Covid 19 and poor service delivery at popular banks

Posted by Felix Okoli on Friday July 17, 2020 at 19:56:17:

One of the negative effects of the 2020 Corona virus restrictions in Nigeria's banking industry is the gradual decline in quality service given to numerous bank customers.

A few weeks ago, I was made to stand outside during a rainy day for up to 2hrs at a Gtbank branch on Alhaji Masha road by Ogunlana drive and the only consolation was that I brought an umbrella. There were many other people waiting to get indoor there but due to the restrictions placed by the government, they were not allowed to enter. I dont remember returning back to the bank ever since. Giving a faster service is one of the problems big banks in Nigeria are now facing and banks like Gtbank are seriously lagging behind.

It has become a common scene at many popular bank branches across Nigeria to see customers eagerly waiting outside the banking hall just to meet with bank employees. From my experience, it seems the most common issue is to meet with customer service and another is to make bank transfers. Not many Nigerians go to banks now just to make cash deposits but the common request is to meet with bank customer service staff.

When the Covid 19 restrictions first started, there was a general lockdown and banks were closed for a few weeks until they've placed some safety measures to protect their customers and some of these measures included requiring customers to wear nose masks, wash or sanitize their hands and submit to a digital touch-less temperature check prior to entry into their banking hall. There was also a population limit placed on the banking hall that required them to only allow a few customers at a time and all those have been in practice as of today.

The problem which many big banks are now facing is that they're finding it hard to cope with customers and this has led to poor customer service. At Gtbank for instance and unlike most other banks, there are no seats given to customers waiting outside or canopies provided to protect them from the sun or rain. Infact, it appears as if they've been abandoned. This has made some of their customers to stop coming to the bank and switched to other popular banks such as Sterling, Stanbic IBtC, Wema and Fidelity bank.

If you ask me, i think the less popular banks are going to gain more customers during this covid 19 restriction because of the poor service delivery they've been receiving at their former banks. It's not just GTbank, but also First bank, Union bank and UBA that seem to have the problem but UBA seems to be providing faster service at their Ogunlana branch than Gtbank as there is hardly a crowd outside.
only a few banks in Nigeria now have the capacity to serve customer needs but the popular ones are seriously lagging behind and that may require them to do something drastic if they dont want to lose more customers.

More and more smart bank customers in Nigeria are now gradually switching to newer and less popular banks to get better service and will probably continue doing so as long as the big banks keep offering poor service.