- About Santander
Bank Polska - Strategy
and Management - Customers
- Introduction
- Our priorities – Bank As You Want It
- Multichannel approach – anyway you like it
- Accessible to all – You can count on us
- Security first
- Excellent customer service
- Ethical communication – simple and friendly language
- Responsible selling and prevention of misselling
- Our approach to complaints
- Knowledge that pays off
- Products and initiatives for retail customers
- Products and initiatives for SME customers
- Products and initiatives for customers of the Business and Corporate Banking Division
- Corporate and investment banking
- Support to customers in financial difficulty
- Employees
- Social
Engagement - About
the report
Accessible to all – You can count on us
GRI:
-
[103-1, 103-2 and 103-3]
for Aspects: Service accessibility and the bank's openness to various customers, including persons with disabilities, seniors, etc.
for Aspects: Service accessibility and the bank's openness to various customers, including persons with disabilities, seniors, etc.
Go to GRI list -
[Custom indicator 10]
Measures implemented to improve access of disadvantaged persons to financial services
Measures implemented to improve access of disadvantaged persons to financial services
Go to GRI list -
[Custom indicator 11]
Number of bank branches with Barrier-Free Service Certificate
Number of bank branches with Barrier-Free Service Certificate
Go to GRI list
We are open to various customers. We do our very best to ensure that our products and services are accessible to every community and every person.
We have always tried to address the needs of people with different physical disabilities or vision and hearing impairments or particularly exposed to the risk of social or financial exclusion for other reasons (e.g. age, place of residence). In 2017, we focused on activities addressed to people with disabilities and senior citizens.
Our goals:
GRI:
-
[Custom indicator 10]
Initiatives to improve access to financial services for disadvantaged people
Initiatives to improve access to financial services for disadvantaged people
Go to GRI list
Barrier-free service
Since 2010, we have been developing a complex, multichannel programme called ”Barrier-Free Service”, which aims to provide people with special needs full access to the bank’s services and products.
Under this programme we are constantly increasing the accessibility of our services to customers with disabilities by:
- responding to the needs voiced by our customers (e.g. via social media, bank of ideas or expectation surveys),
- developing new solutions in collaboration with experts- leading Polish foundations representing people with disabilities, such as Fundacja Polska Bez Barier, Fundacja TUS, Utilitia, Fundacja Katarynka and Spółdzielnia Socjalna FADO.
We have also introduced improvements for people with reading or writing problems – solutions that help them submit declarations of will that are mandatory in the entire branch network.
Barrier-free branches
GRI:
-
[Custom indicator 11]
Number of bank branches with Barrier-Free Service Certificate
Number of bank branches with Barrier-Free Service Certificate
Go to GRI list
At the end of 2017, 167 out of 576 Santander Bank Polska branches were granted the “Barrier-Free Branch” certificate. This accounted for 29 % of our entire branch network in Poland.
GRI:
-
[Custom indicator 10]
Initiatives to improve access to financial services for disadvantaged people
Initiatives to improve access to financial services for disadvantaged people
Go to GRI list
Customer Service in the Polish Sign Language
As the first Polish bank, we introduced customer service in the Polish Sign Language in remote channels funded by our bank.
In 2014, our advisors in the Multichannel Communication Centre, who know the Polish Sign Language started to provide services to deaf customers or customers with hearing impairments via dedicated video calls, and since then we have been continuously expanding the scope of the bank’s accessibility to this group of people. Today, customers may get in touch with an online advisor operating in the Polish Sign Language via:
- Santander mobile,
- Santander internet,
- the bank’s website and mobile devices,
- mobile devices in bank branches,
- a trilateral conversation at the bank branch: a customer with hearing impairment, a branch advisor and a translator i.e. a remote advisor operating in the Polish Sign Language from the Multichannel Communication Centre. This is valuable assistance in the case of services and processes provided on the branch level. The initiative covers all the bank branches in Poland.
In 2017, we continued to expand services and processes for people with hearing impairments under the online advisor service. We noted a considerable increase in the number of interactions:
-
+117%
-
+68%
Cultural and sports events
In 2017, we took part in cultural and sports events addressed to persons with disabilities:
To learn more about our initiatives go here.
Congress of People with Disabilities
The Congress of People with Disabilities is a nationwide event organised by our bank every year since 2015. It is addressed to people with disabilities, their families, representatives of NGOs focusing on this group of people and representatives of institutions focused on disabilities, universities, etc.
The objectives of the event:
- to develop guidelines for the new support system for people with disabilities and underlying assumptions for the laws implementing the system;
- to define priority actions under our strategy of support to people with disabilities.
The Congress is preceded by regional conventions organised by partner organisations in different cities in Poland. In 2016, there were 8 events of this type, and in 2017 as many as 14 (in 14 regions). In 2017, regional conventions gathered more than 800 people.
All events related to the congress are always promoted in the media, both traditional (press, radio, TV), and electronic, as well as direct channels based on cooperation with multiple entities throughout the country (NGOs, central and local administration, public institutions, universities and research centres).
Santander Bank Polska supported the organisation of the Congress which took place on 25 October 2017.
3,430
The number of beneficiaries in 2017 (445 direct participants and 2,985 people who participated online).