However, Ralph Norris, the freshly-minted chief executive of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, did it this week -- for the second time in the past few weeks.
He reiterated at a market briefing this week a stance first outlined at the CBA's 28 October annual general meeting. This included an acknowledgement customer service had not yet improved in line with progress on the AU$1.5 billion Which new Bank project, whose tech elements include a new customer management system designed to give the CBA a single view of its customers, an upgraded Internet banking platform and broader system and process redesign.
In a statement issued at this week's briefing, the CBA said Norris "expressed some disappointment at the bank's lack of progress in providing service in line with customer expectations".
Part of the problem lay with the training requirements associated with the management system, with up to 1,000 staff undertaking courses each week, Norris conceded.
However, he did point out that in the branches in which the new customer management system had been deployed, there had been a small, but discernible improvement in service and reiterated his support for the project in general.
There is more than a faint scent of politics around some of Norris' statements, given his relatively brief tenure as chief executive and the fact Which new Bank was very much the baby of his predecessor, David Murray. However, the reality is that the change management accompanying such a massive project is inevitably going to take a long time and experience hitches. Norris has, to his credit, got the tone of the external communication right in this case -- the temptation is always there to push the line that customers should just grin and bear it until a project is properly bedded down and the benefits properly felt, but that simply does not wash with either shareholders or customers. Publicly acknowledging the truth of the matter -- that customer service levels are lagging and need to be improved -- at least secures recognition that management understands there is a problem that needs to be fixed.
However, Norris' remarks are unlikely to change the community's generally disdainful attitude towards Australia's banks. Customers of the CBA itself would be a whole lot happier if they institution had not elected to slug them with a raft of fees for use of the NetBank Internet banking service from 1 July. While chairman John Shubert told shareholders last month the fees reflected "the cost of providing services to our customers," public resentment of bank fees and their contribution to the CBA's last fiscal year statutory net profit of AU$3.99 billion means such remarks are unlikely to gain much traction with customers.
What do you think? Can the Which new Bank project deliver better customer service? Are the CBA's Internet banking fees fair? E-mail us at edit@zdnet.com.au and give us your thoughts.
Iain Ferguson is the News Editor of ZDNet Australia.
