The Original Customer Service Experience in America

I just visited the Eldridge Street Synagogue on New York City’s Lower East Side. It has been an active synagogue since 1886 and is well worth a visit. Under restoration for the better part of a generation, the building has been transformed into a breathtakingly beautiful place of worship as well as an educational center that explores the synagogue’s founders.

During a one-hour guided tour that explored Jewish immigrant life at the turn of the century, I learned about the personalized customer service that the Jablowsky Bank offered its customers. Mr. Jablowsky, the founder of the bank, really paid attention to his customers and responded to their needs. The language of the neighborhood for those early immigrants was Yiddish and every employee who worked at the bank had to be bi-lingual. He also knew that the most important thing for his customers was to save for steamship tickets to bring their families over to the new world. The Jablowsky Bank not only sold the tickets in their lobby, they arranged to purchase them on credit. I loved that little anecdote, as things have not changed much since those early days in America.

Perhaps the Jablowsky Bank set the standard for the expectations customers have of businesses today:

  • See me
  • Pay attention to me
  • Personalize the experience to my needs
  • Care

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