Santander will be reducing its branch opening hours From 18 July, and instead providing increased telephone support for customers
The decision follows analysis of long-term trends in customer behaviour, with digital transactions growing by 20% since 2020.
“The number of customers using Santander’s branches fell by 33% over the two years before the pandemic, a further 50% in 2020 and 12% in 2021,” Santander said.
The bank’s changes in personal banking will see branch opening hours decrease by one hour each weekday, with branch colleagues only being available for pre-booked face-to-face appointments if customers need support.
The move to supply more telephone support for customers will affect the Santander staff members working across the bank’s 450 branches.
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Santander added: “Santander has consulted its trade unions on the proposals and will be providing training for colleagues as they take on new skills and responsibilities on the phone.”
Introduced as a pilot during the pandemic, branch teams supporting telephone customers “successfully” helped 1.4 millions customers in 2021.
Santander head of branches, Richard Owen, said: “These changes will enable us to maintain our existing branch network while providing significant additional capacity to help customers who want to talk to us by phone.”
“We have seen a continuing reduction in branch usage over several years, both before and since the peak of the pandemic, with many customers preferring to transact digitally or contact us by phone.”
“We want to make sure we have the right mix of channels to help our customers however they choose to bank with us.”
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