Mark Bradley: Banks have cashed in on the apathy of Britons, but soon it

JACK Palance cut a particularly frightening figure. The hired gun in Shane, he would engage in routines such as telling an innocent young cow herder to pick up a gun – and then cruelly shooting him, excusing himself with the cold-hearted defence of "Didn't you see? He had a gun?"

My movie recollections may be dimming, but those rugged facial features, the uncompromising style and that heartless approach to humanity would have guaranteed him an alternative career post-retirement with the British banking industry.

Any young upstart in the Press ranks who asked too many pointed questions about bankers' bonuses and overdraft charges would be immediately cut down in a hail of bullets, while bloggers would be disturbed at their laptops by the appearance of a unfriendly man at the door, repeating the phrase "pick up the gun" ominously.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Well maybe I'm going a little too far but it's fair to say that our banks do seem to find it difficult to generate customer goodwill at a time when the context demands a lot more. The likes of Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds have been re-financed from the public purse, strengthening their balance sheets, there is money to be lent to small businesses (or so we're told) and Virgin and Tesco are about to provide some much needed high street competition, joining the newly created Metro Bank which plans to establish 200 branches in Greater London alone within the next decade – offering extended opening hours and seven-day-a-week counter service.

After all, the recession has forced other businesses to get closer to their customers. Fewer people are buying, so we all have to work harder to win the customer. And having said that, there is undeniable progress. Even technology stores have genuinely begun to factor the quality of the customer experience into their proposition. We shorten the names of companies to demonstrate our affection for them (with Prt a Manger becoming simply Prt).

Elsewhere, the trend is upward too. We may yearn for the re-nationalisation of our railways and a more coherent network, but ticket booking has never been easier, there are some great deals for family travel and customer service is taken far more seriously than before. If you ask the Institute of Customer Service, they'll tell you that the UK Customer Satisfaction Index is moving upwards steadily.

But in the established banking industry, real service innovation appears to be confined to those niche operators like First Direct or true mutual organisations like the Co-operative Banking Group, where you get some sense that you matter as a customer. Lloyds, on the other hand, might have been wondering how to deflect the flak over its decision to dispense with the services of thousands of staff. But all that has happened is a refit at several branches close to me. And you know how important those refits are to customers? Yeah, right.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Banking may have had an easy ride prior to the present difficulties, but the emperor's new clothes have been exposed for what they are and banks need to become more customer-focused.

Some banks even hide the good things they do, as if embarrassed by their customer-driven epiphany. NatWest, for example, has been doing some good things, like improving the way they manage queues, being pro-active on personal consumer security and making renewing your mortgage more straightforward than before.

And yet, according to their TV adverts, they appear famous for having a nice little mobile branch in the West Country and staff who look nervous when being filmed. Perhaps they'd be better off focusing on their strengths, especially when they look up and see what's just around the corner.

A closer look at plans for the new Metro Bank gives us a clue as to the possible future of banking. There are apparently three million dissatisfied banking customers in the UK, with 24 per cent of the population as a whole claiming to be ready to quit their bank if a more viable alternative came along. Metro Bank would like to be that alternative, by offering a local friendly outlet, open from 7.30am until 8pm (and from 10am until 4pm on Sundays).

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The newly renamed Tesco Bank has already started work on attracting these disenchanted UK consumers, with hundreds of thousands of customers recently opening accounts at a provider which could potentially service one's needs through any one of its ubiquitous supermarkets.

And with the potential for Richard Branson's Virgin Money creating a high street bank network, it's possible that the great leap forward last achieved through First Direct's 24/7 personal telephone banking service could be emulated on the high street soon.

The biggest banks have traded for years on our apathy, knowing that the continuous dissatisfaction will never quite translate into a decisive action from the consumer, but post-recession, the context has shifted dramatically and, having rescued the banks, we now expect more from them.

It's time for UK banks to meet the challenge laid down by new entrants to the market and to pro-actively invest in improving our customer experiences. The market for apathy is over and a new market for customers might be the move that secures the UK banking industry's future.

Mark Bradley, from Bradford, is author of Retails of the Unexpected. He is a customer services consultant.

Related topics: