Phones crisis mars Lloyds' service

LLOYDS TSB has been forced to admit that the launch of its much-trumpeted service for small businesses has been blighted by its failure to hire enough staff to handle crucial phone calls. It launched the banking service for its 550,000 small-business customers in July, but has upset account holders who could not make contact by phone.

David Singleton, head of business banking at Lloyds, told Financial Mail: 'We didn't anticipate the number of people who would call, nor how often they would call. Our call centres did not have enough staff.'

The problems were made worse by confusion over the introduction of tiered accounts. These charge a management fee ranging from £10 to £50 a month, according to the level of service required. Rival bank HBoS, created from the merger of Bank of Scotland and Halifax, has said it will stagger the launch of its new small-business offering, which will try to lure accounts away from the Big Four banks. HBoS plans to compete aggressively on price and does not want to run the risk that it will not be able to cope with demand.

Businessman Tony Lewis of Club Communications in Gloucester described Lloyds' new service as 'abysmal' after being repeatedly refused access to his bank manager and being referred instead to a call centre. And the managing director of a small Wiltshire company said he was told that the call centre he was dealing with did not have the software to cope. 'It leaves me totally exasperated,' he said.

Singleton said Lloyds has now trained an additional 135 staff for its small-business call centres. He added that while some companies might have defected because of frustration over call handling, others had joined to take advantage of the new accounts.