Factors shaping attitudes towards UK bank brands: An exploratory analysis of social media data

Mogaji, Emmanuel; Farinloye, Temitope; Aririguzoh, Stella Article Factors shaping attitudes towards UK bank brands: An exploratory analysis of social media data Cogent Business & Management Provided in Cooperation with: Taylor & Francis Group Suggested Citation: Mogaji, Emmanuel; Farinloye, Temitope; Aririguzoh, Stella (2016) : Factors shaping attitudes towards UK bank brands: An exploratory analysis of social media data, Cogent Business & Management, ISSN 2331-1975, Taylor & Francis, Abingdon, Vol. 3, https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2016.1223389 This Version is available at: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/205900 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. 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If the documents have been made available under an Open Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Mogaji et al., Cogent Business & Management (2016), 3: 1223389 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2016.1223389 MARKETING | RESEARCH ARTICLE Factors shaping attitudes towards UK bank brands: An exploratory analysis of social media data Emmanuel Mogaji 1 *, Temitope Farinloye 2 and Stella Aririguzoh 3 Abstract:Social media provides a huge amount of data and rich market insight, and has changed the way customers interact with brands. This interaction is of great concern for any organisation as it transfers the power to shape brand image from advertisers to consumers. In light of the global financial crisis and the ensuing negative attitudes towards bank brands, this study has extracted 1176 comments on bank advertisements from the verified Facebook pages of 10 UK banks. These comments have been thematically analysed to identify seven key factors that shape customer attitudes to bank brands. The study presents the power of social media as a platform for brands and customers to engage and build relationships, especially bank–customer relationships in the UK, providing managers with important insights that can guide the development and execution of their brand-relationship campaigns. The fact that this study is based on real-life advertisements and reallife responses from social media network users can be considered as one of its strengths, as it does not suffer from various issues relating to experimental studies. Nonetheless, the study’s limitations and suggestions for future research directions are provided. *Corresponding author: Emmanuel Mogaji, Business and Management Research Institute, University of Bedfordshire, Luton, UK E-mail: [email protected] Reviewing editor: Len Tiu Wright, University of Huddersfield, UK Additional information is available at the end of the article ABOUT THE AUTHORS Emmanuel Mogaji is a researcher at the Business and Management Research Institute of University of Bedfordshire Business School. His primary areas of interest are ABCDE of Marketing Communications—Advertising | Branding | Communications | Digital | Ethics. He has published peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapter, and presented his works in a large number of national and international conferences. Temitope Farinloye is an associate researcher with Questbury Research Services, London. Bridging that gap between academia and the real world is one of her main goals as a researcher. She specialises in the area of marketing communication for service brands which includes Banks and Universities. Stella Aririguzoh obtained her PhD in Mass Communication from Covenant University, Nigeria. She has a first degree in Mass Communication from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. She currently teaches mass communication at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels at Covenant University. PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT We acknowledge that Facebook has given customers closer access to brands. In this paper, we present the results of an analysis of customer comments on the online advertisements of 10 UK banks in order to understand what shapes customer attitudes to banks. As it has been widely reported in the news that the global financial crisis has made people resent banks, we have identified seven factors that make UK customers like or dislike their banks. These factors relate to services, innovative products, charges and branch closures (in the wake of increased mobile and online banking). We anticipate that banks will look into these factors to see how they can improve their services, reward loyalty and offer good products. As well as providing more insight into UK bank brands, we have also been able to demonstrate the power of social-media data to provide us with an understanding of consumer attitudes to brands. Received: 30 December 2015 Accepted: 09 August 2016 Published: 29 August 2016 © 2016 The Author(s). This open access article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license. Page 1 of 15 Page 2 of 15 Mogaji et al., Cogent Business & Management (2016), 3: 1223389 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2016.1223389 Subjects: Advertising; Brand Management; Consumer Behaviour; Marketing; Marketing Communications; Marketing Management; Marketing Research; Relationship Marketing; Services Marketing Keywords: UK; banks; brand; advertisement; social media; Facebook; attitude 1. Introduction The global financial crisis of 2007–2008 eroded the trust and credibility of UK banks as safe places to deposit savings (MarketLine, 2014). UK banks were heavily affected by the crisis, resulting in the major banks needing government bailouts. Saiz and Pilorge (2010) acknowledged that the European banking market also witnessed unprecedented turmoil. It, too, underwent a period of massive uncertainty and change during the financial crisis. Banks’ engagement in various activities also put their customers at risk. Denning (2013) noted that “bad profits” were achieved through practices by the banks that were shady, but not strictly illegal. These practices included price fixing of London Interbank Offered Rates, abuses in foreclosure, money laundering of drug dealers and terrorists, assisting tax evasion and misleading clients with worthless securities—all of which further eroded customers’ trust in the banks. Barber (2014, p. 243) stated: “These days, bankers are widely viewed as greedy, self-serving, amoral or actually dangerous. Estate agents, even journalists, are held in higher regard”. Specifically, in light of the global financial crisis and the negative attitude towards bank brands (Kottasz & Bennett, 2014), the main objective of this paper is to identify the key factors that influence the attitude of customers to UK bank brands. The study focuses on the customer–brand relationship through social-media networks. To this end, we have carried out empirical analyses of comments on UK financial brands’ advertisements on Facebook—comments that explain customers’ attitudes to the brand, both negative and positive. Researchers continually seek a better understanding of consumer attitudes and various efforts have been made at measuring consumers’ attitudes towards brands (e.g. Spears & Singh, 2004; Voss, Spangenberg, & Grohmann, 2003). Most of these efforts have taken a quantitative approach with the focus being on US customers. Batra and Ray (1986) measured attitudes towards brands using a four-item scale (useful/useless, important/unimportant, pleasant/unpleasant and nice/awful); while MacKenzie, Lutz, and Belch (1986) used a three-item, seven-point scale (favourable/unfavourable, good/bad and wise/foolish). This study, however, uses a more modern approach to understanding customers’ attitudes towards brands, which is different from interviews, questionnaires or surveys. We analysed consumers’ direct engagement with the brands through customer comments on banks’ social-media channels. Facebook was chosen for this study because, as the biggest social-media brand, it offers customers opportunities to interact with brands and express their feelings towards the brands. As such, it has significantly revolutionised marketing practices and changed how brands and customers interact (Aladwani, 2014; Cheung, Chiu, & Lee, 2011). As Christiansen (2011) noted, social media offers rich market insight as consumers often discuss brands on those platforms and share their opinions. Bernoff and Li (2008) also noted that consumers’ willingness to share their comments publicly has increased the credibility of the data and provided reliable insights into their attitudes towards the brand. This paper is structured in the following way. The first section reviews the research on attitudes to financial services brands and customers interacting with brands on Facebook. The next section presents the methodology and research design of this study, followed by the results and discussion. The last section presents significant theoretical and marketing practice implications for academics, Page 3 of 15 Mogaji et al., Cogent Business & Management (2016), 3: 1223389 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2016.1223389 advertisers, brand managers and social-media marketing, along with the study’s limitations and ideas for future research. 2. Literature review Lutz, MacKenzie, and Belch (1983) were the first to research consumer attitudes to advertisements. They presented four possible response sequences that may follow exposure to a persuasive communication—direct one-way, indirect one-way, direct two-way and mutual independence. They drew five constructs from the core of all four models: advertisement cognition, brand cognition, attitude towards the advertisement, attitude towards the brand and purchase intention. These constructs have since been explored to provide a considerable number of empirical studies (e.g. Batra & Ray, 1986; Cacioppo & Petty, 1989; MacKenzie & Lutz, 1989; MacKenzie et al., 1986). Even though Papasolomou and Vrontis (2006) have suggested that a powerful brand enjoys a high level of consumer brand awareness, reputation and loyalty, attitudes to financial services brands have not received much attention in terms of how they affect consumers’ purchase intentions. For example, various media reports have suggested that the British public’s evaluation of the calibre of the banking industry has declined, especially after the global financial crisis, with both the integrity and the competence of the banking industry being questioned (Crowley, 2010; Wray, 2008). As well, many researchers have examined the personal circumstances and characteristics potentially affecting the favourability of an individual’s attitudes towards the UK banking industry after the financial crisis of 2007–2008 (e.g. Akinbami, 2011; Bennett & Kottasz, 2012). These studies found that public attitudes towards the banking sector as a whole deteriorated markedly after the financial crisis and emotions of anger frequently characterised individuals’ perceptions of the banking industry’s behaviour before and during the crisis (Cukierman, 2011). The banks are now making efforts to rebuild their reputation by offering different services in the competitive financial market and also by creating emotionally appealing advertisements, incorporating values that the customers can relate to and, in turn, will affect their perceptions about these brands (Mogaji, 2015). These efforts are aimed at pulling the heartstrings of customers. As Gill (2008) noted, rebuilding trust is top of the agenda for many in the financial sector, because customer confidence is paramount. Though building strong relationships with banking customers is considered achievable by using a combination of different automated channels (Sekhon, Al-Eisawi, Roy, & Pritchard, 2015), marketing communication is considered important in building relationships with customers because it provides the right sort of information to build trust and reduce the perceived risk in making a financial decision, as buying unsatisfactory banking services may negatively affect trust in relationships (Järvinen, 2014). DiMauro and Bulmer (2010) describe social media as a platform for discussing ideas, communicating experiences and exchanging knowledge. Social-media sites such as Twitter and Facebook have changed the way individuals interact. They provide a central location for online social engagement and a strategic means for building and maintaining a strong brand presence online (Wallace, Wilson, & Miloch, 2011). Since it was founded in 2004, Facebook has become a popular networking tool. Kujath (2011) describes it as one of the many social-media outlets enabling customers to interact with brands as an extension of face-to-face interaction through an online media network. Social media is transforming how customers interact with brands and how brand-related content is created, distributed and consumed (Tsai & Men, 2013). Brands interacting on the social-media network have the opportunity to find out what individuals are saying about their brands and even their competitors. Like any other media source, social media has become an important communication platform for customers to explicitly connect with brands, at the same time disclosing Page 4 of 15 Mogaji et al., Cogent Business & Management (2016), 3: 1223389 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2016.1223389 information about themselves (Chu, 2011). In addition, the ability to directly communicate with customers alters perceptions about the given product (Kwak, Kim, & Zimmerman, 2010; Richelieu & Pons, 2006) Prior studies have content-analysed companies’ Facebook posts to understand advertisers’ communication strategies (Bortree & Seltzer, 2009; Men & Tsai, 2012) and identify customers’ motivations for using social media in general (Chu, 2011; Gangadharbatla, 2008). Prior studies have also statistically measured customers’ responses to advertising on Facebook (e.g. Chu, 2011; Kelly, Kerr, & Drennan, 2010; Zeng, Huang, & Dou, 2009). Yin, Bond, and Zhang (2014), for example, explored the effects of emotions embedded in online reviews, while Haavisto and Sandberg (2015) analysed consumer emotions in online discussions. This study focuses on exploring the bank–consumer relationship as exhibited on social media. It draws attention to a social function that allows customers to interact with brands and for brands to have a better understanding of how their customers engage with their advertisements and brand. As Tsai and Men (2013) noted, academic research struggles to keep pace with the rapid growth of social-networking sites. Previous studies have used surveys, interviews and focus groups. Until this study, the possibility of analysing customers’ comments on social media to provide insights into their perceptions and attitudes to advertisements and brand had not been explored. This was a gap that this research sought to fill. Our study has not only expanded knowledge on attitudes to bank brands after the global financial crisis but also adopted a different methodology and data-set to achieve this. Many years after the global financial crisis and the advent of social media, which fosters the brand–customer relationship, what is the attitude of customers to UK bank brands and what factors influence these attitudes? This study aimed to examine current public attitudes towards the banking sector among social-media users by analysing their comments on brand posts. The research contributes to the growing body of literature seeking to understand customers’ attitudes to financial services brands, as well as provides insight into how brands can use social media to interact with their customers. 3. Methodology An inductive, generic, qualitative approach was considered for this research. This approach “seeks to discover and understand a phenomenon, a process or the perspectives and worldviews of the people involved” (Caelli, Ray, & Mill, 2008, p. 3). There was no prior objective reality; all reality is represented in uncovering people’s views and experiences. It should also be noted that the participants (customers/Facebook users) were not part of any interview or laboratory setting to elicit their attitudes. They were not asked any questions about their relationship with the banks, and there were no concerns about confidentiality and anonymity because, unlike interviews, their comments were publicly displayed online. All indicators of their attitudes towards the bank brands were derived from subsequent analysis of their online comments to the brand’s advertisements. Lane and Menzies (2015) argued that this research approach could be seen as a method of determining customers’ attitudes towards brands from observation only. Comments from 10 videos were analysed to understand the bank–consumer relationship. The 10 videos were selected from verified Facebook pages of the 10 banks. The basis of selection were: the video must have been uploaded within one year, between 1 December 2014 and 1 December 2015; it had to be more than 30 s long; and it had to have a high number of views, providing an initial insight into how well the advertisement had been received. The 10 banks included the top 5 UK bank groups—HSBC Holdings (HSBC and First Direct), Barclays PLC, Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS and NatWest), Lloyds Banking Group (Lloyds, Halifax and TSB [now part of another group]) and Standard Chartered PLC. These banks are considered the major Page 5 of 15 Mogaji et al., Cogent Business & Management (2016), 3: 1223389 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2016.1223389 players in the UK’s retail banking industry. Table 1 presents the list of banks, links to the videos, brief descriptions and other features of the advertisements that justified their selection. The top comments, as filtered by Facebook, were extracted, as they were considered more relevant to the advertisements. In addition, comment data-screening processes were put in place to inspect the extracted comments, identifying outliers and dealing with incongruent comments. Profane comments, comments that were not in English or those not relevant to the advertisements or the brands (for example, when people were just mentioning a friend to get their attention) were removed before coding. The comments (including clicking “see more”) and replies on the Facebook videos were then printed out and a serial number was assigned to each comment and reply. In addition, comments were also collected and analysed using NVivo10, a qualitative content analysis tool that incorporates a new web browser plug-in called NCapture, which is capable of capturing social-media data (in RAW format). This plug-in is capable of downloading social-media data for further analysis by the Table 1. List of banks, links to the videos and brief descriptions Bank and advert link Comments View Description NatWest http://on.fb. me/1YLrtB4 319 1,114,614 Through featuring a father trying to keep his household bills down, NatWest advertises their new rewards account whereby customers get 3% cashback on household bills Barclays http://on.fb. me/1PrS8lH 224 2,779,802 Barclays acknowledges that the future is being driven by the kids of today, so they show their efforts in teaching kids how to code and improve their IT skills Santander http://on.fb. me/1mJkOLX 168 357,393 Advertises the deadline for the Individual Savings Account (ISA) as a tax-free way to save or invest, suggesting that the majority of people aren’t aware of the benefits Nationwide http://on.fb. me/1ZwgQo6 151 534,331 Not advertising any particular product but using the metaphor of a scarf passed down through generations to present how supportive they have been to their customers Halifax http://on.fb. me/1YHfGcd 116 1,081,100 Advertising their efforts in providing fun articles and useful jargon busters to help explain the ins and outs of owning a home HSBC http://on.fb. me/1OSJTdW 75 913,020 Through featuring a runner buying coffee for a young girl, the ad shows how to make fast, easy and secure payments using HSBC card with Apple Pay First Direct http://on.fb. me/1kmOAEk 64 61,413 Advertises an app that transfers £1 to customer savings accounts for every swear word they utter, as a means of promoting the use of voice recognition on the mobile application Lloyds http://on.fb. me/1PrS59y 50 661,286 A thank-you ad to all the schools, children and volunteers that have raised money for BBC Children in Need TSB http://on.fb. me/1Ogl8Mt 5 3,280 Animated illustration advertising the TSB Plus account and its benefits Standard Chartered http:// on.fb.me/1VlInpQ 4 2,368 An ad highlighting Standard Chartered’s efforts to reduce their impact on the environment through changes big and small Page 6 of 15 Mogaji et al., Cogent Business & Management (2016), 3: 1223389 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2016.1223389 software NVivo. It facilitates the taking of publicly available data without programming expertise and arranges it into exportable spreadsheets. It also offers a variety of visualisation tools, including word-cluster analysis, tree maps, charts and word-frequency arrangements (Lane & Menzies, 2015). A model known as “grounded theory” was used to analysis the data (Strauss & Corbin, 1990). We considered grounded theory appropriate to the present study because we sought to understand a phenomenon that was continuing to unfold even after the global financial crisis. The extracted comments were coded following a three-part process that is integral to developing a grounded theory: (1) open coding—breaking down, comparing, conceptualising and categorising data; (2) axial coding—reassembling data into groupings or families; and (3) selective coding—developing core themes and relating them to one central concept, i.e. factors affecting attitudes to UK bank brands (Strauss & Corbin, 1994, 1998). As part of the open coding, all the extracted 1,176 comments were read several times. Every one of the comments was looked at, none was left out and tentative labels were coded. This was followed by axial coding, which established relationships between the open codes; we made connections and researched these codes in more detail. Among the relationships and associations that emerged were: activities by banks, word-of-mouth communication and customer experience, which all shape customer attitudes towards the brand. The analysis was rounded up with the selective coding where the core variables were integrated and refined, which included all of the central activities of attitude to brand. The section that follows discusses the key research findings around the seven elements that emerged from the study as factors affecting attitudes to UK bank brands. 4. Results In order to identify the key factors that influence attitudes towards UK bank brands, we present a thematic analysis of comments on social media. The main results presented are derived from the analysis of the 1,176 comments extracted from the advertisements of 10 UK banks posted on verified Facebook pages. The main objective of this study was to identify factors that shaped attitudes to UK bank brands. This section presents the study’s findings. It also presents the Facebook comments to demonstrate the depth of the insights that they can provide when applied to advertisement research. The research found that customers were able to freely express their opinions and thoughts about bank brands on social media. This is consistent with the findings of Mogaji (2016), who explored the emotional responses to advertisements on social media. There were indications regarding the grudges UK customers still held against the bank brands; some of them were a reflection of the banks’ reckless financial activities, bailout from the government (the aftermath of the global financial crisis) and the continued high salaries for bank bosses. 4.1. Customer services Consumers expressed their feelings about the customer services they had received from the banks. They highlighted how they had been treated and if they were happy staying with the bank or were considering switching. It was observed that the customers wanted to be treated nicely and have their loyalty appreciated. They also wanted banks to feel their pain and believed banks should be ready to assist them by providing helplines that can be reached easily. Page 7 of 15 Mogaji et al., Cogent Business & Management (2016), 3: 1223389 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2016.1223389 Positive Attitude I got money back from my bank to well done Natwest. And thanks to the lady at Rochdale branch for sorting out my new mortgage Lloyds Bank is very good bank. I like most its customer service quick and provide us valuable information. For me it’s a best bank. Lloyds were fantastic when I reported money gone from my account fraudulently Can you please send me more info about this please best bank going!! In my eyes English call centres as well which is added bonus Negative Attitude Absolute disgraceful customer service in the St Helens branch today. Seriously considering closing my account after 25years The worst customer service what bank could ever provide!! Need to sort themselves out!! Definitely changing bank… Very very angry. Nationwide are as bad as Barclays and the other entire nasty bank. I have just received a letter … I have been crying since I opened this letter. I have had 3days holiday and this is what I come back to. Self-employed, work every hour I can and you can’t catch a break. Due to some algorithm invented in an office by someone who has never actually done a day’s proper work in their life Always been impressed with Natwest, however when my 32year old husband passed away recently very unexpectedly, the bank have been beyond appalling. They are looking into my complaint and said I would be contacted by the end of the week, but surprise suprise no call! Very very upset by Natwest and this already very upsetting time! 4.2. Customer-focused products With an ever-increasing need to offer unique products in a market where most of the products are the same, the financial industry is getting more competitive in fighting for customers. Customerfocused products by the 10 banks seemed to be appreciated by the customers. This endeared them to the brand and improved their attitudes towards the brands. Examples are the cashback products from Santander and NatWest, which offer customers up to 3% cashback on household bills paid through direct debit. Customers felt that they could get something back from these banks. The First Direct swear app was well received by customers who acknowledged the creative idea and testified to how much they liked the brand. Positive Attitude We have 2x 123 accounts a joint one & a single one. Best account on the high street thank you Santander 123 account is very good. Glad I changed bank to Santander This is amazing!! Well done for a great idea. We are getting over £13 per month Fantastic idea I have just applied for this account to transfer my current account over. Banked with Barclays for 20years and never been given anything I’ve had 17pound back so far! Well done Natwest. Great idea Negative Attitude The Loyalty Saver is now very poor value with an interest rate of only 1.2% as a reward for 15years or more of customer loyalty. It’s a pity that Nationwide isn’t as loyal to its customers as they are to it. The best readily available rate for an easy access account with no loyalty prerequisite is now 1.6% Santander, I already have a substantial ISA with you and you have chosen to reduce the interest rate several times. I will therefore reduce my business with you 4.3. Charges This is one of the themes that emerged that often shapes consumer attitudes towards bank brands. Some customers felt that they had being wrongly charged and that, despite their financial hardship, banks did not seem to care but were apparently more interested in “ripping them off”. Though in most cases, the banks were entitled to charge consumers for an unarranged overdraft, consumers still did not feel they should do so. Nevertheless, in some cases, the banks refunded the fees. Page 8 of 15 Mogaji et al., Cogent Business & Management (2016), 3: 1223389 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2016.1223389 Positive Attitude Excellent bank helped me in hard times to pay off my overdraft with no interest will stay with them forever I have been with Santander since it was Bradford and Bingly, I have never had any problems at all never had bank charges as I always make sure the fund’s are available for my direct debits so that I don’t bank charges they have always helped me the staff are amazing in the Rochdale and bury branches i would never leave my bank Negative Attitude He won’t be happy when he grows up and gets a bank charge for £15.00 for being overdrawn for 15min It’s a shame you are not so quick to give the ridiculous bank charges back! I filled in an online complaints form, was told I would have a telephone appointment to go through everything with an advisor; nobody ever rang at the time… Forgive me if I find the … “we always try to treat customers experiencing financial hardship fairly and sympathetically” hard to swallow! Yeah how about giving me back my £3,192 of overdraft charges! NatWest, what did you ever give me except letters charging me £15 a go when we were overdrawn back in the 80’s. Now, I’ve got a few bob, moved to Santander and your bank never even questioned why I wanted to change. Now you know 4.4. Computer glitches Though banks are trying to embrace technological advancements, it has not always been plain sailing. Titcomb and Spence (2014) reported on how the taxpayer-owned RBS was fined £56m for an IT breakdown in 2012; and again Cunningham and Wallace (2015) reported another computer glitch that prevented payments to and from accounts at RBS. Even though some customers acknowledged the importance of advanced technology, it has not fully translated into hassle-free banking, which makes customers very unhappy. Because of these glitches, some customers could not engage in any transactions, which made them feel frustrated with the banks. Positive Attitude Love Barclays because there is no need for me to walk into a branch anymore. All my banking activities are done through my app including paying in cheques. Thanks Negative Attitude Not impressed with service received from Barclays following a faulty ATM … 3weeks later still waiting for my money back!! Farce Why did I have to queue up 30min yesterday to withdraw £500—I’ll tell you why, because you’ve sacked most of the cashiers and replaced them with machines that nobody uses because people like to do banking face to face? If you actually did market research you’d know this Been with Natwest for 30years, now they have changed our branch into an amusement arcade, (nothing but machines) that they frog March you towards whether you want to use them or not. Not happy at all. The only reward we want is some service, if we want DIY we will go to B&Q 4.5. Closed branches Customers also felt that machines had taken over many basic human activities in banks. They weren’t happy with the computer glitches, yet the banks were closing more branches, which meant customers had to do even more virtual transactions. Customers were of the opinion that the banks didn’t have their interests at heart by replacing human staff with machines. Those in rural areas also felt angry towards banks closing down branches within their areas. There seemed to be a lot of concern for those who did not have access to mobile applications, or who preferred to still deal with cash and cheques. Positive Is there any need for branches these days? I find the app, the Internet and phone banking more than adequate. I don’t have a branch in my village either … but if I did need to speak to someone in person I would do it at the same time as a visit to town Negative Natwest, it would have been nice if out local branch wasn’t being shut down next month and I will have to travel 9 miles to get to a bank Historic town of Glastonbury is having all its 4 banks closed … 2 have already closed … you just can’t help at all can you? Lloyds bank … so please don’t post your stuff on my wall Now how about pensioners in need? Having decided to close our local branch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Page 15 of 15 Mogaji et al., Cogent Business & Management (2016), 3: 1223389 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2016.1223389 © 2016 The Author(s). This open access article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license.