The vast majority of banking customers do not want to engage with their financial services provider on social media, according to a new study, which claims email, branches and call centres are far more popular for customer service.
According to new research released by BT and Avaya, 69% of the 700 customers surveyed in the UK would not use Twitter, Google+ or Facebook to interact with a retail bank.
Only 17% of UK customers indicated that they were using all of these sites all the time to interact with banks.
Customers appear to still favour a more traditional approach to banking, despite an increase in digital channels, with 77% indicating that they used their banking branch the most in the past 12 months; followed by 60% citing the Internet; and 42% phoning a call centre.
But that the lack of social network engagement may be due to heavy regulation and concern around making mistakes publicly.
“My understanding is that the banks are using social media, but they are doing it in a very discreet, behind closed doors way,” said Patricia Easterbrook, director of retail banking, British Bankers’ Association. “They are listening, but there is a lot of sensitivity about getting it right.”
Stephen Satchwell, client partner for BT Global Services, Global Banking and Financial Markets, agreed: “The financial services industry is very risk averse because of stringent regulation. Most social media accounts are locked down for people working for these banks anyway.”
