To the best of my knowledge, I’ve been a customer of Barclays Bank for more than 25 years. And when I moved our company back to the UK, I set-up our business bank account with them.
We have many years of history, and for a long time the adage of ‘better the devil you know’ has kept me with them.
Yet the straw that broke my impatient camel’s back was yet another international payment that somehow got lost in the system. That and the fact that it took six days to resolve. Oh and their inability to call me back, stick to their own time frames, send confirmation faxes and stop sending paper confirmations.
So I’ve finally had enough. Even my ‘local business manager’ (located 250 miles from where we’re based) didn’t even try to talk me out of it when I spoke to him yesterday. Even he said he ‘didn’t blame me’ for moving.
Will Barclays shares fall? I suspect not. We’re a very small company, and certainly don’t count for much in their priorities. Their treatment of our company already convinced me of that.
Note: We have never asked to borrow money and have never asked for an overdraft. We have also always been in credit.
Anyway, some interesting facts that I’ve learnt in the course of looking for a new bank:
1 – Some of Barclays’ fees are far higher than their competition. Perhaps they don’t consider them competition.
2 – Some of their competition are already doing some of the things that they claim to be impossible. For example sending an international payment through online banking.
3 – NatWest Bank may well rival Barclays when it comes to poor customer service. The person I spoke to on their enquiry line sounded annoyed at having to answer my questions, and part of the way through my call suddenly put me through to their international payment department to answer one of my questions. Aside from the fact I hadn’t finished my questions, the second person was not only unable to transfer me back, but couldn’t even find the number for me to dial again myself.
Moving bank accounts is a headache. There are standing orders, direct debits, new billing details, new systems to learn and more. Which is precisely why I kept hoping that Barclays would get better.
The moral of this story is simple. If you treat customers badly enough, it doesn’t matter how much inconvenience is involved in moving from one product or service to another.
They’ll see the short-term pain as an investment in their stress-free future.
Never let your customers feel that you no longer care about them.
