Bank customer service
Banks are notoriously bad at customer service. They know they have customer lock. People are less likely to change banks than get divorced according to the oft-cited dictum. [I do not know the original source and can't vouch for the data.]
But today I am having one of those “bank customer service days”. I am a customer of National Australia Bank private bank. Private bank is an area walled off for the "important" customers.
I need something very simple. I need a set of interest statements for my own account and the family trust for the 2006-07 tax year – and I need them in a simple form.
Surprisingly the bank cannot deliver.
This seems odd.
Moreover I am starting a hedge fund. I need to choose banking arrangements – and failure to deliver simple things to a private banking customer would rather mitigate against choosing National Australia as a service provider of any kind to a hedge fund.
So the lack of customer service is a mechanism for shooting yourself in the foot. [Banks have plenty of ways of doing that.]
For the past year all people have talked about is bank balance sheets. When insolvency beckons customer service comes second.
But if anyone notices their bank is improving their customer service let me know. Its always interesting to find a bank which retains its customers by making their life better rather than by offering looser credit terms or higher term deposit rates. Besides such banks are likely to work better for shareholders as well as customers.
John Hempton