How to make your bank listen

Ever tried complaining to your bank or energy company and felt you’re talking to a brick wall? We explain how to make sure your complaints are heard.

I recently emailed EDF Energy with an issue I was experiencing with my online account and was sent an automated reply saying I’d receive a response within 10 days.

I then took to Twitter to express my annoyance at this long waiting time, including the handle for EDF’s customer service team (@edfenergycs) in my tweet.

Low and behold, my tweet was replied to immediately and the problem was sorted out within two hours.

Twitter

If you complain via email, only you and the company in question know about it, but if you voice a complaint on Twitter, your message is essentially out in the open for the rest of the world to see.

This could be why companies are so quick to respond to tweets – they want to be seen as being proactive and as helpful as can be.

A number of companies have a main Twitter account and a separate one dedicated to customer complaints or issues.

For example, First Direct has @firstdirecthelp, Halifax has @AskHalifaxBank and British Gas has @BritishGasHelp.

They usually have someone, or a team of people, manning these accounts to ensure customers get a quick response.

How to have impact

To maximise the chances of your tweets having the chosen effect, first of all make sure you’re using the right Twitter handle for the company you have an issue with.

Don’t send a direct message (a private message), write your complaint in a public tweet for all to see and remember you only have 140 characters, so use them wisely.

Do a bit of research into the journalists who cover issues with banks or utility companies and add their Twitter handles to your tweet so they’re alerted to your problem.

Switch

To try and avoid having issues in the first place, you may want to consider switching to a bank or utility company that has a good customer service record.

According to last year’s UK Retail Banking Satisfaction Study from JD Power and Associates, First Direct is the bank with the most satisfied customers, followed by Barclays.

The banks with the lowest scores for customer service were Santander and Clydesdale Bank.

Those looking to switch current accounts can get paid £100 if they choose First Direct’s 1^st Account.

The only conditions are that the person has never held a First Direct account before, at least two direct debits or standing orders are switched over and at least £1,500 is paid in each month, for three months.

Those who carry on paying in at least £1,500 per month can then receive another £100 if they close the account after six months, but before 12 months.

If you’d prefer to not have to worry about switching direct debits over or how much you have to pay in each month, but still want good customer service, you may want to consider Barclays’ Bank Account.

This comes with a contactless debit card, meaning you can make payments for items of £15 or less simply by holding your card against a reader.

**This material is for information purposes only and should not be considered financial advice. We strongly encourage our readers not to rely solely on this content, but to seek independent advice when making financial decisions.**

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