Britain’s high street banks are being put to shame for customer service by their counterparts in the US, South Korea, Hong Kong, Spain and Switzerland, a study indicates.

Despite claims by British retail banks that their customers are well served compared with their foreign counterparts, the management consultancy Booz Allen Hamilton found that UK performance was only average.

In a study of 100 retail banks in 17 countries, Booz Allen said that UK banks were lagging behind the leaders in quality of service in branches, call centres and online operations.

The top-scoring UK bank for overall customer performance was the British arm of Citibank, the US giant. It beat all eight home-grown players in the study, including Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds TSB and Nationwide Building Society.

Booz Allen applauded Citibank’s branches, where waiting times were short, staff understood client needs, alternative product choices were offered and precompleted forms were used. Citibank’s call centres also were singled out because they offered 24-hour service and instant connection to bank staff.

By contrast, British banks were criticised for long waiting times in branches and their failure to have customer information to hand. UK bank call centres also came under fire because of the difficulty of accessing humans, rather than automated voicemail, and the failure to indicate likely waiting times.

Hong Kong’s retail banks came top in the Booz Allen methodology, scoring 2.78 out of 5 for customer service, based on consumer responses and a mystery shopping exercise. Switzerland, with 2.65, Spain, with 2.53, Germany, with 2.52, and Austria, with 2.41, all beat the UK’s 2.32. Of the six European countries in the study, only the Netherlands scored worse, with 2.28.

The world average was 2.23. The US scored 2.54.

Among UK banks, HBOS scored well for the integration of its multichannel offering, and Barclays was praised for the security of its online service. HSBC scored well for its service in Hong Kong, though less well in Britain.

The study also found that UK bank customers were much more amenable to buying and using bank services through online and other channels, as opposed to branches, than the global average.

Booz Allen declined to say which UK banks scored worst. Alan Gemes, the head of financial services, said: “UK banks are on a par with the average of retail banks globally, but are far from best practice.” They had, however, made a little progress since Booz Allen’s previous survey two years ago.

Good account

Rocket science it isn’t, but Booz Allen found numerous ways UK retail banks could improve customer service:

1 Tackle queues in branches. Allow customers to make appointments and introduce a concierge service in large branches so that customers don’t join the wrong queue

2 Ensure callers are not stuck in voicemail. Give indications of waiting time

3 Give power to sales staff. Customers hate being told they can’t complete the sale because the adviser does not have the authority

4 Do not tolerate “hand-offs” – the loathed practice of passing callers from one adviser to another

5 In branches provide privacy – the most important factor cited by customers, ahead of product knowledge, waiting times and ability to resolve queries

6 When providing home or office visits, try to ensure that the client sees the same adviser each time

7 Open call centre lines 24 hours a day

8 Make sure channels are “joined up”. Clients like to commence a transaction in one channel (eg a branch) and complete it in another (by phone or online)

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