fantastic customer service! - but don’t just take our word for it

The Co-operative Bank and smile took centre stage on the leading BBC consumer affairs programme, “Watchdog”. Following a survey of 45 banks and building societies where consumers were asked to rate their banks for customer satisfaction, smile came a highly impressive second. The Co-operative Bank came in third, but reigned supreme over all the other high street banks including Barclays, RBS, Halifax and Lloyds TSB.

A total of 13,126 Watchdog viewers took part in the survey and the results were analysed by the market research company Mintel.

Respondents were first asked to select the bank or building society with whom they hold their main account or felt the most strongly about. The list included all banks that offered current accounts and day-to-day banking.

Whilst, Internet bank First Direct came first in the survey, it was us who came out as the overall winner in terms of a well-rounded customer offering with smile and The Co-operative Bank rated second and third respectively.

The report concluded that customers who voted for The Co-operative Bank were most likely to respond that the service has improved during the time with them. Almost 60% of Co-operative Bank customers said the service they currently receive has ‘improved or much improved'.

Over 90% of smile customers surveyed said that they would recommend their bank to family and friends, with the same number of smile customers claiming that our policies and charges ‘were clear and transparent'.

Of those people who had a complaint with their provider, a far higher percentage than average of voters who banked with The Co-operative Bank or smile said that it was ‘easy or very easy to resolve'.

The survey, although gauging each providers service offering, didn't take into account the additional ethical practices of each provider where we still clearly lead the way – sixteen years on from it's introduction in 1992 and we are still the only high street bank to have a customer-led ethical policy.

To see the full results of the survey, please visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/consumer/tv_and_radio/watchdog/