Barclays Bank gets feedback from SME customers |10 March 2014

Barclays Bank Seychelles have met small and medium enterprise (SME) customers who have been beneficiaries of financial support from them to help them grow their business and achieve their ambitions.

This was during a forum held last week at the bank’s Capital City boardroom.

The forum was hosted by Barclays Bank managing director Rakesh Jha in the presence of some of the bank’s staff and SME customers.

The SME customers were chosen at random to take part in the forum and among them were two beneficiaries of the low-interest commercial loans initiated by the Seychelles government and that commercial banks are easing.

The aim of the forum was to give the SME customers an opportunity to meet the senior management of Barclays Bank and give feedback on the service and the experience they are getting with the Barclays Bank.

“We are always happy to receive feedback from our customers and this forum is an ideal opportunity to hear their thoughts and how we can continue helping them achieve their ambitions in the right way, during 2014 and beyond,” Mr Jha said.

The customers who shared their opinions and experience were satisfied and grateful with the service the staff of Barclays Bank have been giving them.

But there were some issues like interest rates on the loans, and the high guarantee the bank asks before giving a loan and as a result most borrowers can’t match it as they do not have assets.
The bank has taken all these issues into consideration to better its service.

“I feel all the businessmen will appreciate if the bank has a follow-up with its clients. Call us now and then advise us for example when you see that money in our accounts are going down drastically. Don’t wait for us to come to you, you can call us and advise us on our accounts. We will very much appreciate it,” one of the businessmen suggested.

Another entrepreneur felt like the new generation of Barclays Bank needs to be more customer friendly and some had queries on instant money transfer from Seychelles to other countries through Barclays Bank Seychelles.

Others felt that the bank needs to decentralise its services since it is difficult for customers to find a parking space and they are also caught up in traffic to get to the bank and do their transaction.

The senior management took all the suggestions and comments on board and said they would give their customers more financial education to help them reduce their losses.

Mr Jha also took the opportunity to announce that the bank will soon be introducing the ‘chip and pin card’ that will help reduce fraud.

B. D.