Broadgate Mainland recently hosted ‘An audience with Jeff Prestridge’, inviting the highly acclaimed personal finance editor, Mail on Sunday, for an early morning session to hear his views on the world of personal finance post the financial crisis and how those in the communications industry should best be engaging with Jeff and his team.
Jeff is known to be a consumer champion and a big campaigner on issues which he feels affect his readers detrimentally. We asked him to summarise his latest thoughts on what was having the greatest impact on his readers currently.
The three years since the global financial crisis began have seen a significant shift in outlook for his readers and their families. Unemployment, the lack of employment opportunities for graduates and the increased tax burden – much of which is yet to unfold – are all taking their toll on middle Britain. A low interest rate environment is hitting the older sections of the community hard, as they are reliant on their savings, and inflation is outstripping them at every turn.
Added to this mix, woeful customer service from many of the country’s financial services providers is providing the unpalatable icing on the financial services cake, which is rapidly turning stale for many of Britain’s financial consumers. Let’s face it – that means all of us!
The lack of trust from Britons towards financial institutions is an interesting conundrum which won’t go away. According to a report in Citywire 16/05/11 only 8.6% of consumers trust the banks. That should be a major concern to them. Increased competition in the form of new banks and other providers should be the way to break up the cosy near-monopolies, and Jeff endorsed the newcomers such as Metrobank, as well as groups such as The Cooperative and The Coventry – who were all shown to be leading lights when it came to customer service.
According to Jeff Prestridge, “financial regulation has failed us all”. Vickers will hopefully go some way towards addressing the currently unsatisfactory situation, with its aims to create a fairer and safer banking system for consumers, with greater competition leading to increased choice on Britain’s high streets.
With regards to communicating with the MoS, the best thing to do is to communicate. If your company or client has taken a bit of a battering, rather than stick your head in the sand and hope it will go away, engage with the team, put your side forward. As Jeff Surmised, The MoS, like every newspaper wants to get a balanced story across for its readers.
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