Banks need to be aware of stress caused by financial matters

One financial industry expert has stated that banks need to be more aware of the stress that financial management can cause to consumers. The comments come after a survey showed that banking was towards the bottom of the list when it came to industries offering good levels of customer service, with many consumers feeling that they offered poor customer service.

Kevin Mountford from Money.supermarket said that banks needed to realise what a great deal of stress finances could cause, and needed to take this into account when dealing with customers. Particularly in the current financial climate, where many people have seen their financial situation change for the worse, many consumers are under a lot of pressure financially.

He stated that in the current climate many people were contacting banks for reasons that caused them concern such as needing to increase their overdraft or looking to take out other forms of credit. He said that if banks did not start evaluating the level of customer service that they were offering they could quickly find that customers would lose confidence in them even more.

In the recent survey into customer service levels the banking industry found itself third from the bottom, beaten only by estate agents and energy suppliers for poor customer service levels. This is something that that banks needed to address according to industry officials. This is especially true after the loss of confidence in banking that has occurred over the past couple of years since the onset of the global credit crisis.

Mr Mountford stated: “Handling personal finances can be an extremely stressful task, especially as often our interaction with banks occurs at difficult times, such as when we need to extend an overdraft or report a stolen card.”