SERVICES MARKETING MANAGEMENT

Services Marketing Management



Services Marketing Management

Introduction

Santander

Santander has become the third largest bank in the country in terms of deposits, with a market share of 10%, 1,303 branches in total, and 25 million customers. In 2008, it doubled its number of retail banking outlets.

Following this significant growth, in line with the merger and acquisition of Abbey, Alliance and Leicester and Bradford and Bingley in the UK, one of the key challenges facing Santander Bank is the customer service satisfaction that they have failed to provide.

Case

They may be pretty new to the British high street, but Santander has wasted no time at all in winding everyone up. A series of schoolboy errors and bad service has left people trying to stab themselves to death with those pens-on-chains.

In 2010, Santander announced it has bought 218 Royal Bank of Scotland branches, and injected £4.5 billion into the UK arm of its business.

The Spanish banking giant already owns branches of Abbey National, Alliance and Leicester and Bradford and Bingley, and last week said it plans to employ an extra 600 UK staff across growing network of branches and in call centers.

There is also speculation that Santander plans to buy Northern Rock's 'good bank' and Citigroup's online bank Egg

Of course, Santander took over Abbey, Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley which sees them housing a huge customer base of more than 25 million.

However, despite winning everyone over with their marketing drive, it seems that they've forgotten to be any good at what they do. This of course has left the Spaniards dealing with lots of that most British of traits - complaints.

Some of the grips have included their losing cash Isa transfers, erroneous tax deductions from cash Isas, badly calculated interest on savings accounts leaving customers out of pocket, victims of fraud being fobbed off when trying to get their hands on payouts, not telling customers about rate changes and general rubbishness when dealing with complaints.

This has lead to Which! announcing that Santander is the worst bank in terms of customer satisfaction.

Complaints Include

• Cash Isa transfers — even those between its own brands — have been lost for weeks;

• Tax has been erroneously deducted from cash Isas;

•Interest has been calculated incorrectly on other savings accounts;

• Customer service staff fob off complaints;

• Genuine victims of fraud have been frustrated in their attempts to receive payouts;

• Savers have suffered interest shocks because they are not told of a rate changes.

A total of 3,255 customers complained to the Financial Ombudsman Service about the group's banking and credit products in the last six months of last year. With Alliance & Leicester,

54% were resolved in favor of the customer, higher than the 47% average of all financial institutions.

Santander had 48% of complaints upheld. Santander has been desperate to woo new customers. Its savings accounts and mortgages regularly offer the best rate, it has a tantalizing, completely fee-free bank account, and the only UK credit card that offers fee-free cash withdrawals and ...