Desperately seeking bank with good customer service

Coolgirl

I can understand that companies want to save money, but after a terrible week of spending hours ‘communicating’ with customer support staff working for three different financial institutions, I’ve had enough. Quite frankly, I can’t wait for AI to take over, as it will probably be better than the service we have now.

Is the bank I’m looking for really a unicorn?!? This is what I’m looking for:

– Helpline where no multi-layer questions are asked by a glorified answering machine just to put me through to a customer services rep.

– No customer service centre in India. Not sure what’s going on, but over the years, the command of English by call centre or chat support staff has declined, which leads to a lot of wasted time because they don’t really provide support.

– Customer service reps who actually know what banks do or should be doing. Once upon a time, you could go to a branch and they could sort your problems. And in the early days of phone banking, that was ok, too. Now, they ask you stupid questions that don’t make sense, and it feels like I have to school the staff in what they should do.

The bank above may well be non-existent in this day and age. But please prove me wrong…

Rob5342

Have you tried Starling? They seem to rate highly in customer service ratings.The good thing about them is that they don't waste money on branches and put effort into being to do everything with the app instead.

theoretica

Do you qualify for something like this? https://uk.virginmoney.com/private/

boingy

First Direct is probably the closest you can get. Obviously you do have to answer security questions when you phone them but the person who answers the phone is usually efficient and knowledgeable.

Coolgirl

@theoretica - Oh… haven’t heard of that one. Let me check!

gsmh

Rob5342 said:

Have you tried Starling? They seem to rate highly in customer service ratings.The good thing about them is that they don't waste money on branches and put effort into being to do everything with the app instead.

I can confirm Starling is good for customer service. I've needed to contact them a few times and you can speak to someone over the phone quite easily and their online messaging system works well.

DullGreyGuy

Coolgirl said:

– Helpline where no multi-layer questions are asked by a glorified answering machine just to put me through to a customer services rep.

– No customer service centre in India. Not sure what’s going on, but over the years, the command of English by call centre or chat support staff has declined, which leads to a lot of wasted time because they don’t really provide support.

– Customer service reps who actually know what banks do or should be doing. Once upon a time, you could go to a branch and they could sort your problems. And in the early days of phone banking, that was ok, too. Now, they ask you stupid questions that don’t make sense, and it feels like I have to school the staff in what they should do.

The bank above may well be non-existent in this day and age. But please prove me wrong…

How often are you actually needing to customer service? It can be years between contacts for me and so other factors are much more important.

Having had the misfortune of trying to bank with First Direct I would also very much go against wanting to avoid call steering... each time I called I had to queue to speak to a customer service agent who I knew would then have to put me in another queue for a different department because of their 1 telephone number/ no call steering statement. Cant see how an extra 30 minute wait is preferable to just selecting a couple of options and avoiding the queue for the wrong department.

Had fine service from Starling and Barclays Premier but its very rarely tested. NW was ok but a very long queue last time I tried to call

Rudyson

DullGreyGuy said:

Coolgirl said:

– Helpline where no multi-layer questions are asked by a glorified answering machine just to put me through to a customer services rep.

– No customer service centre in India. Not sure what’s going on, but over the years, the command of English by call centre or chat support staff has declined, which leads to a lot of wasted time because they don’t really provide support.

– Customer service reps who actually know what banks do or should be doing. Once upon a time, you could go to a branch and they could sort your problems. And in the early days of phone banking, that was ok, too. Now, they ask you stupid questions that don’t make sense, and it feels like I have to school the staff in what they should do.

The bank above may well be non-existent in this day and age. But please prove me wrong…

How often are you actually needing to customer service? It can be years between contacts for me and so other factors are much more important.

Having had the misfortune of trying to bank with First Direct I would also very much go against wanting to avoid call steering... each time I called I had to queue to speak to a customer service agent who I knew would then have to put me in another queue for a different department because of their 1 telephone number/ no call steering statement. Cant see how an extra 30 minute wait is preferable to just selecting a couple of options and avoiding the queue for the wrong department.

Had fine service from Starling and Barclays Premier but its very rarely tested. NW was ok but a very long queue last time I tried to call

It sounds as if you were unlucky with First Direct, that certainly hasn't been my experience. They've always answered the phone quickly and I've never had to be transfered.

You're right about possibly not needing to contact customer sevices from one year to the next, but there are so many threads on here about hideously long waits when something serious happens, it's good to have a reliable contact just in case

km1500

Do you mean an bank with good customer service or do you mean good and free customer service?

Futuristic

Chase.

Although i'm not sure what problems you are facing the times I've need to contact a bank (have an acc at pretty much every one) I've rarely had issues bar Santander. 

Nearly all the banks incl all the high street ones have competent live chat where you can just leave a message and they reply back within 1-2 days. 

MikeJXE

I can't remember last time I needed to speak to a bank, 20 years or moe. A different matter if you're in business, either way if I need customer service often I would choose a bank with a local branch