RBS Bank: Customer Experience, Employee Issues, and Solution Proposals

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the customer experience at the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). It begins with a brief profile of the bank, its services, and operational structure. The core of the report examines the main customer complaints, which include poor customer service, unresponsive employees, and arbitrary charges. It then explores potential employee complaints, such as poor remuneration, overworking, and harsh management practices. The report also contrasts the customer journeys for online versus traditional banking, highlighting the efficiency and convenience advantages of online platforms. Furthermore, the report proposes innovative solutions to address customer dissatisfaction, such as hiring more customer service employees and enhancing the online platform. Finally, it discusses customer negotiation strategies, differentiating between corporate and commercial customers and providing a chart to help identify customer types based on body language and verbal approach. The analysis is supported by several academic sources.

Surname 1
Name:
Tutor:
Course:
Date:
Management

Surname 2
A. Brief bank profile
The Royal Bank of Scotland commonly known as RBS, is the bank in profile.
Established in 1727, it is one of the biggest international banks operating in Scotland, Britain,
Wales and a host of other countries. It is one of the retail subsidiaries of The Royal Bank of
Scotland Group Plc with Ulster Bank and the popularly known NatWest. As one of the
biggest banks, it runs a network of branches which are more than 700 but mainly are located
in Scotland. It’s headquartered in Edinburg Scotland and is a subsidiary of NatWest
Holdings. It has a large workforce of more than 71,200 employees. The current CEO is Ross
McEwan. The main products or services it provides are; Corporate banking, consumer
banking, mortgage, Finance and Insurance among others. RBS provides a full range of
insurance and banking services. It focuses on commercial customers as well as personal
customers and businesses. Its products and services include the mobile branches, the
traditional bank branches, phone and internet banking among others. There are currently 19
mobile banking converted banks that are used to serve the rural areas. The bank like many
other banks is authorized by the Prudential Regulation Authority and also regulated by the
Financial conduct Authority.
B. What are the main customer complaints?
The dissatisfaction of consumers with RBS banks is clear. Many of the customers are
complaining of the bad customer’s service, unresponsiveness of employees towards most of
their concerns and rise of charges imposed arbitrary to the customer’s account (Takala 31).
The situation led to a wave of unprecedented litigation that last year forced the Ministry of
Justice to enable five dozen courts specialized in mortgage matters to avoid the collapse of
the rest of the judicial system. Many of the conflicts also raised before the financial
supervisor, who again saw the claims of consumers multiply after three exercises in which

Surname 3
the complaints seemed to be progressively remitted. However, in just nine months of 2017
the number of claims was already double that of the previous year, according to the latest
available data. Eight out of 10 referred to a key product: the mortgage (Takala 31).
Although the RBS has been giving the reason to consumers in most cases, its opinion is not
binding and entities only rectified in 35.9% of the time. The percentage is in line with that of
the last few years and helps explain why a good part of the complaints of the clientele end up
in the courts. The Court of Auditors itself has criticized a model in which the supervisor is
limited to making recommendations. For its part, the Bank admits that the operation of
customer service departments of the bank, for which claims must pass before being referred
to the supervisor, leaves much to be desired.
According to this document, customer complaints do not interest the banking sector that does
not have them in mind, nor does it try to stop them so that they do not go over or repeat
themselves in other clients. It simply ignores them. (Muslim 91).
C. Please try and identify employee complaints (for this you will probably have to seek
an international bank)
The employee’s complaints range from being poorly paid compared to other
international banks. As a reputable company, RBS has massive workforce of over 71,000. As
a profit oriented company, it must cut costs of operations in order to have a profit. What it has
done is to remunerate its workforce but poorly compared to other reputable institutions
(Muslim 113).
Another complain is overworking. The employees have cited being given a lot of tasks to the
point they are no longer productive as is required. Some employees man three crucial
department therefore being overwhelmed by the duty.

Surname 4
Harassment by senior management and poor appraisal methods. RBS managers are very
harsh to their employees while emphasizing on productivity. Some send employees on forced
leave due to their harsh and poor management skills (Chowdhury 33).
The operating environment sometimes is not conducive for maximum productivity. Although
most of the employees have much to say about their employers, RBS should check into the
concerns and complaints raised by the employees as they are the driving force towards any
prosperity.
D. What are the main differences between the customer journeys for online vs
traditional banking? Please specify
The difference in customer journey for online and traditional banking is that in online
banking it is more efficient than the traditional banking. Due to advancement of technologies,
online banking has made the customer bank with ease and is faster than traditional brick and
mortar in traditional banks. It is more convenient and the customer can do banking at any
place at any time day or night. The good thing about online banking is that it is prone to
advancement and therefore will only be better than banking hall systems. Of course,
managing customer dissatisfaction and trying to mitigate it is simple; but, of course, it is still
easier to ignore him. This seems to embody the leitmotiv of banks that spend a millionaire
budget on advertising, but nothing (in view of the data) on the front of customer service
(Terehin 54 )So they have a sloppy mouth and, therefore, reduce their customer account.
Given the times that run the guild of bankers should pamper and massage in a spa to their
stressed customers; even if it is a six-year-old client about to enter his first penny.
E. Think “outside the box” and try and address the gaps identified by the customers
with innovative or revolutionary proposals (you can use an existing proposal and adapt

Surname 5
it to the bank corporate culture) and indicate what each proposal is to address (what
you aim to solve with it)
The dissatisfaction of consumers with RBS banks is clear. Many of the customers are
complaining of the bad customer’s service, unresponsiveness of employees towards most of
their concerns and rise of charges imposed arbitrary to the customer’s account. Hiring of
more employees to tend customer services will lead to a better relationship between the bank
and the employees. It is also important to advance the online platform so that customers will
use it as it is faster and more convenient. In fact, users who do not sympathize with the
modus operandi of the bank already reaches 22%, but only 4% complain (let's call them
outraged banks), since the remaining percentage choose to digest their anger in solitude and
without complaining. Taking care of customers issues on a one on one basis creates an
impression that the staff really cares of the customers issues. These will ease the
dissatisfaction if the customer is treated well (Kara 62).
F. Customer negotiation. As you are fully aware there are different kinds of customers,
but what generates most concern are those “black or white” customers.
There are different types of customers. There is the corporate customer and the
common customer. Corporate customers have a pensive attitude as they are moneyed and
may even intimidate the employee. They are served like kings unlike the commercial
customers. He can be served anyhow and most of them don’t even complain. When
addressing a problem in a bank, a corporate customer will be served by the senior most
managers as this is a sign of respect. They are shown that they are on top of the pyramid in
the banking sector. Whilst this is somehow prejudice towards the commercial customers, he
can be handled by anybody, any employee when addressing a problem (Hashim 33).

Surname 6
G. Develop a chart so that your team knows how to identify these customers (body
language and verbal approach) and list the 3 or 4 most typical complaints and then how
to address these issues depending on the profile of the customer
Corporate customer Commercial customer
Fast to react upon any bad situation May be calm and composed
Sophisticated language Simple language
Straight shooter on the problem May not recognize there is a problem and
therefore may beat around the bush
Confident body language Not very confident
Very informed Lacks information

Surname 7
Works Cited
Aliyu, Takala. "Online banking and customer service delivery in Malaysia: data screening
and preliminary findings." Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences 129 (2014): 562-
570.
Muslim. "Internet banking service quality and its implication on e-customer satisfaction and
e-customer loyalty." International journal of bank marketing 34.3 (2016): 280-306.
Karim, Chowdhury. "Customer satisfaction on service quality in private commercial banking
sector in Bangladesh." British Journal of Marketing Studies 2.2 (2014): 1-11.
Novokreshchenova, Terehin. "Improving Bank’s Customer Service on the Basis of Quality
Management Tools." European Research Studies Journal 19.3 (2016): 19-38.
Orel, Kara. "Supermarket self-checkout service quality, customer satisfaction, and loyalty:
Empirical evidence from an emerging market." Journal of Retailing and Consumer
Services 21.2 (2014): 118-129.
Hashim. "Impact of service quality, corporate image and customer satisfaction towards
customers’ perceived value in the banking sector in Pakistan." International journal
of bank marketing 33.4 (2015): 442-456.

Surname 8