Barry Howcroft

Consumer attitude and the usage and adoption of home‐based banking in the United Kingdom

This paper seeks to develop our understanding of consumer attitudes towards bank delivery channels. Accordingly, a questionnaire was designed to obtain information about which delivery channels consumers had used when acquiring four types of financial service. This information was then contrasted with data on how these consumers would acquire the same services if they had to purchase them again at some time in the future. The questionnaire also obtained information about the factors which consumers believed to be important in encouraging and discouraging the adoption of home‐based banking. In concluding, the paper discusses and assesses some of the strategic implications of the study’s findings for financial service providers.

An exposition of consumer behaviour in the financial services industry

Deregulation and the emergence of new forms of technology have created highly competitive market conditions which have had a critical impact upon consumer behaviour. Bank providers must, therefore, attempt to better understand their customers in an attempt not only to anticipate but also to influence and determine consumer buying behaviour. The paper accordingly presents and develops a model which attempts to articulate and classify consumer behaviour in the purchasing of financial products and services. The theoretical insights generated by this model are then used to examine qualitative research data gained from focus group discussions on consumers’ attitudes to their financial providers and their financial products. Finally, these findings are examined for the potential insights they provide to bank providers attempting to identify appropriate strategies which are conducive to increased customer retention and profitability.

The use of data envelopment analysis to monitor hotel productivity

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) was used to monitor and benchmark productivity in a chain of 15 hotels over a 12-month period. Quarter results were compared with each other and with standard accounting data for the same period. In this way it was possible to identify and study units which showed anomalous behavour in terms of their measured productivity and gross profit. These were apparently related to factors other than size or staffing levels. Advantages and disadvantages of DEA are discussed, as well as its potential for the motivation and appraisal of local management and for optimizing budgetary control.

Relative efficiency in the branch network of a UK Bank: an empirical study

This paper investigates the relative efficiency of a UK clearing banks branches using the non-parametric programming methodology. In addition to calculating indices of technical (productive) efficiency for all branches in the sample, this measure of technical efficiency is dichotomized into its constituent components, scale efficiency and pure technical efficiency. Finally, the non-parametric technique is utilized to investigate the causes of observed inefficiency in the case of one illustrative branch example in detail.

Relationship marketing in the banking sector: the impact of new technologies

Having finally embraced the concept of marketing, banks enter the new millennium in a increasingly competitive and fragmented marketplace, consisting of financially literate consumers and direct low cost competition from recognised high street brand names. As customers increasingly interact with banks through remote technological channels (e.g. phone, Internet, etc.) the implications for bank‐customer relationships are important. This paper, accordingly, reports on an international research study which explored the perceptions of senior bankers in the UK, Sweden and the USA with regard to the use of the Internet as a relationship marketing tool. There was unanimous agreement that the Internet had a key role to play in relationship management but there was far less agreement about the rates of customer adoption and the extent to which this could or should be influenced by bank strategies.

Customer involvement and interaction in retail banking: an examination of risk and confidence in the purchase of financial products

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to examine bank customer involvement and the importance of risk when contemplating the purchase of financial products.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is a discussion of the literature on customer involvement, risk and interaction forms the basis for a series of focus discussion groups and facilitates the design of a questionnaire. The questionnaire is used to collect information on bank customer involvement and confidence when purchasing a comprehensive range of financial products. The data is analysed using cluster analysis.Findings – The paper finds that the clusters provide evidence to suggest that the market consist of a number of distinctive customer segments. Although the research suggests that the market might be changing and becoming more “active”, the majority of bank customers are still essentially “passive”.Research limitations/implications – The sample size means that it is not fully representative of the UK banking population. The findings also ra...

Banker-Customer Interactions in Financial Services

The paper uses a series of focus discussion groups to examine the circumstances under which consumers of financial services perceive a benefit from having a banking relationship. Specifically, it attempts to understand what motivates consumers to form relationships with banks and to what extent this is determined by the decision making environment. To achieve this objective the paper draws upon the interaction and relationship marketing literature and examines banker-customer interactions when purchasing a range of financial services. The importance of the paper stems from the fact that it sheds light on the interaction mode and increased customer participation and, therefore, examines the opportunities for marketing, enhancing quality and improving customer retention.

Retail bank customer preferences: personal and remote interactions

The paper uses a questionnaire and a theoretical model of bank‐customer interaction preferences as the basis for examining the perceptions of retail bank customers regarding the use of remote delivery channels and the extent to which they still value traditional branch‐based face‐to‐face interactions. The empirical evidence suggests that despite the increase in remote banking, retail bank customers still place significantly greater emphasis on face‐to‐face contact. The implications of this finding are that if banks want to encourage widespread customer adoption of remote banking they must better understand customer attitudes towards alternative delivery channels and use this information to educate their customers on the tangible service benefits which emanate from remote delivery.

Contemporary Issues in UK Bank Delivery Systems

Distribution channels are an important means both of delivering products and of communicating effectively with the marketplace. In the basic bank markets, which have been traditionally dominated by the London clearing banks (LCBs) and characterized by the collection of retail deposits, the money transmission mechanism and a range of personal lending services, branch networks have fulfilled both these functions with considerable success. As distribution channels, however, branch networks have certain inherent disadvantages which have become only too apparent with the progressive deregulation of the financial services markets. Alternative distribution channels, particularly those which utilize advanced technology, have partially remedied some of these weaknesses by complementing and supplementing the branch networks. The emergence and very existence of these alternative distribution channels, however, has also introduced some far‐reaching and potentially challenging strategic implications for financial inst...

A Strategic Perspective on Delivery Systems in UK Retail Banking

The pre-eminence of the bank branch as an effective delivery system arose from the difficulties associated with marketing financial services. The branch provides a highly efficient mechanism for administering, collecting and delivering cash as well as a wide range of lending and ancillary services. Historically, branch networks arose to attract cheap retail deposits through the convenience of the branch location itself, and through branch-based payment systems. Indeed, the relationship between the customer and the branch underpins the whole banking process. However, the branchs exclusive function is tenable only so long as the assumptions and conditions that determined its historical position hold good. These assumptions are that the market will continue to respond to it, that it will remain the basis for patterns of competitive behaviour, and that more effective and economic delivery systems will not emerge. This article presents the view that these assumptions are in fact being undermined, particularly...