All Time High for Customer Satisfaction at first direct

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM--(Marketwire -02/21/12)- first direct has achieved the highest ever score for a bank in a Which? customer satisfaction survey with 93%, beating the nearest rival by 5% and the lowest score by over 100%.

The survey is worked out using a combination of overall satisfaction for both telephone and online banking services and how likely those surveyed were to recommend their bank to a friend.

The bank, now in its second year as Best Financial Services Provider as voted by Which?, has consistently come top in customer service benchmarking both within and outside the banking industry.

Mark Mullen, first direct's Chief Executive commented, 'The one thing we've never done is stop trying to be better at what we do and our people work tirelessly to make sure they're keeping our customers delighted with the service they receive.

'The channels through which customers are talking to their banks are becoming ever more diverse so it's fantastic to see that we're keeping them happy on every level.'

Notes to Editors

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first direct facts

 

--  Winner of the Which? Best Financial Provider award 2 years running
--  Ranked first in the Retail Banking Satisfaction Study by J D Power &
    Associates for two years running
--  first direct has 1.16 million customers
--  950,000 of them use Internet Banking
--  420,000 customers use SMS message banking. first direct sends around 3.5
    million text messages to customers every month
--  first direct employs 3,200 people in 2,700 FTE roles at two sites, in
    Leeds and Hamilton (near Glasgow)
--  44% of first direct's sales are via e-channels
--  more than 1 in 4 of first direct's customers join because of personal
    recommendation
--  over 89% of customer contact with first direct is electronic
--  first direct handles around 135,000 telephone calls every week
--  first direct takes over 54,000 calls (40%) outside working hours each
    week (Monday to Friday 08:00 - 18:00)
--  first direct takes over 1,700 calls a day from abroad
--  first direct has been in profit every year since 1995
--  first direct is a wholly owned subsidiary of HSBC Holdings Plc

first direct provides both telephone banking and internet banking services to its 1.2m customers. It offers a full range of personal banking products including its award winning Current Account and offset mortgages.