Africans. I’ll make a few conservative guesses here and say that Nedbank has 10% of those accounts, and that 25% of those are current accounts. Assuming Nedbank sent this SMS to every current account holder that would be:
35 000 000 x 10% = 3500000
3500000 x 25% = 875000
875000 x 17c = 14875000c
14875000c = R148750
So, my very conservative numbers say that Nedbank spent around R150 000 on an SMS campaign for which I would guess 50% are like me and already use the product. Small money to a corporate like them, sure, but a gross waste of my bank charges too!
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