Welcome to Hello Financial Services

Intro

Welcome to Hello Financial Services, a new newsletter from Theon Alleyne and Associates. No, that’s not the name of a firm, it’s just advance notice that friends, colleagues, and associates may write in this newsletter.?

Twice monthly, we’ll share ideas for you to apply in your financial services business. The ideas expressed sometimes may reflect thoughts and thought leadership that differs from the brand position of our clients and or employers.?

Disclaimer

Since you will get the benefit of us thinking out loud, and memorializing it in writing, you should know that “the thoughts, ideas, and opinions, are the writer's personal views and do not reflect the views of the company(ies) that pay the consulting bill or paycheck.” ?

The Disclaimer is now in place.

We hope that through Hello Financial Services, we can help to solve your business challenges or to provide sufficient nuggets so that you can take the necessary next steps.

Topics

The discussions will affect all three lines of defense but will tend to address the issues in the first and second lines of defense only.?The third line of defense is the “third rail” for me personally.?I promised my soul, that I will do all I can, to not take on a career role in the third line of defense again in this lifetime. I am no longer interested in roles where the output of my work brings pain to someone’s life.?

Let’s get started.

******

Customers satisfaction with Banks

Hello Financial Services,

What was the last time you measured how your customers feel about your service?

In many parts of the world, Banks use scientific methods to measure how well they treat their customers by identifying the factors of satisfaction and dissatisfaction, implementing operational fixes where necessary.?

In her writings on “The Science of Customer Satisfaction in the Retail Banking System,” Elena Lidia Melnic stated that “the most savvy banks measure customer satisfaction regularly since it is a key driver of customer retention.

A comparative study of Ghana and Spain, focused on customer satisfaction in the banking industry, by Aborampah Amoah-Mensah noted that there are four main factors that banks tend to focus on, reliability, convenience, tangibles, and empathy.?

In Ghana, reliability, convenience, and empathy were the more critical factors to customers, while in Spain, reliability was the primary focus. Amoah-Mensah also discovered that customers in both countries were highly dissatisfied with the services and products of the banks.

Amoah-Mensah's discovery is in line with anecdotal evidence from the Caricom.?

In an examination of customer satisfaction with banking in Jamaica, Dr. Lydia Smith discovered that responsiveness, communication and safety were also concerns of banking customers.?It was noted that from the customers’ perspective, customer satisfaction receives minimal attention.

To resolve customer service issues in banking, at a minimum, leaders in the financial services sector of banking must learn to identify service gaps, and provide immediate improvement to achieve a better experience for customers.?

There is the perception that banking leaders in Caricom, do not care because the customer base is captive.?Disruption in the marketplace may end the complacency.