(March 30 – 13:00 ET) – TD Waterhouse Chief Executive Stephen Mcdonald is apologizing to investors for the discount broker’s poor service of late.
Echoing comments from TD Bank chairman Charlie Baillie at yesterday’s annual meeting, McDonald is asking for forgiveness from disgruntled Waterhouse customers. He admits that the firm was not properly prepared for the explosion in demand for its services.
McDonald says that Waterhouse is working hard to improve service levels by making better use of its technology and by increased hiring. For example the firm is putting more of its forms online so that clients can get direct access to them, without clogging the broker’s phone lines and occupying rep time in dealing with queries.
McDonald also predicts increasing customer segmentation so that bigger more active clients get a better service commitment. In the meantime, Waterhouse, along with all the online brokers, is struggling to ramp up service without alienating customers.