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Moving home has long been regarded as a stress-inducing activity, so when on Friday after six months of grief, my partner and I finally exchanged contracts thinking it would be plain sailing and paint pots from hereon in. Then I went about contacting the various companies that provide Financial Services to me and realised I was wrong.

Now, I’ve consolidated FS providers a lot over the past few years, as although I do review performance and pricing of financial products, I really don’t have time or inclination to review every single product on a regular basis to ensure I get absolutely the best value for money every time. As long as I’m happy it’s in the top 10-20%, and it convenient and flexible to acquire and service, I’m a happy bunny. I’m guessing I’m far from the only person out there like this.  Besides, there’s been so much consolidation and acquisition in retail financial services to drive better profits, customer service is surely razor-sharp to reduce churn. Right? Well, let’s see…

Company  1: My “Bank” – Changing my address is about the only thing I you can’t do with their website, so I had to phone the call centre. But this is never a chore, as they are the undisputed masters of phone banking (and phone insuring, investing etc.). One brief and pleasant call (at 9pm) to the consistently well-trained call centre updated two current accounts, two savings accounts, a credit card, mortgage, an ISA, and a share dealing account. These guys live and breathe customer-centricity.

Company 2: Credit Card – Another good website that easily lets me manage my account, view previous bills and order additional cards for my nearest and dearest (yeah, right!) – there’s even a link to change my contact details. Unfortunately, I’m told I’m not eligible to do so as either I have a corporate card (which I haven’t), may not be the main account holder (which I am) or may not have the card registered with the website(which I have). Ggrrrr! Frustrating, but the call centre is open 24/7 and they sort out the address change quickly.

Company 3: ISA – In the days when I was a “rate tart” paying off my MBA tuition fees, I used to have a credit card with these guys. They also offered competitive car insurance where I got a further 10% discount for paying with the card (cunning ploy for further revenue, but I paid off straight away, so they never made further money out of it).

Within a couple of years I had taken out insurance for two cars, one house and annual travel for two people and I also invested in an ISA with them. Why? They offered well-priced, quality products (which equates to good returns for investments and good coverage for insurance) which were easy to acquire and service – They made it easy for me to spend money with them. BTW – Changing my address took under a minute online – and they even sent a confirmation email which further reassured me that they had actioned the request.

Company 4: Two pensions (previous employers), one endowment (I know! I was young and impressionable at the time) – each arranged through different brokers – and some shares from demutualization. Aha! I found a “Customer Log In” facility, but subsequently I struggled to find it again when writing up this blog (it’s prominently displayed on the .co.uk site, but very hidden on the .com site).

There’s a well polished registration screen which confirms your identification, but then I notice they snail-mail your password to you. Damn! Don’t really have enough time for that, so will have to wait ‘til after I’ve moved. I resort to phoning the number on a letterhead. I’m quickly passed to someone who takes a policy number, and other identification details, notes the address and informs me the other policies have been updated. (which I hadn’t even mentioned at this point). Impressed – I look forward to checking out the customer site.

Company 5: Buildings and Contents Insurance: My partner made this call as we never got round to adding my name to the policy. The ten minutes of earache I got afterwards, indicated that things hadn’t gone well. She spent fifteen minutes enjoying music on hold to be transferred on a crackly line to an offshore call centre where the agent was poorly trained and had very a poor command of English. She was further unimpressed when a call from our solicitor requested that the new house goes on risk before we move in, requiring a second call. Then a third call when the insurance company get the dates wrong. I promise to do the rest of the calls and swiftly arrange for replacement cover with a competitor’s website. These guys are REALLY BIG in general and life insurance (among other things) and shouldn’t be encouraging customers to walk away.

Company 6: Current pension: I ‘Google’ the company name only to find they’ve re-branded under the parent company’s name – which I’d never heard of, partly because they hadn’t informed me (and I received an annual summary just a few weeks ago). Not a great start to maintaining a dialogue with your customers. I do notice that there’s a (well hidden) Customer Login page where I can register (again passwords are posted) and make a note to do so after the move as I’d like to review the funds I’ve invested in – hopefully they will show this and even allow me to review and select new funds. A reasonably painless phone call amends the address.

Company 7: Life policy: Another name change I was unaware of and adding “.com” to the company name directs to me to a site which boldly declares “This web site is for intermediaries and investment professionals only”, but then doesn’t provide me any direction of where to go as a customer.

When I phone them, I discover they had my previous address on file (from renting some 8 years ago). Given that the policy was taken out in support of the purchase of my current home, I was surprised they were so out of date. They’re now part of a multi-national offering pretty much the full range of consumer finance products – any of which I may have taken them up on if they’d taken steps to maintain a dialogue with me.

Company 8: Financial Adviser: The BT ‘1571’ service that replied when I rang wasn’t even in the realms of acceptability – I didn’t even know whether I’d called the right number. An email I sent not-so-long-ago when I wanted to up my pension contributions also went unanswered. I won’t be contacting them again. Ever.

So what can providers of Financial Services products draw from this little episode?

1. An informative customer-centric website allows interaction with an organisation that is relatively cheap to maintain, can be accessed when it suits the customer, and allows an organisation to target promotions relevant to each customer. Provision of snapshot account or portfolio positions will encourage customers to use the site regularly. The opposite position of a low-grade call centre with poorly trained and ill-informed agents will have customers running a mile.
2. Maintaining full, accurate and up-to-date contact information for is surely kindergarten-level CRM. Simply keeping an email address provides a cheap and effective way of communicating with your customers. Letting customers know their monthly or annual statement is available on the website or that an insurance policy is approaching renewal pulls customers back to a site.  Company 3 are particularly good at this, which probably explains why I’ve adopted so many other products from them.
3. Good site design from the homepage down will draw in existing and new customers alike. Company 7’s website told me “We’re not interested in you”. Company 6 may offer a good service online, but they weren’t shouting about it and Company 4 gets it spot-on (at least pre-login) – but only from the .co.uk site. The .com site (providing corporate brochureware site) omitted the critical “I’m a customer – CLICK HERE” link – or makes a good job of hiding it.
4. Tightly integrating and dovetailing the comms channels provides a consistently good customer experience (Richard and Paul have both written about this). Company 1 send me text messages when my accounts hit a defined threshold of funds – I log on, move money over from another account and spot a message (advert) for a new service inviting me to speak to someone in the call centre. If a company has a great website where I can service my products letters I receive from these companies should advertise the fact. Equally, If I’m “enjoying” music on hold, let me know the website can deal with many of my requests.
5. Finally, a wish-list item. I have reasonably straightforward finances and even then I was surprised at how many FS organisations I have a relationship with. I’m not even in the position (yet, at least) of being in the market for some of the more exotic (and often profitable) products out there. What I’d really like is a one-stop shop where I can see the position for all my financial services products from all my providers – if someone offered this I’m sure to spend  a lot of money with them.

I’d be interested to know how others have fared when interacting with financial services companies – let me know the good, the bad, and the downright ugly.