Why do natwest employees ask so many questions when opening a simple product??

jimmyrustler_2

Whenever i want to open something with natwest, whether it be another current account or a savings account or a credit card, the 'advisors' on the other end of the phone keeps probing me with questions - sometimes not even related to the products itself. For example, recently i tried to open an instant savings account with natwest. The advisor wanted to check and see if my details on the system was up to date. He then went on and asked me if i've got a phone and what insurance i have, what breakdown cover i have, if i like to go out to eat, if i've got any holidays booked, what debts or credit cards i have etc. All for a simple savings account. He then told me about an upgrade i'm eligible for and went straight into the information - not giving me a chance to interrupt him and tell him i'm not interested.

This often happens when i get passed through to the 'helpful banking' team. I thought natwest were trying to improve customer service, not the amount of products they can open. When i opened a savings account with barclays recently it was very straight forward and simple. No mess, no fuss, no additional questions or even attempts into opening other products. Guess i'll stick with barclays for my banking needs now.

innovate

They are paid to sell you as much as they can.

You could always apply online. That would also give you the opportunity to compare offerings - - neither Barclays nor Natwest usually have any top offerings.

MoneySaverLog

They all do it.

Insurance seems to be the flavor of the month with Nationwide at the moment when you go in branch they ask about this and who it's with cause they may be able to beat it.

Just explain to them you are not interested.

kloana

jimmyrustler wrote: »

Guess i'll stick with barclays for my banking needs now.

You just got lucky with Barclays on this occasion. They do it too, as does pretty much every high street bank.

If you object to it, have Natwest (and any other bank) mark your account with 'Do not undertake sales activity' (these are Barclays in-house words, but Natwest's wording is likely to be much the same), to give the adviser the heads-up.

It is in their job description to attempt to sell to you.

katejo

kloana wrote: »

You just got lucky with Barclays on this occasion. They do it too, as does pretty much every high street bank.

If you object to it, have Natwest (and any other bank) mark your account with 'Do not undertake sales activity' (these are Barclays in-house words, but Natwest's wording is likely to be much the same), to give the adviser the heads-up.

It is in their job description to attempt to sell to you.

This is one problem which I have never really had with FD. There is an occasional offer of a product but no hard sell.

kloana

katejo wrote: »

This is one problem which I have never really had with FD. There is an occasional offer of a product but no hard sell.

I'm with sister (parent?) bank HSBC. I pretty much have everything with them (apart from naff premium current accounts) through choice, but have never felt any real pressure from them (apart from the odd cold call regarding naff current accounts!).

I used to work for Barclays, though. The worst part being that we were paid to 'cold' call customers with the sales pitch. Oh, how we envied those on the inbound team whose job was to sell to 'warmer' customers who had willingly placed a call to the bank!

Horrible job and hugely stressful, so I always feel for anyone in financial services who approaches me with sales pitches.

innovate

katejo wrote: »

This is one problem which I have never really had with FD. There is an occasional offer of a product but no hard sell.

LOL, there's a good reason for that - FD have a tiny portfolio compared with most other banks, so there isn't much to sell.

When it comes to savings, the only thing worth mentioning is their Reg Saver. But I doubt any of them would get any incentive for "selling" it, so therefore they don't.

jimmyrustler_2

Is there a bank or even a building society that doesn't employ a hard sell tactic? So far barclays have shown to be one. The only thing i get from them is mailing for some credit cards. But apart from that, nothing.

kloana

jimmyrustler wrote: »

Is there a bank or even a building society that doesn't employ a hard sell tactic? So far barclays have shown to be one. The only thing i get from them is mailing for some credit cards. But apart from that, nothing.

It's annoying, but is it really a huge problem? Just have them mark your account accordingly.

Unless you have a bag of products with a bank, you make them little or no money as one lone individual. Therefore, a lot of their profits are derived from having customers buy into the real money-spinning products - insurances, fee-paying accounts, etc.

If they didn't do this, 'free' banking would be unlikely to exist. There's a debate as to whether or not banking should be free anyway, on the grounds that charging a fee for banking services would eliminate unnecessary selling. But I'd rather things stayed the same for now - and as stated above, you can opt out of being sold to.

Lagoon

I think banks are one of the only places I don't mind the 'hard sell'! I seem to be constantly called in to meetings at Natwest to review my finances, and they do ask a lot of questions but my answers allow them to present products that I might be interested in. I don't mind at all.

I always take in a detailed copy of my budget, and it's a chance for ME to review my finances as well as them. I'd guess these meetings are every six months though they seem more regular. At the end of most, I simply thank them for their interest and go away without buying into anything. Last time, my meeting was an opportunity for me to close a few accounts I wasn't using and to open a new savings account with a slightly better interest rate whilst saving for my wedding. Whilst I was in the meeting I also discovered that, for the first time, a fee-paying account would benefit me financially, so I took that out.

Mostly, these meetings seem like a drain on time and the intrusive questions might be frustrating, but nobody's forcing me to take out a new product and it's nice to see what's available.

meer53

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2013/feb/20/hsbc-removes-sales-targets-staff-incentives