How They Do Customer Service in Mexico
A job at work required that one of our artists try as best as possible to duplicate the font on the Mexican 100 peso note. After much searching, we were coming up empty. So I emailed Banco de Mexico and asked them what font they used. In less than 24 hours, this courteous reply was received (in English).
Dear Sir,
Thank you very much for your interest in Banco de Mexico's web site. Regarding your request, we may inform you that the font used on the 100 pesos banknote was designed by our team in 1987 for Mexican banknotes and has been used in our banknotes since then. It was designed, deliberately looking for no resemblance with the commercial fonts available at that time, when Word Processors and personal computers were not as common as today. We do not know if now there is a commercial font similar to it. The new series with new design, which is starting to circulate, has a new font.
Hoping the information to be useful, we remain at your service.
Sincerely yours,
Banco de México
Our artist had already found a font that would work by the time this reply came in, but think about that. From a random query on their "contact us" page, they gathered the information from their art department and have me a courteous, comprehensive answer in very short order. Smart business.
Dear Sir,Thank you very much for your interest in Banco de Mexico's web site. Regarding your request, we may inform you that the font used on the 100 pesos banknote was designed by our team in 1987 for Mexican banknotes and has been used in our banknotes since then. It was designed, deliberately looking for no resemblance with the commercial fonts available at that time, when Word Processors and personal computers were not as common as today. We do not know if now there is a commercial font similar to it. The new series with new design, which is starting to circulate, has a new font.
Hoping the information to be useful, we remain at your service.
Sincerely yours,
Banco de México
Our artist had already found a font that would work by the time this reply came in, but think about that. From a random query on their "contact us" page, they gathered the information from their art department and have me a courteous, comprehensive answer in very short order. Smart business.
Labels: art, banco de mexico, customer service, fonts, web best practices
Sent into orbit at
7:03 PM
4 Comments:
I’m not a cultural historian, so the following comments might be wrong. But I’ve worked on projects involving financial services/credit cards targeting Latinos. The audience is not into banks and credit cards, opting to pay with cash (and they even tend to be close to the stereotype of hiding all their savings in the mattress versus a bank account). Why the distrust for banking services? Because they’re still sore and paranoid over the 1990s banking crash in Mexico. Anyway, this is a winding potential explanation for why the guys you dealt with were so accommodating. They had the time to research your inquiry because they aren’t spending their days busily working as bankers. They don’t have a lot of customers, and as a result, don’t have much else to do. A banker in Mexico is the professional equivalent of the Maytag repairman.
By
Anonymous, at June 19, 2008 at 11:58 PM
I wondered about that, Anon. Thanks for the insight.
By
RFB, at June 20, 2008 at 6:38 AM
You should try the same question about the US dollar with the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Either watch it go into oblivion or have Homeland Security come knocking.
By
Chris Houchens, at June 20, 2008 at 3:10 PM
Or ask Bush, he'll probably insist that it's Times New Georgie.
By
Joker, at June 24, 2008 at 10:23 AM
Post a Comment
<< Home