Branch Piorities: Professionalism is ‘vital’

Bank customers are perfectly clear about one thing: they want to be served by professionally qualified staff when they visit a branch of their bank.

Almost three-quarters (73%) of British adults say in a special Chartered Banker survey that the availability of professionally qualified staff is either “very important” or “fairly important” to them when choosing a specific bank branch to visit.

The online survey was conducted for Chartered Banker by the research agency YouGov in mid-September and 2,031 people responded.

The latest finding powerfully reinforces similar market research carried out for Chartered Banker over the last year. YouGov surveys carried out in November* and December 2009**, for example, showed that 88% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that “all bankers should take professional banking exams".

And that in turn echoes a specific endorsement of the Chartered Banker qualification from business decision-makers: in last year’s survey, 57% of business respondents agreed or strongly agreed that they “would rather be a customer
of a bank where their Relationship Manager was a professionally qualified Chartered Banker.”

In this latest survey, banking professionalism is also identified among the most important characteristics which would persuade bank customers to visit a specific branch. Location (71%) and the convenience of business hours (48%) are the top characteristics, followed by the availability of self-service machines and ATMs (38%).

More than a third of customers (35%), however, select “professionally qualified staff” as one of the most persuasive reasons for visiting their branch. 

“None of this comes as any surprise,” says Institute Chief Executive Simon Thompson. “These findings really do reinforce what we’ve always argued – that professionalism backed by recognised qualifications is what customers expect. It’s vital to rebuilding trust in our banking system.”

PROFESSIONALISM WINS
When choosing a bank branch to visit, how important to you is the availability of professionally qualified staff?
Very/fairly important  73%
Not very/not at all important 22%
Don’t know 5%

KEY CHARACTERISTICS
Which are the three most important characteristics to you when choosing a bank branch to visit?
Branch location 71%
Convenient business hours 48%
Self-service machines/ATMs 38%
Availability of professionally qualified staff 35%
Range of products & services available in the branch 19%
Personal or other recommendations 9%
Not applicable/never visit banks/ don’t belong to any bank 5%
Other 4%
Don’t know 4%
Interior design & layout 2%
Availability of refreshments Less than 1%

Note: Because these are multiple-choice questions (respondents were asked to select the three most important characteristics), the percentages don’t add up to 100.

All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 2031 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 10th-13th September 2010. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all GB adults (aged 18+).
* Total sample size was 2011 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 6th-9th November 2009. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all GB adults (aged 18+).
** Total sample size was 1020 small business decision makers. Fieldwork was undertaken between 26th-29th December 2009. The survey was carried out online. 

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