Monday, 17 September 2012 08:33
High street banks rated below average by Which? members
All major high-street banks have scored below average in the latest Which? customer satisfaction ratings.
Which? consumer group members were questioned on their bank's customer service, how good staff were at resolving problems, how knowledgeable staff were generally and whether they were kept up to date with charges and deals.
Four separate surveys into member's current accounts, savings accounts, credit card and mortgage providers were combined to give an overall score.
At the bottom of the rankings was Santander followed by Halifax and Bank of Scotland. Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds, Barclays, Natwest and HSBC all performed similarly bad and were ranked in the bottom half of the table which was for firms who received less than 62 per cent customer satisfaction.
Collectively, these banks make up more than 80 per cent of the current account market.
Top of the table was First Direct followed by the One Account and Co-operative Bank.
Richard Lloyd, Which? executive director said: "Consumers are being continually let down when it comes to customer service. This is not good enough, we want to see fundamental charges in the culture of banking and a return to banking for customers, not bankers.
"Our survey shows that banks that go the extra mile to keep their customers happy are rated far higher than banks who may offer slightly better products or interest rates. All banks need to start putting customers first."
Which? consumer group members were questioned on their bank's customer service, how good staff were at resolving problems, how knowledgeable staff were generally and whether they were kept up to date with charges and deals.
Four separate surveys into member's current accounts, savings accounts, credit card and mortgage providers were combined to give an overall score.
At the bottom of the rankings was Santander followed by Halifax and Bank of Scotland. Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds, Barclays, Natwest and HSBC all performed similarly bad and were ranked in the bottom half of the table which was for firms who received less than 62 per cent customer satisfaction.
Collectively, these banks make up more than 80 per cent of the current account market.
Top of the table was First Direct followed by the One Account and Co-operative Bank.
Richard Lloyd, Which? executive director said: "Consumers are being continually let down when it comes to customer service. This is not good enough, we want to see fundamental charges in the culture of banking and a return to banking for customers, not bankers.
"Our survey shows that banks that go the extra mile to keep their customers happy are rated far higher than banks who may offer slightly better products or interest rates. All banks need to start putting customers first."
• Want to receive a free weekly summary of the best news stories from our website? Just go to home page and submit your name and email address. If you are already logged in you will need to log out to see the e-newsletter sign up. You can then log in again.
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.