Well-respected consumer advocacy group Which? recently published its findings from a recent survey that ranked many of the country’s best business bank accounts, finding that Bank of Scotland, Halifax, and Santander are at the bottom of a very large heap.
In the savings account category, Spain-based bank Santander scored the least well, garnering a rating of 39 per cent from survey respondents in regards to customer satisfaction.
The survey commented on the findings, saying that while in its native Spain the bank may earn high marks for its service, here in the UK it’s a different story altogether with Santander, which continues to be considered one of the poorest brands in all of the customer advocate’s customer satisfaction surveys.’
The bank scored less than 50 per cent customer satisfaction on current accounts and mortgages, clocking in at 47 and 48 per cent respectively, but fared 10 percentage points better in the credit card category, which was ranked at 57 per cent satisfaction.
These new results follow hot on the heels of several industry expert reports detailing how Santander’s shoddy service, poor performance, and myriad mistakes have resulted in a veritable tsunami of complaints inundating the Spanish bank’s UK division.
One such example of poor service is the revelation that Santander’s acquisition of Alliance & Leicester has resulted in customers of those banks being locked out of their savings accounts due to a particularly nasty computer glitch.
Both Bank of Scotland and Halifax, both Lloyds Banking Group members, scored just above Santander with a 42 per cent customer satisfaction rate for their savings accounts.
Which? reported that, overall, satisfactory services seems to be trending downward across the banking industry, which is a reflection of the mounting frustration customers have been expressing towards their banks.
Chief executive for the consumer champion, Peter Vicary-Smith, expressed his total lack of surprise in regards to the poor customer service performance of High Street banks, urging customers who have been soured by poor service experiences to “vote with their feet” and find a new banking provider.