How UK Banks Suck Away 3.3M Hours From Customers

Banks in the U.K. are leaving their customers dangling on the line to the tune of 3.3 million hours annually, according to research from Thunderhead, a technology company. That comes through data that shows that 1.6 million British bank customers were on hold for more than 10 minutes each month, and bounced between one banking department to another, which in turn takes two hours annually away from consumers.

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Thunderhead said that customers who have several accounts within a financial institution tend to be transferred between several departments at that institution. Significant impact is implied here, as a majority (or 63 percent) of U.K. banking customers have several accounts, or products, within a main provider. One in 10 respondents said they remained on hold for more than 10 minutes on average, with the downtime centered on the bank looking to find the right representative to handle the situation.

One key finding in the study: The stretched out movement to finding the right representative smacks of a “wider problem” coordinating the conversations themselves. About 42 percent of those surveyed said they did not in fact think the banks were tracking, or aware, of the previous conversations between the consumers and the banks. Roughly 85 percent said that they found that having to repeat the same information to numerous parties lowered the estimation of the company itself.  A full 12 percent said that they would in fact look for another provider in that aforementioned situation.

Separately, the research showed that communication methodology impacts consumer perception. Roughly 41 percent of U.K. banking customers felt their institution’s email communications had improved over the past three years, but another 23 percent said banks “have deteriorated” in phone conversations.