Co-operative Bank      taking account of our customers'views and needs

Customers
               How does a conventional bank regard its customers? Some would say, as a resource to be exploited. Our Partnership Approach dictates a completely different kind of relationship - one based upon trust and shared values. We know that our Ethical Policy has been hugely important in attracting new customers to the bank, in both the Personal and Corporate sectors. But for us, treating customers as Partners means continuing to take their views and needs into account at all times. That affects every aspect of the service we provide, from being prepared to say sorry when we get things wrong, to pioneering new ways of using technology to make life easier for our customers.
 
    


The Partnership Ballot found that there was overwhelming support for the Partnership Approach with 97% of customers who responded saying it was a good idea.



A voice and a vote - treating customers as Partners means being prepared to give them a real say - not just in the products and services we offer, but in how we run our business
     
[ Making life easier for more and more people  ]
In 1997, our rapid growth continued as we welcomed around 205,000 new customers to the bank, bringing the total number to around 1.5 million. At the same time, we saw a substantial increase in our balance sheet, with both loans to customers and deposits taken well up on last year. In return for this vote of confidence, we made further important advances in our efforts to provide our customers with the most convenient 'anytime, anywhere' banking service available.

Among these, our recent link-up with Post Office Counters Ltd means that personal customers can now cash cheques and make deposits at over 15,500 Post Offices in England and Wales. Our telephone banking service continued to go from strength to strength, handling well over nine million calls during the year. Earlier this year, we launched an Internet Banking Service for our Personal customers, which we hope to extend to the Corporate sector soon.

Gratifyingly, our personal current account was named 'Best Buy' by a leading consumer magazine. While our Visa Advantage card, which currently offers the lowest long-term interest rate of any Visa card, brought us many new customers. Corporate sector successes in 1997 included Business Direct, our low-cost banking package for smaller businesses that don't need to borrow, achieving year on year growth of more than 200%; and Financial Director, which enabled an increasing number of our larger business cutomers to enjoy the benefits of time-efficient electronic banking.

But, among all these facts and figures, perhaps the one that gives us greatest satisfaction is that almost 100,000 of our customers responded to our invitation to take part in our Partnership Ballot, strongly confirming their support for our Partnership Approach.
 

Front Page
 		     
It wasn't by chance that, when we published our mission statement ten years ago, the very first item it contained was a commitment to "offer our customers consistant high quality and good value services". 
Delivering Value
Introduced in 1992, our Ethical policy sets out, in 13 clearly defined statements, how our customers wish to see their money invested - and how they don't. 
Social Responsibility
We know from our last survay of attitudes to our Ethical Policy that 93% of our customers support the bank's stance on environmental matters. 
Ecological Sustainability