Our New Customer Survey is sent out to everyone who opens an account with us. The main purpose of this survey is to monitor our standards and constantly improve, and since its launch we have had a high response rate, with 1,374 customers having completed the Survey in the past six months.

Over that timeframe, an average of 93.1% of customers told us they were satisfied with the overall process of opening a Paragon Bank savings account.

The application for a Paragon Bank account, be it for an ISA or a Personal Savings account, is all online, and therefore we focus on making it as simple as possible for all applicants.

We continually review the information we provide to customers, and by focusing on that, we have been able to ensure that from 1 November 2016 to 30 April 2017, 93.4% of customers rated the communication they received from us after opening their account as either good or very good.

We also seek to ensure that customers are satisfied with our service, something very important to us, and this is shown in the likelihood of opening a further account. Over the same six-month period, 87% of customers agreed that they would consider opening another savings account with us.

Why do customers choose to save with us?

We also asked our customers their top reasons for choosing to open a savings account with Paragon Bank. The top three reasons were:

1. A good interest rate – when deciding to invest your money, whether it be in a long term fixed rate account or an easy access account, it is always important to ensure you are getting a good return on your money. 91.2% of our customers said they invested with Paragon Bank because we offered consistently competitive interest rates.
2. FSCS guarantee of up to £85,000 – as with all UK banks, Paragon’s savers are protected under the UK's deposit guarantee scheme, and 85.4% of customers thought this was a vital factor when choosing a savings provider.
3. Online access – 73.5% of customers agreed that it was important to be able to operate their account online. As an online only bank, it is possible to apply for an account and keep an eye on your funds from the comfort of your home.

You shared, we listened

Receiving customer feedback has allowed us to make some enhancements to the way we work together. As most customers rate the service we provide highly, often our improvements come from focusing on those who require a more personal touch, or they’re a result of feedback from customers which result in us reviewing existing processes.

1. We made wide ranging changes to customer communications around account opening. Now new applicants receive electronic copies to their secure inbox to confirm their Products Terms and Conditions.
2. A small proportion of our customers operate their account on a Power of Attorney basis. Those customers often have very specific needs so we’ve spent time reviewing our processes, policies and procedures in that area to streamline where possible. We also produce a guide to help those applicants.
3. On maturity, we allow our customers to choose from a range of options for their funds. Providing that level of flexibility meant that some customers were unsure as to how to notify us of their choices – especially if they wanted to split their maturing funds across several products. We therefore simplified that part of our process and produced a guide to help those customers who wanted to know a little more.
4. Nearly 90% of customers pass seamlessly through our online identification checks and don’t need to send any supporting documentation to open an account. However, in response to feedback from those who do, we have expanded the range of documents we will accept to keep the process straightforward whilst ensuring we continue to collect sufficient proof of identity.

Keep the feedback coming! If you’d like to let us know about any aspect of our service, please send your thoughts to [email protected].