If this review were solely about customer care, 5 stars would have been in order. Customer care? Customer service? Client services? I’m not quite sure what the trendiest term is for what, essentially, is how a company addresses its customers’ or clients’ needs, but I prefer customer or client care. Why? Well, right there in the label is the notion that an organization cares about its customers or clients. That’s at least a start. There’s little guarantee that just because an organization has the name right, that they also have the thing itself right. How many customer care departments have you encountered where there is no real “care” evident? WaFd Bank (formerly Washington Federal Bank), headquartered in Seattle, Washington, is not a large banking organization (although it operates in eight states and maintains over 200 local branches), and it did not appear on any of the several lists of “best customer service” banks that I consulted. If, however, the response I received from WaFd’s leadership after I fired off an unhappy customer email yesterday reflects the organization’s commitment to customer care, real customer care, then I wouldn’t be surprised to see WaFd climb the ladder of those “best of” lists, as well as the list of largest banks determined by assets and customer accounts. The details of the situation that resulted in my displeasure aren’t important. What is important is that at multiple organizational levels (call center, branch management, executive leadership), I encountered at least one person who displayed exemplary customer care. At the call center level, Nick performed quintessentially. Nick was patient, attentive, listened well, established rapport, diagnosed the issue, informed me of how he intended to address the situation, and informed me that, although he couldn’t complete the fix himself immediately, he would bring the problem to the attention of those who could. He also assured me that he would follow-up before he completed his shift for the day. Nick did follow-up with a call, checking all the boxes for outstanding customer care. At the local branch level, being advised that the local branch needed to be involved in the fix, I called our local Silver City, New Mexico branch, specifically seeking to connect with Jaclynn Rodriguez. We had opened our WaFd free-checking account in January of 2020 with Ms. Rodriguez and her customer interface skills were superb. The few times we have needed to connect with the local branch, we sought out Ms. Rodriguez and have yet to be disappointed. I eventually reached Ms. Rodriguez late in the afternoon and through her efforts the troubling situation was resolved in fewer than 30 minutes. Consistent with our previous experiences, Ms. Rodriguez had been the ultimate professional, displaying all the traits exhibited by Nick above, including the addition of problem resolution with a vocal smile. Although I had already spent far more time than I would have liked on the situation, I decided to take additional time to write to WaFd’s executive management. Honestly, I wasn’t really expecting much except perhaps a standard, cookie-cutter email response within a few days. My email was sent at 5:24pm to multiple individuals on the executive leadership team, including Brent Beardall, president and CEO, and Cathy Cooper, executive vice president and retail banking group manager. At 7:16pm, I answered a call, and to my pleasant astonishment, the caller was Michelle Coons, New Mexico regional president. Seriously? After 7pm on a Friday evening? A follow-up call from a regional president? When Ms. Coons called, she told me that she had received a call from Mr. Beardall who had read my email and wanted immediate action taken. Ms. Coons had obliged, assuring me that their team was investigating the situation and would follow-up. This morning I opened my inbox to see an email from Ms. Cooper, the executive vice president I mentioned above. It was time-stamped 9:02pm last night. An email from WaFd’s leadership team at 9pm on a Friday night, following a call from a regional president? You might not be impressed, but I most certainly am. Surely there’s a hefty dollop of damage-control involved, but we have a microscopic account balance at WaFd. We are not upper echelon customers. Yet, we received upper echelon customer care initiated and executed by the most senior of WaFd’s executives. I don’t often think about having a vast fortune, but today I wish I did so that I could make a momentous deposit at our Silver City, New Mexico WaFd branch. Maybe one day. Thank to every member of the team that contributed to the restoration of my faith in excellent customer care and in WaFd Bank!