For me banking right now is all about the bank rather than the customer. While new startup banks are trying to overcome the problems that everyday people face. The remit of the problems they solve is that it is very narrow in what problems they trying to solve.
There is 1000’s of financial scenarios which are played out in everyday life. That is why i like the fact Tandem is crowdsourcing these problems.
Drawing from my own personal experience with call center work, i find that problems that are solved in a logical manner using predefined software. However some of the problems in a scenario are not defined in that software or in call centre training that customers get passed about.
One such personal example i had was a 80 year old widow with debt being chased on a prepaid meter in her husband’s name. The problem as it turned out was there was no department for writing off debts for pre-paid meters. so the debt technically stood stands today, i feel sorry for this woman.
What i am really looking for in a bank, is not just the responsibility and customer care. For me, it is hoping a bank will have the wisdom before launching any product that they do the 1000’s of financial scenarios played out in theory, to get the best customer service. Aside from that new scenarios should be really easy to flag up and solve and have a team to do it in minutes and not days. Because a customer will not wait for anyone. It looks like bad customer service. I hope @tom (who i don’t know if he has worked in a call centre before) will have these scenarios tested just like User testing or UX design before launching the current account.
My current situation right now is no English bank will touch me because the banks tend to use one credit reference agency. Plus it’s not exactly like i can discuss a problem with these banks because ‘computer says no’ is their basis to cast me aside. I’m currently banking with one of the last few banks in the UK that gives me my own dedicated account advisor for free (they know me by name rather from a computer screen). They have helped with suspending overdraft charges and interest while i transition jobs. The worse financial time i have had recently was when i left university last year and then had to find a £880 deposit including fees for the house i am living in today. No bank helped me and in the end i had to lend it off the recruiter who recruited me for my new job.
What followed was abuse over the phone from this recruiter even though i paid him on time.
My point to @tom is even though :mondo: is meant to be 100% digital. Technology does not solve the trust deficit from a bank’s point of view with credit or a customer’s trust in a bank. The scenario theory i mentioned before helps 70% of the way in customer service, from a customer’s point of view. But what about the bank? Will i have a dedicated AI chat bot to help solve my financial problems? Will it be someone who will be human which is a bit more sympathetic to help solve problems? For example like finding a rental deposit? Will this human know me by name and that my brother just finished university (could be used as a soft sell btw).
I would hope @tom also knows that the government only has only enough cash to cover 4% of all Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) deposits as of this past year. I’m hoping that :mondo: as a fraction bank will not lend more than 2-3 times of its deposits because of the FSCS situation.
I also believe it would be good if Head of finance did not come from the Financial industry but more of a large UK owned company financial head. The bad culture is there in finance that is why i see it would be better to be an outsider. They also tend to be more innovative, which is a major advantage for :mondo:.
Please do share your thoughts and what banking means to you.
Thanks
Jamie