How Starling Bank Became the U.K’s No.1 Digital Challenger Bank for Customer Service
It’s been just 2 years since Starling Bank opened its mobile only banking app to the public on the Apple App Store.
Founded in 2014 by tech entrepreneur and banking veteran, Anne Boden, with a mission to help people manage their finances in a digital, intelligent and intuitive way, the Starling story has rapidly evolved against a backdrop of changing consumer attitudes and a tired old banking system, paralysed with inertia.
For Starling this has seen over £200+ million invested, attracting a diverse and passionate team of more than 600 technologists, artists, money experts and designers committed to changing the face of British banking. With a debut television commercial, and a new book currently on the shelves, public awareness and recognition in brand Starling is on the up.
Together with a visible and active CEO leading her team into battle, team Starling are seizing the day, proactively encouraging the conversation with customers on social media, hitting new milestones and ranking as the U.K’s №1 Digital Challenger Bank for Customer Service on the HelpHandles Index
Summary
With a fearless CEO leading from the front and fast becoming a national treasure, Starling are using a powerful combination of traditional media, and social media to openly engage in the conversation and emerge as the U.K’s No.1 Digital Challenger Bank for Customer Service.
*Accounts are programmatically scored out of 100 on our performance index across four metrics. Inbound mention volumes (25%), Response Rate (25%), Responses under 30 mins (25%) and Sentiment (25%). All metrics are available and updated every hour on HelpHandles.comTrack Starling Bank on HelpHandles.com
Response Time
With over 40k followers on Twitter, Starling have certainly upped their customer service game, if you drop them a tweet you will mostly likely receive a response in under 30mins or so, no complaints, right?
Inbound volume
With a brand new television commercial, Starling have seen an increase in volumes on Twitter over the last 8 weeks, receiving over 7,500 mentions well over the average for the financial category on HelpHandles.com
Response rate
The Starling team worked hard over the last 8 weeks responding to 2,658 (35%) of mentions received…
Responses under 30mins
…of which 2,339 (88%) of those mentions were responded to quickly in under 30mins.
Coverage
The Starling team work around the clock to respond to customers on Twitter, with the team at its most busiest at 11am, through to 8pm, where support starts to drop off.
Top Hashtags
Most popular hashtags over the last 8 weeks have been around the popular tv ad campaign #feelgoodaboutmoney and #askstarling support…
Sentiment
The Starling Bank team encourage the conversation with customers on Twitter and by keeping the conversation open, they get instant feedback in real time, while also seeing positive sentiment among conversations with customers.
Competition
Starling are keen to encourage healthy competition and regularly promote their rivalry alongside fintech counter parts Monzo…
Conclusion
Who said TV was Dead?
TV is now social and interactive. With the popularity of second screening on the rise among Twitter users (those who simultaneously watch television and interact with brands on their mobile devices) Starling, like the other retail banks have realised a unique opportunity to reach the consumer in their homes and on their devices, with a powerful combination of traditional television advertising reach for brand awareness and engaging with customers in real time on social media to create positive affinity in the brand.
Starling’s growth much like its competitor Monzo has been impressive, showing a clear appetite from consumers for an alternative to traditional British banks.
With Monzo reportedly squeezing market share on Starling, and both kicking traditional incumbents into transformative action, competition is certainly bright and healthy in the retail banking space.
We can now see a very public battle emerging with big advertising campaigns on commercial TV, and healthy conversations on public social media channels the retail banks in both digital and traditional markets are now engaged in an all out war with Starling, Monzo, Santander and NatWest all battling it out for the Customer on social media…watch this space for further developments…
