Bank associations can be a power for good
UAE body can certainly set the agenda for a better customer experience Special to Gulf News
ombudsman, in that the latter’s part is more reactive. The UBF can galvanise banks into working harder at improving client satisfaction by independently surveying their service levels and ranking banks publicly.
It can rate banks and publish findings on customer satisfaction on various fronts — service levels, value propositions, range of services, etc. Gathering such information and disseminating it widely will force banks to sit up, take notice and improve.
To the best of my knowledge, hardly any bank in the UAE conducts corporate or SME customer satisfaction surveys.
The customers’ side
My last suggestion is to address the customers’ side. One must be fair to banks too, by educating customers not only on their rights, but also on their responsibilities, which will in turn contribute to more enlightened behaviour, reduce the probability of disputes and so on.
Some important subjects that lend themselves and warrant information dissemination are common KYC (know your customer) requirements and what infractions could imply; security and fraud; the importance of basics like understanding bank agreements and forms; comparison of bank tariffs; online banking risks and so on.
It is not difficult for the UBF to arrive at a set of priorities for customer education. It could be achieved via seminars, newsletters, radio shows and so on. The UBF could also pre-qualify reputed financial advisers and publish lists for customers to go to for advice to avoid costly errors. The advisers could cover the gamut of consumers — individual, SME or large corporate clients.
One last observation about banking associations is that most of the good ones are staffed with qualified, senior and reputed ex-bankers (among others) with sufficient knowledge and the credibility to carry weight with banks. The UBF may want to consider this aspect as well, with an eye on the future.
A robust, credible banking association can only be better for the market as it will serve to get both service providers and consumers to behave more responsibly and productively.
The writer is Managing Director of Vianta Advisors.