Absa has won the Banking Adjudicator's award for excellence in handling customer complaints, beating Standard Bank, Nedcor and First National Bank to win the trophy, which was presented in Johannesburg this week.
The award, in its second year, was initiated by the Office of the Banking Adjudicator to recognise those banks that go the distance in addressing customer problems.
"Banks often come under fire for their handling of customers and we hope that as this award grows in stature, it will heighten awareness of the importance of good customer relations and will encourage banks to adopt a fair, reasonable and professional attitude to complaints," Neville Melville, the Banking Adjudicator, says.
The research and judging was done by Markinor, an independent market research company. The research was based on sample of 400 clients, chosen by Markinor, from a list of 10 000 randomly chosen clients supplied by each bank. The 400 clients had each had one or more complaints against their bank over the past year, which their bank had tried to resolve.
The banks were judged on whether they handled these complaints to the satisfaction of their clients.
The clients also rated the complaints-handling process overall and on specific issues, such as the ease and speed of locating the correct person to deal with the complaint; the attitude, knowledge and professionalism of the bank's staff; and their understanding of the problem.
Melville's office was not involved in the process of determining a winner and he says the award should not be seen as his office's endorsement of the winning bank. However, any efforts to improve customer service by the banking fraternity are to be commended, he says.
For the first time this year, the adjudicator's office staff identified one bank employee, with whom they dealt with regularly, who excelled in handling complaints. That award went to Theresia Spang of Absa.
The office of the Banking Adjudicator was founded in 1997 to assist consumers and small businesses to resolve complaints about banking services and products. The service is free, but before you use it, you must first try to resolve the problem through the bank's complaints-handling procedures.
A separate award was given to a bank employee for superb service and performance. Each of the four competing banks was asked to identify an employee worthy of such an award.
The short-listed candidates included:
- Nico Smit of Standard Bank;
- Desere Eksteen of First National Bank;
- Gideoni Strauss of Absa, and
- The Nedcor banking adjudicator team.
The winner was Nico Smit of Standard Bank.
To contact Neville Melville, the Banking Adjudicator, phone (011) 838 0035, fax (011) 838 0043, send correspondence to: PO Box 5728, Johannesburg, 2000 or email