Almost half of UK consumers aiming to switch banks amid customer service fears

Have you thought about switching bank?

UK consumers are considering switching banks due to an increasing amount of impersonal customer service and communication. This is according to research from GMC Software.

A TNS survey shows that 43 per cent of respondents were either thinking of switching banks within the next year or had already made the decision to do so.

Many highlighted that customer service concerns were to blame, 68 per cent said they were “just a number” to their bank. A huge 79 per cent were concerned that customer service would fall due the increasing demand of remote banking.

Bank branches were only responsible for 20 per cent of transactions in 2015, this is according to the British Banking Association.

David Webster, Financial Services specialist at GMC Software, said: “These are interesting times for the industry: although as people know, interesting is not the same as easy,”

“With the Competition and Markets Authority’s “Open Banking Revolution” still to get underway, we are on the cusp of a huge upheaval in both how consumers communicate with their banks, and the expectations they have of them. When it’s easier than ever to compare banks’ offerings and switch or spread your accounts across multiple providers, banks will need to offer something very special to hang on to their customers.”