Westpac is one of the big 4 banks in Australia. For the time being.
Displaying an amazing insensitivity to its customers, Westpac recently raised the cost of its variable home mortgage product by 45 basis points following the Reserve Bank’s decision to raise the central bank lending rate by 25 basis points.
The other big banks sat on the sideline and watched Westpac being pilloried. Even Kevin Rudd, Australia’s prime minister, felt compelled to comment.
Westpac then released an 8 minute animated video justifying the rate rise. In a tone that was both condescending and patronising, Westpac explained that raising mortgage rates was analogous to a banana smoothie producer having to increase the prices of its smoothies because of a shortage of bananas caused by a natural disaster. The natural disaster for the bank was the GFC, and the cost of Westpac’s most basic input, money, had gone up. So costs had to be passed on. Geddit?
To make the explanantion clear to its idiotic customers, the Westpac voiceover borrowed from the traditional opening sentence of many a children’s story: “Once upon a time there were big, lush fields of banana crops..”
You can see the video clip here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbRo98A1zZQ
This PR disaster has gone from bad to worse. Some of Westpac’s customers are beginning to wonder if Westpac was borrowing money to lend to its customers from a different central bank than its competitors. After all, if Westpac had to raise its rates, so would the others if they borrowed from the same source. Surely?
Enter the banana smoothie industry. Unhappily for Westpac, the banana industry in Queensland, supplier of yellow finger fruit to Australia, had indeed experienced a natural disaster in 2005-6. As cyclones Larry and Monica ripped through the sunshine state, between 80 and 90% of the banana crop was destroyed. Prices of bananas rocketed.
Banana smoothie producers faced significantly increased input costs. Did they pass on those costs? With some notable exceptions, no they did not. As one smoothie producer said “Market prices vary from $10 a box one day to $56 a box the next day…. and you simply cannot change prices on a daily basis”.
Is Westpac listening?
Francis,
Great to see an Australian story getting a run on Customer Think.
I’m not a PR expert but clearly this has been poorly managed by Westpac.
Firstly, and this shouldn’t been seen as a defence of Westpac, but there are some macro issues to consider here – not the least being the Federal Government’s decision to allow Westpac and CBA to make acquisitions that have since allowed them to account for a stupendous majority of home loans since early 2008. This market concentration has demonstrably hurt consumer choice and has led to the recent situations where Westpac and CBA can simply do as they please.
So Kruddy may rattle his feather sword, in reality he needs to include his own Government in that criticism.
So back to your core question – is Westpac listening?
Having had some business contact with Westpac (I’m not a customer) I would say no. My personal opinion is that their culture actually prevents them from listening. So whilst they go on and on about community, and listening, and being different and better, at the end of the day – it’s lipstick on a pig.
They are so big now and have so many bright young things running around with bright ideas that they have entered this world where they believe they know what is best for their customers and are now culturally incapable of listening.
Mark Parker
Smart Selling
http://www.smartselling.com
I read that spinfex group in Sydney were responsible for the video’s creation. Wonder what they have to say about it?