Improving the customer experience

More information

• Complaint resolution

  Barclays is committed to delivering sustainable improvements to the service we provide to our customers. We recognise we do not always get things right and are committed to reducing the number of complaints. We have put greater focus on addressing the root causes and have increased senior level oversight.

  We take customer complaints very seriously and always look to deliver fair outcomes. We aim to deal with them effectively and efficiently, and use our complaints process as a critical channel to listen to and better understand the needs of our customers. This helps us to continually improve the process and prevent issues from reoccurring.

• Progress in 2010

  Global context

  • Combined complaint volumes for Global Retail Banking, Barclays Corporate, Barclays Wealth and Absa were stable against 2009
  • Levels of complaints within UK Retail Banking decreased as a result of improvements; however, overall reductions were offset by increased volumes in Absa following enhanced complaint capture processes.

  UK context

  • While there were improvements in the levels of referrals to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) and with regard to Financial Services Authority reportable complaints, levels of complaints remain unacceptable.

  Related links

  • UK Financial Services Authority
  • UK Financial Ombudsman Service

• Governance

  • Increased senior level oversight of complaints, with accountability at executive level. For example, an Executive Steering Committee meeting led by Antony Jenkins, Chief Executive, Global Retail Banking, reviews UK complaints on a monthly basis
  • Senior managers are members of our Treating Customers Fairly (TCF) forum and our UK Executive Complaints Steering Committee.

  Our Treating Customers Fairly (TCF) Forum monitors progress across our retail and wholesale Business Units worldwide. We maintain robust control frameworks which include role-specific training for sales advisers, policies and performance monitoring. When incidents arise, we work to identify the root cause and resolve the issue as rapidly as possible. The business areas have made good progress in delivering improvements to their operations and in addressing root causes.

  It is important to note that as our processes for capturing customer feedback mature, we may experience an increase in complaint volumes, particularly in our businesses outside of the UK. This is helping us to better understand the root causes of complaints in these markets and as a result we expect to see an improvement to the way we address these concerns in 2011.

  Complaints received in 2010 compared with 2009

  Business Unit	% change
  Global Retail Banking	-1.45%
  Barclays Corporate	-4.70%
  Barclays Wealth	-23.33%
  Absa*	47.11%
  Barclays Group	-0.01%

  *Increased volumes in Absa following enhanced complaint capture processes.

• Addressing root causes to enhance the customer experience

  We have increased emphasis on addressing the root cause of complaints, including improving the customer experience. Examples of our progress include:

  In the UK

  • Improved the time it takes to receive a replacement debit card from five days to 48 hours
  • Re-engineered the process for changing customer account details
  • Made enhancements to our deposit machines, which now see cash deposits credited to customer's accounts immediately.

  In Africa

  • Decreased the time it takes to open a new bank account in Zambia to 20 minutes (down from three weeks).

• Customer satisfaction

  Barclays is committed to improving satisfaction and the overall customer experience across all of our businesses. Each business has adopted a bespoke approach to monitoring customer satisfaction through a programme of surveys. In Global Retail Banking, we have either maintained or improved customer satisfaction. We use the results to identify ways to improve customers' overall banking experience. In 2011, we will work towards improving the consistency of our measurement and reporting on satisfaction.

  Below is an overview of progress on customer satisfaction in Global Retail Banking. Given markets and customers vary by Business Unit, survey methodologies differ slightly. In 2010, we:

  • Improved satisfaction by three points in UK Retail Banking (using a mean indexed score)
  • Improved satisfaction by two percentage points in the UK Barclaycard
  • Maintained stable customer satisfaction levels across Western Europe, with incremental increases in Italy and Portugal
  • Committed to commencing regular and consistent customer satisfaction surveys in Barclays Africa in 2011.