Financial products second to service at banks, survey finds

People prefer friendly staff to the products and services on offer at their building society.

16:18 06 May 2005

People prefer friendly staff to the products and services on offer at their building society.

This is one of the findings of a Norwich and Peterborough (N&P) annual survey of the attitudes of its customers.

It discovered that, when asked, just one person in 13 thought the financial products and services on offer were their favourite aspect of the building society.

By far the best thing about N&P, according to its customers, was its staff. Two customers in three cited friendly, personal, and efficient service as their favourite aspect of the building society.

Matthew Bullock, N&P chief executive, said: "The quality of personal service provided by N&P's staff is not a passing marketing fad: it has been and will remain at the heart of our business model.

"Offering expertise with all the warmth and accessibility of a mutual is a winning combination."

And this combination saw one in eight of the building society's customers make a trip to the branch every single day, while four out of five customers have recommended N&P to family or friends.

Visiting the branch was a theme that recurred in the N&P customer survey, with 87 per cent of customers preferring to deal with the society through its branch network. Just five per cent chose to use the internet and only three per cent opted for postal or telephone access.