18 September 2007
Amongst the customer frustrations of the Northern Rock situation this week, it has arisen that online customers are being badly let down by the organisation’s website.
Unfortunately by applying to the Bank of England for an emergency loan, Northern Rock has sent a negative message out to its customers. Both high street and online customers have been bombarding the branches and website in order to access their savings.
The website had considerably suffered in the last few days, and whilst customers continue to access the site, the Northern Rock web team are dealing with the crisis.
The company has added a message from Adam Applegarth, Northern Rock CEO, to its homepage, which has resulted in the website’s Google page rank rising. For those that search in Google with the term ‘Northern Rock’ they will see:
May I begin by offering you my sincere apologies for any inconvenience you have suffered in dealing with Northern Rock during the last few days...
The message itself identifies that the website users have been specifically affected:
Customer service is of paramount importance to us and due to the circumstances that surround us, you have been let down. Thank you so much for your patience, particularly when using our website which has been running very slowly due to the number of people working online.
Many customers who have proceeded beyond the homepage have experienced lengthy waits for the page to load, and once loaded are greeted with a message that tells them the website is experiencing a high level of traffic and to please try again later. The company’s contact us page has also not been updated to reflect the crisis.
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