Stop preaching lads and listen to us
In the light of BBC Question Time tonight where the panel was unanimously against the idea of banks charging what they liked and when they liked, I’d like to offer the British Banking Association 5 Tips for increasing public confidence through good PR practice:-
1) Employ or at least promise the development of a fairer system for charging which does not penalise customers for human error. And to acknowledge long standing trustworthy customer relationships when times get hard ( a courtesy not extended to many of us).
2) Publicly announce that banks will work with customer focus groups and take on board their concerns, publishing resulting reports once completed.
3) To temper the “school teacher” approach adopted by CE, Angela Knight and suggest that a media training refresher course would be appropriate
4) Lose the city image adopted by member banks. It’s not impressive and merely enhances the gap in reality between those who grasp and those who don’t have. Free corporate balloons doesn’t mean effective community relations.
5) Simply be aware that they are losing the PR debate and be less stoic in their defence of the indefensible. This constant insistence on “sweeter than thou” knowledge of the economy is outmoded. The customer bailed out Northern Rock and HBOS, not the other way round.
I know I am living in cloud cuckoo land here and it’s a bit like trying to offer PR advice to the Royal Family. Look, I am not “anti bank.” I am impressed with the way that Natwest are developing their corporate identity and this has transcended to the branches with generally courteous staff just like in those ads.
But this still clouds the real issue that if you slip up, you will be punished. £38 for a rejection of a direct debit which was an admininstrative error and a resulting £28 for the charge on top by this same bank was my “free banking” bill this month. If I charged the BBA for this free advice, they’d be horrified and would swear blind they didn’t ask for this consultancy fee. Neither did I, my banking friends. Neither did I. Enjoy your free tips.
#1 by BritishBankers at November 30th, 2009
British Bankers’ Association again. Thanks for these tips. You’ve got something here.
The problem for us is that we’re the British Bankers’ Association, not the Bankers’ Marketing Board (no there isn’t one). Each bank does its own marketing and PR, and each is in fierce competition with all of the others.
Your five tips are certainly valid, and we’d love to take at least some of them on board, but that would assume a hegemony among the banks which doesn’t exist. The media and certain commentators are very happy to denigrate “the banks” as if all of them were equally responsible for the credit crunch – as if all investment banks were the same as all retail banks, as if the problem only originated in the UK and as if there isn’t considerable professional pride in the industry and concern that its reputation has eroded so badly. But there are worlds of difference between some of our members, and within the term “banking” there are many different business models.
#2 by keith at December 1st, 2009
Many thanks for your feedback, Brian. I know you can’t magic hegemony when there isn’t one. But then again the media tends to reflect customer opinion. I agree, “banks” have an image problem, so why don’t they collectively form a Customer Focus Board (Marketing would be a dirty word right now). I know the BBA can’t oversee such a move but are these people who run these institutions so remote from reality? This sweeter than thou image is not one that sits well with the customers. Not all MP’s are the same either.But they have made a collective effort to restore public coincidence. Meanwhile the banks attempt to stay on a moral high ground. A legal ruling is one thing. Common sense is another.