Are you a foreigner, working in Berlin and looking for a tax consultant? Or a kindergarten for your kids? If so, you probably wouldn't think of turning to your local bank to get one would you? But maybe you should consider doing just that.
Germany’s Commerzbank AG offers a special service in its Berlin headquarters on Potsdamer Strasse. At its "International Counter" a crew of seven multilingual staff members help foreigners who have just arrived in the city cope with everything from finding a dentist to getting through the maze of German bureaucracy.
"We have 10 to 20 inquiries each week," says Maike Plaehn, one of the managers of the Commerzbank’s Berlin branch. "It’s mostly expatriates and diplomats that come here to look for help."
Some of their clients work at Berlin’s Sony or DaimlerChrysler headquarters. Most of them are American or European but they also have customers from other corners of the globe, Plaehn told DW-WORLD. "Among the seven of us, we speak Arabic, Italian, Spanish, French, English, and of course German," she said.
And most importantly, hardly anyone leaves without opening an account at the bank with the friendly staff.
Capitalizing on foreigner relations
The Commerzbank has been offering this special customer service since 1995, when the embassies moved from the former capital Bonn to Berlin. Since then, the embassies as well as Berlin’s international companies refer new staff directly to the bank's "International Counter", thereby advertising by word of mouth.
The service is part of the bank’s strategy to tap into the growing pool of foreigners living in Germany. Although "Ethno Marketing" or "Intercultural Marketing" has long been the talk of the town in other countries, especially the United States with its large Hispanic population, in this time of economic downturn, Germany is only just beginning to discover the economic potential ofits cultural minorities.
