If you work in a bank as a cashier / customer service colleague, what did you do on a daily basis?

[whattodothistime11]

Trying to figure out whether to apply for a job in a bank in my local city. In would be in a branch and taking calls at home 1 night in 4. Please please give me your day to day of things that happen in your back. Is it stressful? Boring? Demanding? Fun? Do you enjoy it or are you looking to explore something new yourself?

Please, any advice would be great

I used to work in a bank years ago and my partner works in a branch now. The difference is incredible. Hardly any staff so you have to know/do everything. It's Lloyds and they are the only bank left in the town so really busy. All the customers are elderly and don't do online banking. Big queues. Every thing on the system (policies manuals etc) which is hard to negotiate. Massive scam warning procedure for every big payment transaction. The pay and benefits though are really good. Only been there a few months and just had a big payrise. Pension is good. Regular savings matched, sharesave etc.

Selling, lots of sales.targets, not much customer service. I'm so glad I left.

Thank you for your response. This is what worries me, while I'm great with people I really worry that you'd be given a flimsy bit of training for a few weeks then left alone to problem solve/ figure things out with nobody there to help. I just can't decide on what to do. I don't want to waste anyones time by applying if I don't feel it's for me, yet I can't decide if it is for me or not 🙈

I am a peculiar learner, it takes me to be shown things a few times before I get the hang of it, but once I do I'm happy to plod on. Im very cheery, helpful person so I don't mind the interaction but I just can't decide.

@Jonaskahnwaldplease what type of things did you have to sell? What happened if you didn't perform? Was the training decent?

@BobbyBobbyBobby 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 loves little Britain back in the day

I enjoyed it when I first started in banking in the early 2000s it was much more customer focused, where as now it’s all about sales and targets. I would never go back but I do miss the lovely branch I worked in. If you get a good team it can be a fab job. Unfortunately, I imagine it’s a nightmare as footfall will be really down so you will be expected to cold call and try get sales. It’s a sales role rather than a customer service role now. Good luck.

@Needsomethingtoread thanks for your reply. What would you be selling? I just don't know what to do. I wish I could try for a month then head back to my old job if I hated it.

You'd be trying to get people in for appointments so the customer managers or branch manager can then get them signed up for mortgages, loans, independent financial advice, whatever products that particular bank provides. You need to be very good at and confident with asking very probing, personal questions.

Obviously you'd be handling regular counter transactions as well, but they wouldn't be the most important part of the job from your employer's point of view.

I was glad to leave branch banking 25 years ago! I imagine it is even more sales based now, and it was bad enough then.

You'll probably be expected to get 'leads' for people to talk to mortgage advisers, life assurance sales staff, wealth managers, that kind of thing. They'll probably also want you to sell savings accounts, encourage people to move to online/app banking, even to people who say they aren't comfortable with technology.

The cashiering itself was OK, but the customer service (usually complaints and things gone wrong) wasn't so good at times. The sales targets were very hard to achieve, even for a person comfortable with trying to sell something to nearly every customer they served. There is just so much competition now, with the advent of online quotes etc; I can't bear to think how much harder the job will be now.
And they've added taking calls at night as just an ordinary part if the job? Wow. What do you do if you don't know the answer or how to help? I guess it'll be a case if telling the customer you'll have to call them back in the morning.

I dont want to be too negative but I saw branch banking move from being a customer service to a sales pitch. And this was years ago.

Yep it was the personal questioning I hated. People just wanted a bank account or a loan etc why do I need to know their hobbies? (Answer: to then convince that they needed a savings account to pay for said hobby/holiday/car and ooh you need insurance for that phone dont you?) Horrendous. They say its to.prevent fraud but that's bollocks.

I was on a pdp for years because I only gave customers what they asked for and if they didn't want anything else i wouldn't be pushy.. Then I got a really good redundancy package. I still have nightmares where I'm back at the bank being bollocked because I wouldn't make a customer have insurance on their loan. I'm not surprised there was a misselling scandal, we were all forced to do it!

Oh my goodness these responses all sound truly awful!!!

You would also be responsible for balancing your till and the end of the day which can be stressful if you have made an error and you may end up staying behind to try and find the error.

You will need to know the products and will be able to use the online tools to help answer queries.

You will carry out customer transactions from deposits, withdrawals, bank transfers, international transfers, cheque withdrawal and deposits.
You will verify ID, and also be trained to spot scams and how to prevent money laundering.
Depending on the bank eventually you may be trained and given more responsibility such as balancing the whole safe, being a key holder.
You will also need to hit targets this will be for example booking x amount of appoints with mortgage advisor, and sales advisors etc.

Depending on the bank or building society you may also open accounts.

I loved it when I was a cashier in a bank but it can be very stressful when you need to hit targets and when you have awful customers shouting or threatening.

I loved getting the regulars in and knowing you have made someone's day that but easier by helping them.

I've worked in 3 banks/ building societies.
The best training i found was learning on the till with an experience member of staff training you.
Different banks will have different training methods but all banks will train you.

I worked in a bank 25 years ago. Banknotes and coinage are filthy stuff. £500 in pound coins is surprisingly heavy. When I worked for one the threat of a bank raid was quite high (I worked staff who had been threatened by a gun) but in latter years there was more cyber crime.

Think I'll scrap that and apply for tesco lol all the staff in my local Tesco seem happy and chilled 🤣

I've been really shocked at the response here. Pouring a large wine as we speak

It definitely use to be a better environment but honestly you couldn't pay me enough to go back.
Tesco much better bet and honestly probably better paid.
Plus you get discount. Haha

I’m surprised that branches are actively recruiting. They’re closing in significant numbers around here. It doesn’t seem like a stable job although I guess they’d redeploy you if the branch closed.

I failed a mystery shop as when the gentleman I was talking with told me he was a stay at home father on a day out without his young kids for a change, I said I won't keep him from his peaceful day and sent him on his way after a brief chat and a coffee. 😂

What I should have done was discuss his family and offer kids savings, family protection insurance and our will writing service.

All I could think about was the last thing I'd want to be doing on a rare day to myself is be stuck in the bank so why would I keep him there.

I left soon after. 😀