Millions switched banks in 2007

According to recent report millions have dissatisfied customers have switched from their existing bank to another bank this year, indicating the high dissatisfaction levels with the banking industry.

As a result of being unhappy with the services and the staff members at banks around eight million customers are thought to have changed to another bank this year, reflecting an enormous rise compared to just four years ago. Experts have stated that although dissatisfaction levels are high in other industry sectors, such as the mobile phones industry, the largest proportionate rise in dissatisfaction levels has been within the banking sector.

The report, put together by Coleman Parkes, shows that in 2003 fewer than one in ten consumers switched bank accounts, so the overall figure was around 8%. However, this has more than doubled now, with the number of people switching banks in 2007 equating to 18.3%. The report indicates that unhelpful staff and impersonal service were amongst the major reasons for switching, and many said that they did not feel valued by the bank.

In a breakdown of the report around half of the people that were surveyed stated that they switched because they did not feel as though the bank saw them as a valued customer. Around 40% of those surveyed stated that they were not happy with the bank’s call centre set up. Many others stated that banks were too official and needed to be more personal with customers.

Consumers stated: ‘Banks are still too impersonal when communicating with me – they need to be more informal’.

One official from Coleman Parkes stated: ‘Banks can ill-afford to make mistakes. Poor customer service and a major error by the bank are two of the top three issues that will drive a consumer to change banks, so banks need to focus on a high level of customer service and quality of information management.’

Tom Smith

10th December 2007

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