Which bank has driven you away with its customer service's first impression?

Mark_Michalowski

This week, Santander had the honour of losing my business before it had the chance to gain it....

Following MSE's recommendations, I decided to open my very first ISA with Santander and went into their Leeds, Briggate branch. Three staff were serving behind the counters but there was no sign of anyone else, particularly not on the Welcome Desk. I waited three or four minutes (which doesn't sound long, but feels like a long time to be waiting to be noticed).

Eventually a woman came out of a door and asked me if she could help. I explained I wanted to open an ISA with a single lump sum. She nodded and asked if I had my cheque book with me - but of course I didn't: does anyone still carry a cheque book around with them nowadays? She said I'd have to come back with it because "their chip-and-PIN" system wasn't working. I boggled a little at this: a bank. Without a working chip-and-PIN system?

So I shrugged, went away and came back two days later, cheque book in hand. Two staff behind the counters and - again - no one on the Welcome Desk. I waited again (timing it! A bit petty I guess, but... LOL). Three and a half minutes with no one around, so, having decided that Santander was not going to be the lucky recipient of my cash, I went to have a word with one of the counter staff, just to give them some feedback. As I joined the one-person queue, a woman staff member appeared and I collared her and explained why they'd just lost a customer. She apologised, claiming that they were short-staffed, and that if there was no one on the Welcome Desk that I should try the counter staff. I suggested that putting a notice on the Welcome Desk to that effect might be a good idea but she claimed that "Head Office have said we can't do that..."

So well done Head Office. And well done Santander. Maybe the service would be better at a different branch, but, as they say, you only get to make a first impression once. Adios Santander!

Mxx

MoneySaverLog

A lucky escape by all accounts :-)

daveyjp

I have had poor initial service at Natwest, HSBC, Co-op, Yorkshire and Lloyds and walked as a result.

Mark_Michalowski

Indeed, MoneySaverLog - and way to go, daveyjp! Too many people just shrug and say "Well they're all the same". They're only "all the same" because we let them be

Mxx

PS Love your sig, davey!

Gromitt

I tend not to assume all branches are the same. At the local TSB branch I get poor service and the queue can be out the door and up the street if your waiting for such service. However, travel for 3 miles and I get excellent service and typically there are 2 - 3 people in the queue. Admittingly, the later branch is much bigger in size and has seperate rooms for if you wish to talk to someone in private.

pinkdalek

Have to say I am losing interest in Nat West. My local branch does not seem to do anything to help when your are waiting to be served, yet you quite often see a couple of colleagues at their advice desk.

They never seem to approach people in the queue to see if they can help them elsewhere. Their transactions seem slow at the tills and quite often the deposit option on their machine is not working.

daveyjp

Re Santander and in particular Leeds. As a result of the various takeovers Leeds now has four branches and I noticed recently that Bradford has three on the same street! Far too many.

In Leeds I only go to Kirkgate branch. This is one of the orignal Abbey branches (the other is Park Row) and many staff have been there years.

innovate

Avoid branches as much as you can, do your business online. Saves lots of time and nerves, and you aren't exposed to clueless staff, or to "advisors" trying to sell you stuff you don't want. Literally all the best cash ISA deals are available online, anyway (similar applies to other savings and current accounts, and even some loans/mortgages).

E.g., over the years, I have applied for 11 cash ISAs, all but one of them online. Funding involved sending them a cheque in the early days but has been by bank transfer since at least 2007. One of the few times I did pop into a Branch was to hand-deliver an ISA transfer request form earlier this year. Another time was to get the Nationwide Flexclusive ISA which was the best deal around but bizarrely was Branch only. All the other accounts I have were opened online.

Sometimes it is necessary to speak to someone in a bank - - I generally find the phone best for that since there's invariably a team specialising in the product I have a question about.

ses6jwg

You didn;t really need a cheque book, they could have opened the ISA and you could have gone home/ to your bank and done a faster payment into it that same day.

Regards to manning the welcome desk, most branches these days unfortunately are run on a minimum staffing level. Branches usually don't have the budget to employ a staff member to be on the welcome desk at all times.

Instead of randomly waiting around did you think about approaching the counter with your query?

opinions4u

ses6jwg wrote: »

Instead of randomly waiting around did you think about approaching the counter with your query?

Would Santander have considered putting a sign on the 'welcome desk' saying "please see a cashier if desk is nmanned"?

mumonashoestring

Barclays lost my custom with a stunning combination of useless branch staff, unreliable and complicated online banking, useless phone banking facilities and an apparent inability to figure out that it was unlikely that I would be withdrawing money in London and Sousse on the same day and hey, maybe those were fraudulent transactions... And their fraud investigation department is where hope goes to die.