Don't put up with bad service from your bank

WHEN Capitec broke onto the retail banking scene over 20 years ago, I sensed that it would shake up the banking industry in South Africa. The simplicity and accessibility of incentivising consumers to immediate success, But I didn't expect the Big Four (Absa, FNB, Nedbank and Standard Bank) to be so resistant about this innovative new kid on the block.

- WEALTH MARTIN HESSE

I could continue about the innovations Capitec brought to banking, its meteoric rise as a brand, and its competitive edge in South Africa, not only in terms of number of retail customers, but I'll save that for another column. Here's I want to focus on the Big Four, and in my humble opinion, they have largely failed to up their customer-service game to win back the customers they have lost to Capitec.

I need to state upfront that I am generalizing about the Big Four - some have done better than others in matching the innovation that Capitec and younger banks such as TymeBank and Discovery Bank have brought to the retail banking industry. But the Big Four together because they have dominating banking for so long, continue to hold the vast bulk of assets and, in my opinion, have yet to develop a culture that is genuinely customer centric.

It's a truism that the bigger the organisation, the harder it is to adapt in the face of disruption.

Why did it take so long, for example, to do away with branch codes and have universal account numbers? And don't get me started on the call centres, which form an impenetrable communication barrier between "us" and "them".

Here's a personal experience which illustrates part of the reason why banks' casual attitude towards their customers if won't make the bank because it was very unfriendly and bent on business to make miserable.