Bank’s latest message to Islay: ‘amputees get used to it’

Yes, this headline is tasteless but it is the heart of the message Susan Rice, Managing Director of Lloyds Banking Group in Scotland, has sent to Gus Newman of Stormcats in Islay.

The matter in question is, of course, the continuing protest in Islay against the Bank of Scotland’s removal of their Business Manager from the island.

Like any island, Islay’s population is small but this is a go-ahead island with an unusually high count of major businesses – the famous Islay malt whisky distilleries; a strong entrepreneurial tendency which is seeing serious product development to support its tourist industry; and manufacturing businesses like Stormcats itself.

The services of the island’s Business Manaher have been replaced by access to a Call Centre in Edinburgh and the promise that an actual person may visit the island by appointment should the need arise.

The remote ‘service’ has already proved far from adequate in the experience of those who have had to use it. As predicted, there are problems with the capacity of distant personnel, from a very different culture,to understand the way an island business must live and work.

Gus Newman’s letter to Susan Rice was about passing on this analysis of the inappropriateness of the new ‘service’.

Ms Rice’s response to him was: ‘Thank you for your letter about the loss of the Business Relationship Manager on Islay which I received via email on 2nd December.  I have also received an email forwarded by Jim Mather MSP on 1st December.

‘I appreciate you writing to me to outline your concerns with the Direct Bank model that has been put in place on Islay.  The Direct Bank is not intended to reduce services to our customers on Islay.  The service is being delivered in a different way, and I am sorry to hear that initial contact with you under this model has been far from satisfactory.

‘I can understand how unsettling it is when a new service is introduced and there is confusion over who it is that is supplying that service to you.  I understand that all of your business interests are now being dealt with by Alan MacLeod and I hope this has gone some way to alleviating your concerns with the new model.

‘The model adopted on Islay has been in use for over five years in other parts of Scotland and our overwhelming experience is that the model works well for our SME customers.

‘I believe that the Direct Bank model will work well on Islay if it is given time.  I will also personally keep a close watch on how it is operating’.

Perhaps the seeming tastelessness of our title for this article is beginning to seem more like an accurate rendering of the situation?

The message is that, in time, you get used to living with what you’ve got and you forget what you once had. The message is ‘Get used to it. We think this is enough for you.’

Logic of course, is never the close companion of communications like this. Hence the removal of the Islay-based Business Manager is: ‘not intended to reduce services to our customers on Islay’. Statements like this can only be made in the complete absence of an understanding of the meaning of the word ‘service’.

If proof were needed that neither the Bank nor its ‘Direct Bank’ have any understanding of Islay, it is Susan Rice’s patronising assurance that she will ‘personally keep a close watch on how it is operating’. Her eyesight is unlikely to be any more attuned to Islay than her ear.

Gus Newman says it looks like time to switch banks, asking how you can trust a bank that doesn’t listen to its customers?

The truth is that none of the banks listen, Customers needs are of no concern to them. Customers are no more than fodder for their own very different priorities.

However, this is not a to suggest that there is little point in going along with Gus Newman’s line of thought. Banks – and others, can be taught to care – by losing business and finding that their supply of fodder is shrinking.

• Do any of the Islay distilleries have accounts with any of the Lloyds Banking Group components, including, of course the Bank of Scotland?
• Could they be persuaded to move their accounts too?
• Could island businesses, angry at the loss of their service, collaborate in approaching another bank as a group and see what sort of service they might collectively negotiate?

Such a specific demonstration of support by the island’s major businessses for their smaller and emerging colleagues would make the Bank consider the consequences of its actions,. It would also send a message about the communal nature of Islay, which is no more than the fact about this inventive and doughty place. Concerted action has a more significant impact on any large organisation than any individual can create.

In the end, if the Bank cannot be persuaded to act with ‘service’ and corporate social responsibility in mind, it could at least be shown what it has lost in its carelessness. And this would be noted.