Great 'Work in a bank? What should we know' Hunt

rbs01

This is not entirely true. Yes the Customer adviser is there to conducta csr but no he does not get commission for it. CSR is about giving the customer betterservice and rbs is number 1 for service in the uk

convenience101 wrote: »

IF YOU ARE AN RBS CUSTOMER, PLEASE READ THIS!

Some of you will be more surprised than others to read this! When your branch cold calls you and 'invites' you in for a "Customer Service Review", beware! This is not intended in any way to benefit you, but rather the bank, who will attempt to sell you RBS products. Let me talk you through the process.

1) The person who has called you has selected your name from a HUGE printout of branch customers, and has quickly checked from your account transactions and balances that you could be sold a loan, mortgage, credit card, etc. When they speak to you on the phone the will suggest that the CSR would be beneficial to you by saving you money. Sounds tempting, doesn't it? An appointment is arranged for you with one of our Customer Advisors.

2) Before you arrive for your appointment, the CA trawls your accounts for the past year. We can see details of all your switch transactions (eg how much you spent in Ann Summers last month...) and direct debits, salaries paid etc. It is very easy to tell if you have loans, mortgages, credit cards elsewhere. The CA will then work out what they will try to sell you.

3) At your CSR appointment you will be asked to give details of all your outgoings and debts owed, including other loans and store cards, just to firm up the info the bank has on you. They will then try an tempt you into buying RBS products. The CAs earn commission on what they sell to you and are targeted using a points system. At the top of the points tree are mortgages and loans. At the very bottom are instant access savings account. Guess what you'll be pressurised to buy?

Bearing in mind that, with the occassional exception of mortgages, just about all financial products are better sourced away from your high street, there is no need for you to enter the CSR process. You can ensure this by writing to your branch and insisting that you are taken off the email/mail and telephone contact lists.

This approach has made RBS a lot of money, so much so that HBoS started doing something similar not so long ago. I would ask you not to take out your rigtheous indignation on bank staff. The CAs need the commission as, like all branch employees, they get paid a pittance. Most of the money made seems to go towards the astronomical salaries of Sir Fred Goodwin and the Bank's numerous directors.

squashy

I am an ex-Nationwide employee.

A few points:

My salary was £8.5k per year, this was for full time plus one hour extra in the morning. I also had extra responsibilities as the chief cashier (bankage officer) and keyholder but did not get extra pay for this. Also if one of the tills or the whole branch did not balance I would have to resolve this and got no extra pay for staying after 5pm. In fact the earliest I ever got away was 5:15 as the last till was not shut down until 5 on the dot at least. This was 7 years ago so it may have changed, but I still think the pay was pretty poor considering the level of responsibility the cashiers have.

Cashiers had referral targets. You had to convince a set number of people, eg 6 per day, to sit down with a "complex" advisor and get some more info about either insurance, loans, financial advice etc. It did not matter if they eventually went on to purchase any of these services, but the complex advisors were targeted on conversions. So for any one "sale" there could be three staff getting a tick off their target, ie a cashier, a complex advisor (who makes a mortgage appointment), then the mortgage advisor. Personally, I felt the targets got more and more demanding and were also difficult when your customers were lots of the same little old ladies coming in week upon week. All staff had to have a 6m appraisal which was weighted heavily towards your referral stats. One time, despite performing really well in all the other categories, I came out with an overall mark of "improvement required" because I had failed miserably on my sales targets, meaning I didn't get a pay increase alongside my colleagues. This is one of the reasons I didn't go back after my maternity leave as my heart wasn't in it. It was a shame because I actually really enjoyed the work and was very dedicated to helping customers resolve queries etc.

convenience101

"Yes the Customer adviser is there to conducta csr but no he does not get commission for it. CSR is about giving the customer betterservice and rbs is number 1 for service in the uk"

Oh come on! Have you seen the questionnaires they use to arrive at that conclusion? Questions free from bias they are not! Following the same format I would like to announce to everybody that I am the best human being in the UK! It's about as valid a statement.

In any case, RBS's rankings stem purely from the fact that they allow customers to contact their branches directly, instead of automatically routing all calls to an Indian callcentre.

It does not mean that the CSR is there to give the customer a better service. If he walks away happier that is entirely incidental. Sure, feel free to believe the CA induction bull about sales AND service being one and the same thing, but please know that you are not just insulting our collective intelligences, but your own too.

If RBS really wanted to provide a customer service they would, as a matter of course, employ independent financial advisors who could offer products from outside of the RBS group, ie semi-competitive ones.

robhart84

convenience101 wrote: »

As 'Underground' posted, bank credit databases are common practice. In RBS's Back Office system, which ALL staff have access to, it is option 99, 6 on the menu. This tells employees what, based on past account behaviour, the customer is likely to be instantly approved for. As I recall, this gives a loan figure, an overdraft figure, the type of card available (eg a gold £250 cheque gaurantee card as opposed tothe normal silver £100 one), and also the bank's risk grading of the customer. Under the Data Protection Act you can request to see this information. After all, it is better to be aware that you can have a £10,000 overdraft for 6 months than a £10,000 loan over several years with all the associated fees.

What do you actually ask for?? i wouldnt mind seeing what i can get ie a loan or overdraft. what would i need to request if you know what i mean.

many thanks

sasparillo

StudentSaver wrote: »

I work for a well-known credit card and store card provider ...

Refunds are, however, at my discretion. Therefore, if you are very rude, shout down the phone or try to insult me or the company, I tend to refuse to give a refund.

Which is the Department of Trade and Industry/Financial Services Authority/Banking regulation which says you have this "discretion" please? Please substantiate this citing the regulation and number. Thanks!

convenience101

ROBHART84:

RBS uses 2 platforms. The back office is DOS-based and is where all your juicy details are stored. From here you can see all D/Ds, S/Os, average account balance, all cheques in your account. 99 introduces a specific menu subset. 99,01 contains your personal details, last recorded job title, marketing preferences. 99,06 is the bank's own credit assessment of you.

The other platform is the cashier system, written for Windows I think, and contains nothing hat would normally be concealed from you. If you have a CSR this is the platform used.

As far as I know the branch also keeps a paper file of every customer, known as the mandates file. You may ask for a copy of this in a data protection request. If you have ever had a loan declined by the central lending unit, or granted with conditions, there is usually paperwork attached too.

Noting from the thread, lola_26 is a current Natwest employee and could give you better detail: I'm old and befuddled and my recollection not quite as impressive as it once was!

rubiales

gayle wrote: »

HI, if youre reclaiming bank charges from barclays, there only repaying half of it. barclays employee told me.:mad:

Can happily report (from personal experience) that by following Martin's templates and advice, including CAG website, that Barclays DO pay up in full!

They might offer you half to start with but stick to your guns and you WILL get it all back!! :beer:

Gareth56

jw1096 wrote: »

I work for Nationwide Building Society, and in all honesty I enjoy my job.
With regards to charges, Nationwide is taking a strong no refunds policy and to go through the process as described on here for instance will lead to your account being closed. Nationwide prides itself on its customer relationships and this is seen as an irreparable breakdown of this relationship (or so I read in a Newspaper).

Aside from that - any questions just holler!

Jo x

As a Nationwide customer I find the Nationwide just as worse as the other high street banks in terms of it being greedy and ripping off its customers with over inflated charges, threatening to close members accounts if they kick up a fuss and poor CS.

With regard to CS I have yet to receive a satisfactory explanation from the Nationwide as to why a very busy branch had its number of cashier positions reduced from 3 to 2 thus making customers queue for longer during busier times (not that the three positions were hardly used, staff were too busy in the back office chatting!) It's as if these money grabbers don't want you cluttering up their branches. And before any Nationwide employee attempts to defend the Nationwide please don't bother as I've heard most of the excuses from the "Nationwide Book of Excuses to give to Customers"

Aplogies for the rant but banks get my BP up, they think that they are there to do you a favour :mad:
G56

webwiz

Dear Jo at Nationwide

Firstly congratulations on losing 20 lbs in 5 months. You must have more self control than I have.

But what is your job at Nationwide - public relations? The society that you describe does not sound like the one that I sued. My complaint to the branch in person was shrugged off, my letter to the branch manager went unanswered as did my letter to HO threatening legal action, leaving me little choice but to go to court. The case was not defended so I applied for judgement and at last they woke up and closed my account.

Michael

Mozette

I've been with Nationwide for 20 years, and have no complaints whatever, and in fact nothing but praise for the service I've received from them.
Soooo much better than the old student days of Nat West - rather have a shoebox under my bed anyday, they were rubbish.