For Commerce, deciding where to put a branch is just as important as what the building looks like. To this day, Hill's site-development company assists the bank in finding prime locations (and his wife's design company designs the branches -- a lucrative arrangement that has raised some eyebrows). Hill looks for a corner that is busy, but not too busy, with a good residential and commercial mix. Ultimately, Hill, who is also part owner of 45 Burger Kings in the Philadelphia suburbs, makes the call himself, a decision that he insists has more to do with gut feel than with demographic research. Usually, though, it's in the competition's backyard. If a competitor closes, the staff at the nearby Commerce branch is awarded $5,000.

In mid-February, DelRoccilli and Ted Lyons, one of the new branch managers in New York, met to review the marketing leading up to the grand opening of Lyons's branch in April. Another thing that Hill learned from McDonald's is how to create interest prior to opening a new store. For five or six weeks before the branch opening, Lyons's staff will conduct daily "buzz blitzes" in a 10-block radius of the branch, which is located at the corner of 43rd Street and Third Avenue. While Lyons personally visits local businesses, the branch staff will target pedestrians. Wearing Commerce jackets, they'll stand on busy corners handing out Commerce brochures and trinkets, spreading the word about the unusual new bank in the neighborhood -- one that's open seven days a week. "We want our own people doing this," DelRoccilli tells Lyons, "not outside people. It's for the continuity of it. The people you see are the ones you'll be banking with." Later, the two hit the street, identifying the corners near Grand Central Station and 42nd Street as best for blitzing. "This is going to be huge," gushes Lyons, who joined Commerce after leaving Citibank.

For Commerce, a typical suburban branch opening is like a carnival. There's a tent, music, and as many as 3,000 people participating in the family-oriented festivities. "Everything at Commerce is a production," says DiFlorio. To promote the openings of its first two branches in Manhattan, Commerce spent $500,000 per branch -- four to five times what it normally spends. There were direct mailings, ads on subway and phone kiosks, and countless buzz blitzes. The bank even enlisted street vendors, who gave out 10,000 hot dogs wrapped in Commerce napkins.

The two branches that opened in the fall and two more that opened in December are growing deposits at a rate of $5 million a week, which is faster than expected, says DelRoccilli. A good year for a new suburban branch is $15 million. New York is an enormous opportunity, says Hill, an underserved market worth about $500 billion in deposits.

Carole Robbins, a conference planner in Manhattan, was exactly the sort of customer that Commerce was hoping to find. "Why am I switching from the meanies over there?" she says, glancing over at the Citibank across the street from the Commerce branch at 55th Street and Sixth Avenue. It's 8:15 AM, and Robbins has already taken care of her banking for the day. Meanwhile, Citibank hasn't opened yet. "If I treated my customers the way they treated me," she says, "I'd be out of business." Up until last year, Robbins was perfectly happy with her old bank, EAB. But all that changed last year after Citibank purchased it.

She liked the Commerce pitch: a bank that's oriented around service and convenience and that's doing things differently. Robbins also liked the bank's appearance. "Look at this," she says. "It's so third millennium. But it's also this blast from the past: a bank with an old-fashioned approach to service. There's a different attitude here, like we're all in this together. But time will tell. All restaurants are good in the beginning too."

Vernon Hill understands the hazards of growth -- particularly for a company whose growth is built on breakthrough service. Hill has also come to expect some skepticism every time Commerce opens a new branch -- especially in a new city. "It sounds too good to be true," he says. "That's our number-one problem in a new market: trust."

But Hill has no plans to slow down. In fact, he has even bigger plans for his company: to have 375 branches open by 2005. That's 190 banks to build, staff, and mystery-shop. But branch by branch, he's determined to prove that Commerce is different, that it lives up to its word as "America's most convenient bank." "We have to keep delivering what we promise to customers," says Hill. Commerce has to keep on wowing.

Chuck Salter (csalter@fastcompany.com) is a senior writer at Fast Company. Contact Vernon Hill by email (vernonh@yesbank.com), or learn more about Commerce Bank on the Web (www.commerceonline.com).

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