Banks with cashiers, not sales staff

gerry_mc

I have worked in banks and the job is not a service job. Its sales sales sales. Customers still come in and ask for help, which they should reasonably expect a member of bank staff to help them with. Its not in interest of the bank employee to help them for a long period of time as they are then missing out on their targets. Its not fair on anyone!

If anyone came in and I had to pay a cheque intop their account it was my job to first check their dd's and see who they were paying out to and ask questions based on that. I would then have to try and sell them a savings account if the money was a semi large amount or if they were holding the money for any length of time.

I hate going into banks now as i know the crap they are going to be doing and saying and i have to try and politely decline and get out as fast as possible.

ses6jwg

the worst thing is the way they try and couch sales in service terms.

"we need to be talking about these products to every customer so they are getting the best service possible"

being told to sell a £12 per month account with travel insurance and breakdown cover to a pensioner who doesnt drive or travel doesnt sound much like service to me.

chambta

ses6jwg wrote: »

the worst thing is the way they try and couch sales in service terms.

"we need to be talking about these products to every customer so they are getting the best service possible"

being told to sell a £12 per month account with travel insurance and breakdown cover to a pensioner who doesnt drive or travel doesnt sound much like service to me.

That wouldn't be good service, obviously.

If done the right way there are mutual benefits. I've done the job for seven years and never 'sold' anything. The skill is allowing people to decide with all the information.

MoneySavingUser

lippy1923 wrote: »

Telephone/internet banking, self services machines, in and outside branches.

Halifax usually ask if you want to upgrade your account on the telephone & Internet banking invariably has some offer before you get to see your accounts

Some people have mentioned HSBC - interestingly in my experience Banks which use paying in books such as Barclays/HSBC rather than bringing up your details there and then on the computer do seem to be better at doing the banking you need to do than trying to sell you stuff

rb10

MoneySavingUser wrote: »

Halifax usually ask if you want to upgrade your account on the telephone & Internet banking invariably has some offer before you get to see your accounts

Then simply ask them not to, and they will stop.

I never have any adverts or offers on internet or telephone banking, just because I asked them not to do that!

smartiedriver_2

marywooyeah wrote: »

yeah I hate this too! once I went in to put some cash in my ISA, and the assistant said "I see you have a DD to D&G, is that for life insurance?". Without thinking I said "no its an extended warranty", then realised and said "I asked you to pay that into my ISA, the DD is on my current account, the only way you could have seen that is if you deliberately went through my list of DD's instead of accessing my ISA".
He looked a bit shocked, then sheepish, then without saying anything hurriedly paid my money in and gave me my reciept, again without saying anything. I was so annoyed that he did that - I didnt ask or authorise him to and it was clearly just to sell me life insurance. I stick to online banking or the drop in machines now.

You should complain about this - using DDs as a markting tool is strictly forbidden in financial services.

opinions4u

smartiedriver wrote: »

You should complain about this - using DDs as a markting tool is strictly forbidden in financial services.

Can you provide a link to confirm this?

pmduk

chambta wrote: »

I've done the job for seven years and never 'sold' anything. The skill is allowing people to decide with all the information.

The problems arises as far as I'm concerned when I explain I've considered a product and decided it's not for me. If they begin to explain all the benefits and I have to go through my reasons why it isn't suitable for me, I consider that to be unacceptable and difficult to avoid without being rude. Once you've said thank you but I'm not interested and they answer why, they've over-stepped the mark imho.

EarthBoy

If you are a Lloyds TSB, Halifax, or Bank of Scotland customer, then you should expect the "hard sell" to get worse/even harder. The new boss of Lloyds Banking Group wants to sell you even more products.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/saving/article-2010347/Lloyds-bombard-17m-customers-enticing-deals-relaunch-Halifax-best-buys.html

ChiefGrasscutter

EarthBoy wrote: »

If you are a Lloyds TSB, Halifax, or Bank of Scotland customer, then you should expect the "hard sell" to get worse/even harder. The new boss of Lloyds Banking Group wants to sell you even more products.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/saving/article-2010347/Lloyds-bombard-17m-customers-enticing-deals-relaunch-Halifax-best-buys.html

Thanks for the warning!
We had a similar discussion about marketing calls on MSE some 6 months to a year ago or so, and at the time someone said that opting out of marketing calls sometimes does not stop them all as now some calls are referred to as "Service Calls" - which obviously allows banks to get round the opt out.

I haven't yet decided whether Mr O's move from Santander to lloyds was..
a) a case of the rats jumping from the sinking ship
or alternatively
b) instead going to make Lloyds as bad as Santander