by Mike C. Villa-Real / First published on BusinessMirror April 9, 2025
THERE was a time when banks were afraid to go into the realm of social media. Back then, the main reason would be the banks’ unpreparedness in handling possible trending issues that would adversely impact its reputation and being able to monitor these threats before it could do substantial damage.
Today, of course, banks are now heavily invested in their social media channels. Some now have full digital teams to not only push their message to their intended audiences in digital, but to monitor any issues that may arise. These go hand-in-hand with human and AI-led customer touchpoints to address any inquiries, concerns or complaints. All this simply means better service and easier access for the banking public.
In 2022, the Philippine government enacted the Financial Products and Services Consumer Protection law or Republic Act 11765, which the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) implements through its Circular 1160. The circular’s laudable objective is to protect financial consumers via fair and transparent practices, sound market conduct and effective dispute resolution.
As bankers, whether we like it or not, complaints are feedback from our customers who provide business revenues, which in turn, give us our jobs. If handled properly, complaints provide insights into areas for improvement, service fixes and changes and even strengthen customer loyalty. Also important is being able to analyze these complaints quickly and to promptly detect and understand trends.
For example, if your contact center notices a slight uptick in the complaints received regarding mobile app fund transfers—that bears looking into right away. Or you’re getting more reports or social media posts that a certain ATM is usually offline—could be a hardware or connection issue that bears resolving immediately.
In other words, complaints give the banks an important glimpse of how their customers view our services; both good and bad. Proper handling and quick resolution are key. And hopefully, this becomes a factor and will remain loyal to your bank.
Having said that, Filipinos are not as vocal when it comes to complaining as compared to customers from the West. In fact, some just leave and transfer to competitors without a word. So it is important to note that when a Filipino customer resorts to filing a complaint, it bears looking into. Not receiving complaints may be good at a certain level. But, at another, I’d say more important level, it deprives the banks of feedback and even losses in terms of potential revenues and loyal customers.
So, my call to bank clients is: give your bank feedback and complain if needed. If you see our mobile app not working properly, or an offline ATM, send us a message via Social Media, SMS or call our Toll-Free numbers. If your bank doesn’t appreciate it or doesn’t respond at all, then it may be time to look for another bank.
Miguel Angelo “Mike” C. Villa-Real is a past president of the Bank Marketing Association of the Philippines (BMAP) and is currently its director for Publicity. Villa-Real is also the Veterans Bank’s Marketing Communications and Consumer Protection Group Head and may be reached at mcvillareal@veteransbank.com.ph. The writer’s views do not necessarily reflect those of the BusinessMirror and the BMAP.