Poor Communication with Customers
When a customer visited her local Santander Branch in the town centre last Monday she was shocked to find it is shortly to close.
Whilst standing in the queue she observed a large closure poster on the wall and also whilst waiting picked up an A4 booklet entitled: Branch Closure Impact Assessment.
When served by the Cashier she was given an A4 sheet: entitled “Banking at your Post Office”. She pointed out to the cashier that if she wanted to bank with the Post Office she would have opened an account there instead.
“Needless to say I do not consider that this banking alternative is a sustainable option, nor does it provide good customer service to a Santander customer” she told Newton News..
The customer’s other alternatives include visiting either Darlington or Bishop Auckland Santander branches which will take on business previously done at Aycliffe.
On the final page of the Impact Assessment Santander inform their customers the Assessment will be updated online, two weeks ahead of the planned closure, to include a summary of feedback received and their responses.
“I deduce from this that the writing is already on the wall. Yet another big business is leaving our town centre with which I am sure will have long term detrimental consequences for personal and business customers alike” said the concerned lady.
The document issued by Santander says they have notified a range of community representatives including our M.P. We find this hard to believe as nothing has been received by your community newspaper.
Phil Wilson MP has since expressed his concern at the news of the planned closure of two banks in Newton Aycliffe Town Centre. Both NatWest and Santander plan on closing their branches by the end of June 2018.
Mr Wilson will be meeting with both banks before the Christmas break to discuss the impact that these decisions will have on his constituents. Mr Wilson is especially worried about elderly and vulnerable customers who are often not as familiar with using online banking services and prefer the security of using the services of a branch.
Mr Wilson said “I am very worried about the impact these closures will have upon my constituents in Newton Aycliffe and the surrounding area. It would be bad enough seeing one bank close their branch in the town centre yet alone two. I was particularly unhappy to note that Santander are telling customers that alternative local banking services are available at the NatWest – this is a disgrace – do they not realise that the Newton Aycliffe NatWest branch is closing before they are!”
Santander also note in their leaflet that they had notified a range of community representatives within Newton Aycliffe including our MP. Mr Wilson said “The leaflet had already been distributed to customers by the time I received an email at 4.23pm on 4th December notifying me of their closure plans.”
