Here’s one for the books.

I got a letter the other day from a big bank that just merged with another big bank informing me that my securities account, which I have had for 10 years, will now be subject to a new annual fee of $50.

The letter was crafted as positively as possible, but gave me three options: Sell my shares, liquidate my shares, or they would send me my shares. No other options were given.

In other words: Go away.

The letter requested a phone call. So I called. I asked if I was being fired as a customer. The guy on the other end assured me that I wasn’t. Then I got to the root of the problem. Apparently, my account wasn’t big enough for them to justify keeping it.

“Why didn’t you call me,” I asked.

“I was given 400 of these accounts and I don’t have time to call these people,” he said. “If I spent all my time on $1,000 accounts, I wouldn’t make any money.”

He just fired 400 customers. I wonder: How long did it take to win those customers? How many other people at the bank sent this letter out?

Then I found out that this letter was sent, “in compliance with their legal rules and regulations.” I have no idea what that means, but I have a feeling that it’s a method of saving their ass at the expense of mine.

This is a bank that, on the one hand, is spending millions of dollars in advertising soliciting my business with the most inane commercials I have ever seen and, on the other hand, is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars getting rid of me.

What genius is leading this pack?

When they looked at the dollars and cents, they decided that my 10-year-old account was not profitable enough. Among other things, they were apparently unaware that I have another account at the bank that exceeds their minimum requirements by a substantial amount.

When I asked the guy who wrote me the letter (he’s a broker) about my other account, he couldn’t even find it in their “system.” “How many Jeffrey Gitomers do you have there?” I asked. “None that I can find,” he said. “That would be an omen,” I said.

I could have asked for his boss. Iinstead, I will quietly walk away and take my business elsewhere.

Let my story be your lesson. There is no account “too small” that might not one day grow into a big account. And corporate bean counters who measure accounts only by their profitability are doomed to long-term failure.

In the short term, I am sure they’re building “shareholder value.” In the long term, they’re destroying loyalty, good will and word-of-mouth advertising.

In these times my best advice to you is guard every one of your customers with your life for these reasons:

1. They may grow into big customers one day.

2. They may refer big customers any day.

2.5. If you fire them, the ripple effect will be much more costly than the few cents you lose by keeping them.

BEST INSULT: I finally got the broker guy who wrote me the letter to admit that he was firing me as a customer and that the bank had made a management decision to get rid of all dinky accounts. He sealed his fate in my mind forever by adding, “I can’t apologize for a policy I didn’t make.” If you’re looking for a sentence that defines corporate idiocy, that one would make the dictionary.

I wonder how these managers go home at night and tell themselves they’re doing the best they can for their customers. I’m certain it’s somewhere in their mission statement. They must have not read that part.

Our policy? We treat all of our customers the same: like gold.  Free GitBit. Wanna know what bank it was? Sure you do. I’ll tell you who it was, and what they could have done instead of firing me. Go to www.gitomer.com and enter BANK in the GitBit box.

President of Charlotte, N.C.-based Buy Gitomer, Jeffrey Gitomer gives seminars, runs annual sales meetings, and conducts Internet training programs on selling and customer service. He can be reached at (704) 333-1112 or by e-mail at salesman@gitomer.com.