Don’t bank on them
If banks want customers to retain any sense of loyalty in the future, they need to start wooing us now, rather than blindly reeling off the same old inflexible script.
Print13 April 2010
After the full horror of the banks debacle was unveiled, the biggest surprise was that people actually bothered to go to work the next day. Faced with the prospect of paying off unfathomable sums of money for generations to come, while those who caused the mess skulked off to Spain and the US to avoid the press, we should have all just said, sod it, and stayed in bed. But soldier on we did and no doubt we will relish telling the next generation all about that Tuesday. Dan White recounts all the gory details of our inherited debts and what we can expect in the aftermath of the banking crisis on page 14 but be warned, it doesn’t make for easy reading. The cleanout of the banks was a necessary evil. NAMA has become the most despicable word you can utter, but something had to be done. To contemplate rebuilding our economy we need a stable banking system in place. As part of the banking recapitalisation plan announced on 30 March specific provisions were included, aimed at supporting enterprise and releasing credit for small to medium-sized businesses. The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation, Batt O’Keeffe released a statement promising that the banking sector will be required to lend to the SME sector as part of the recapitalisation plan. “Under the terms of today’s recapitalisation plan, Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Banks will be required to make available more than €3 billion in new SME lending to include working capital this year and next year.” The banks will of course be super cautious about who they lend to but at least it means that some money will be circulating in the economy for new businesses to evolve.
At present retailers (like everyone else) are feeling pretty disgruntled by the treatment they are receiving at the hands of their banks. The level of personal service that customers once enjoyed in their local branch has been seriously curtailed. Branch managers are said to be simply reading from a script, as they hold little to no autonomy anymore and this is making dealings with them a very frustrating experience. Our feature on page 16 details the experiences five retailers have had with their banks of late. One retailer describes how he arranged a meeting with his bank to discuss reducing his bank charges. His requests were point blankly refused and he was told in so many words that if he didn’t like it he could take his 40 years of loyalty and bank somewhere else.
The banks will need to engage in a huge amount of PR work to regain the trust and respect of customers. The problem is that the foundation and ethos that the whole banking system was built on, has been destroyed and customers can see just how fickle it all is. So when things improve customers won’t feel any loyalty to their banks. The banks should concentrate on wooing the next generation of customers and write this generation off as another bad debt.
Fionnuala Carolan
Editor
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