{"id":35626,"date":"2025-04-04T05:18:18","date_gmt":"2025-04-04T05:18:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.premium-partners.net\/?p=35626"},"modified":"2025-04-05T08:21:28","modified_gmt":"2025-04-05T08:21:28","slug":"why-south-african-banks-must-improve-customer-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.premium-partners.net\/fr\/builder\/why-south-african-banks-must-improve-customer-service\/","title":{"rendered":"Why South African banks must improve customer service"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post<\/a> was originally published on this site<\/a><\/p>

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When Capitec broke onto the retail banking scene over 20 years ago, I sensed that it would shake up the banking industry in South Africa. The simplicity and accessibility of its offering to consumers ensured its immediate success. But I didn\u2019t expect the \u201c Big Four\u201d (Absa, FNB, Nedbank, and Standard Bank) to be so nonchalant about this innovative new kid on the block.<\/span><\/p>\n

I could continue about the innovations Capitec brought to banking, its meteoric rise as a brand, and its emergence today as South Africa\u2019s largest bank in terms of number of retail customers, but I\u2019ll save that for another column. Here, I want to focus on the Big Four and how, in my opinion, they have largely failed to up their customer-service game to win back the customers they lost to Capitec.<\/span><\/p>\n

I need to state upfront that I am generalising about the Big Four \u2013 some have done better than others in matching the innovations that Capitec and younger banks such as TymeBank and Discovery Bank have brought to the retail banking industry. I group the Big Four because they have dominated banking for so long, continue to hold the vast bulk of assets, and, in my opinion, have yet to develop a genuinely customer-centric culture.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a truism that the bigger the organisation, the harder it is to adapt in the face of disruption. Why did it take so long, for example, to do away with branch codes and have universal account numbers? And don\u2019t get me started on the call centres, which form an impenetrable communication barrier between \u201cus\u201d and \u201cthem\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a personal experience which illustrates my point about the established banks\u2019 casual attitude towards their customers (I won\u2019t name the bank because it was very contrite and bent over backwards to make amends). <\/span><\/p>\n

Recently, my wife and I sat in a queue for over an hour at our local branch to \u201cFica\u201d my current account, on which we each have a cheque card \u2013 my wife\u2019s card had been deactivated after she ignored what she thought were scam notifications. I could not believe we were in the same queue as someone with extensive, time-consuming banking business. All we needed to do was provide proof of identity and address and have our thumbprints scanned \u2013 a procedure that should take five minutes. <\/span><\/p>\n

There was a lot more paperwork than I expected, and we walked out of the bank hoping we would not have to enter the branch again anytime soon (this is the effect my bank branch always has on me). <\/span><\/p>\n

It was just a few days later that my wife, to her astonishment, again started receiving Fica warnings. After escalating my dissatisfaction (an understatement), I was contacted by the area manager. It turned out that the staffer we had dealt with at the counter had not completed a section relating to money laundering.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our story doesn\u2019t end there. My wife and I have operated off the same account for over 30 years. But it emerged (at that point in the saga, not before) that the bank had no record of her having signing power on my account \u2013 the documents had been lost at some point in the past when they changed systems.<\/span><\/p>\n

So back we traipsed to the branch to provide our signatures, foregoing the queue at their insistence.<\/span><\/p>\n

Handling of complaints<\/b><\/p>\n

Compounding banks\u2019 shoddy service has been their ineptitude in handling complaints. This was highlighted in the recently released Financial Sector Conduct Authority\u2019s Banking Sector Complaints Management Review Report, which found significant shortcomings. It surveyed complaint records from 23 banks and found that:<\/span><\/p>\n