Change is what the banks need

As Stuart Smith says in his leader (MW September 30), financial services providers will be in for a nasty shock when the supermarkets stop playing with their food.

The main obstacle banks have to overcome is making the cynical trust again. Over-promising and under-delivering are continual problems in financial services. More and more fantastic claims are followed by a disappointing and occasionally disreputable experience.

If you want to build trust, the structures have to be in place to achieve it – that means good quality products and services replacing the need to bribe customers.

And don’t be fooled that this can be achieved through a customer relationship management system initiative. What’s needed is a strategic approach that changes the culture of the business in relation to its customers.

The supermarkets have done their homework and have written the book on understanding their customers. So traditional financial services providers that want to continue succeeding when supermarkets get serious about finance had better raise their game.

Neil Fox

Director of Planning

TDA

Cheltenham

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