Barclays Bank: I sign up for business banking online
I had made the decision to move my business bank account so I did some research and decided on Barclays Bank. Why? Because:
- They offered “online sign up” and I assumed (based on the copy on the website) that I could set-up / sign up to business bank account without having to go the branch;
- My wife and I have personal bank accounts with Barclays and I assumed this would make sign up easier as Barclays already has our personal details and so can dispense with proof of identity, proof of address checks / hassle;
- Barclays business banking is on par with other banks.
I got all the details ready then spent some 10 minutes completing the application form looking forward to getting my bank account set up there and then.
The reality does not match my expectations: I’m disappointed, unhappy and feel cheated
That is when my first disappointment came – at the end of the application process. Why? In the world of Barclays “online sign up” means that I provide a whole bunch of information about myself, my wife, our business, our personal bank accounts with Barclays and I am told that someone will contact me to arrange for me to complete the sign up process at a Barclays branch. Online sign up actually means offline sign up!
Let’s just stop and consider this. My wife and I have gone through all the verification checks when we set up the personal banking. Barclays sends us your bank statements to our home address. And I can take a picture of the company documents (share certificate, certificate of incorporation, articles) and upload them to the Barclays website. So why are we being asked to go the branch?
Pleasantly surprised at how quickly someone follows up the application and the helpful email
To my surprise, fours hours later, I had a voicemail (from a chap from Barclays to progress my application. He left his name but no phone number so I could not call him back. Yet, he told me he would call me back. The next day I received an email, telling me that someone had called, they missed me and asked me to call them. I did and pretty much straight away I was talking with a ‘helpful’ lady.
The second disappointment is bigger than the first one: why are Barclays wasting my time?
That is when I got my next surprise and disappointment. She started asking me for EXACTLY the same information that I had entered into Barclays website during the sign up process. EXACTLY the same – field by field! So I mentioned that I had already supplied this data. Her response was something like this: “Customer often get it wrong online and so I have to go through all the data field by field to make sure that it is accurate.” My internal response “What!” Twenty minutes later I finished supply the data that I had already supplied. And I asked a couple of extra questions on my company which could easily have been asked online but were not.
The third disappointment confirms that the banks are badly broken if viewed through the Customer Experience lens
At the end of the 20 minute calls (double the time I spent on the online sign up process) the Barclays lady tells me that both my wife and I have to go to the local branch and bring the following documents: proof of identity (passport, driving licence photo card), proof of address (utility bill), certificate of incorporation, memorandum & articles and share certificate.
I ask her why it is necessary for my wife and I provide proof of identity and a utility bill given that we are both Barclays customers and have gone through this process already: “You have been sending us bank statements to our address for over 10 years! You have our address in your systems.” What does the Barclays lady say without hesitation? “Oh, you are dealing with Barclays Business Banking and we are a separate busines!”
I wonder: what are the Customer Experience folks up to?
If I was rating the performance of Barclays Bank from a customer experience I’d say the positives are:
- Online signup process was well signposted and easy to complete;
- The follow up phone call took less than four hours and took me by suprise;
- The systems (online, phone call, email) are clearly joined up because the email was clearly triggered when the Barclays chap phoned me and only got through to my voicemail;
- The lady I spoke to was calm, well spoken, came across as friendly and helpful.
Yet, I am left with the thought that none of this matters. And I am unhappy with Barclays: they show up in my world as the Bank that has deceived me and wasted my time:
Why claim to offer online sign up when it is obvious that the sign up has to be completed in the branch? If the customer does not go to the branch then the bank account is never opened. So clearly it is not an online sign up!
Why waste 20 minutes of my time asking me for the same data that I had already supplied? If customer provide you with rubbish then simply get them to enter their name, email and phone number – then do the job of getting the data on the phone. That way it comes as a delight – a service that you are performing for the customer!
Why make your customers bring in paperwork that you already have? Why not ring the Personal Banking side of Barclays and verify that my wife and I are existing customers?
All of which makes me wonder what the Customer Experience folks at Barclays Bank are up to? If you have the answer then please let me know.
Maz, my pet hate. And then they can’t understand why their operation is so expensive. A case study in how not to run a business.
As my 9 year old says “It does my head in”
James
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Hello James
What can I say? You are going to love my follow up experience – what happened when I went to my local branch. That post will be coming soon so watch out for it.
Maz
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Hi Maz,
Unbelievable! A separate business but it is run out of the same branch? I assume that they operate on similar or the same systems (I would hope they do) and so would imagine that it’s not too difficult to get the systems to talk to each other. Says a lot about their orientation.
Adrian
Ps. I’ve been having problems leaving comments using my @me.com account as it sends me through to a login page and I lose the comment and have to rewrite it. Any clues/help?
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Hello Adrian
First, I thank you for persisting in leaving your comments even though you are having to rewrite them. As to your plea for help, I am looking into it and as yet I have not been able to figure out what is going on: I cannot replicate what you are experiencing. Nonetheless, I will take another look and reach out to WordPress to see if I can get help in addresing this issue.
Barclays, wait till I write about my experience at the local branch. And what I learned about Barclays after some digging. You are going to love that!
Maz
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Hi Maz,
I’m experiencing the same problem with other wordpress.com sites so not sure what is happening.
As for your Barclays sequel….you should write film trailers 🙂 I can’t wait to read it 🙂
Adrian
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great blog post, really dissapointing how these people make millions with such bad customer service. The only thing I can not answer myself notmatter how many times I ponder about it is: Dont they care about Customer Service? Do they make so much money they dont mind losing customers? Don’t they train their staff? I threatened in the past to leave their company and they didnt do anything to stop me. I was also pitched the other day (this is MY money they want to take btw) and when i raised my objections and concerns I got something along these lines “well sir if you dont want to work with us fine”.
Really?!?!!?
I will follow you on twitter and here as this is the first blog in a long time I find valuable and enjoyable to read info.
Keep up the good work!
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First, I’d love to know your name so that I can address you by your name. Second, I thank you for dropping by and creating a conversation by sharing your experience, your point of view.
What can I say except that the thoughts that go through your mind go through mine. As far as I can see the banks have an oligoply – they have carved up the market and they all do business the same way. So you have to accept what they give if you want banking. Furthermore, financial services organisations are set up / designed to make money at the ignorance, laziness and stupidity of the public – us. And we have gone along with that game for so long that the banks have no need to change. Any change will have to be driven by the Government. That would be feasible if it was not for the reality: the banks own the ministers, the government. Just look at the banking crisis and who has come out of it laughing and incredibly rich!
Once again thanks for dropping by and thanks for your kind words. Incidentally, you are going to love my experience in the Barclays branch – a post will be coming soon on that so watch out for it.
At your service / with my love
Maz
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just found this on a gaming web site complaing about Virgin media and how they deceive people with their new “free 100MB upgrade” policy
http://hydramist.tv/blog/virgin-media-double-broadband-speeds-in-uk-jk-fair-use-policy-on-all-speeds/
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Hello again, great to hear your voice again.
What you are pointing to is now common in the ISP and mobile telecommunications market place. The fact is that the infrastructure is simply not there to cope with the demand. So ‘traffic management’ is in vogue and it is advocated and aggressively pushed by telecom suppliers like Alcatel-Lucent who recognise the issue and have built ‘traffic management’ solutions.
Now when have Marketing depts been connected to and constrained by reality. Marketing depts exist and utilise classic ‘propaganda’ techniques to get you to sign-up. They know that you and I will never read the terms and conditions. So they can make pretty much any claim they want to get you to sign-up. And once they have done that then they have delivered on their objectives as mandated by the organisation.
Ultimately it comes down to us to be vigilant and to share / expose these ‘corrupt’ practices. If we had effective government / regulation / consumer laws then this kind of thing would be outlawed. Look closely at government and you are likely to find that it is an institution that is corrupt by its design. So we have to look after ourselves.
At your service / with my love
Maz
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