The new digital service, which allows customers to access savings and mortgage accounts online has been hailed a success following the response from customers keen to manage their finances online.
Swansea Online was launched in July following a significant period of research and development by the 97-year old institution.
It wanted to strike the right balance between allowing customers easy access to their accounts, especially during lockdown, whilst also offering security, assurance and choice.
Today, the society said it welcomed the ‘high levels of adoption’ of the new platform in the first four months since rollout.
It thinks the success was partly driven by Covid-19-related restriction. However, it kept all of its four branches open and operating throughout the crisis, while following guidelines around social distancing, to ensure customers had an alternative choice too.
Alun Williams, chief executive of Swansea Building Society, said: “We have been delighted by the way in which our customers have embraced Swansea Online and we look forward to encouraging even more members to use it in the future while adding to its functionality.
The important thing for us is customer choice. We kept all our branches open during the pandemic, ensuring all our customers could access their savings and mortgages in a way that works for them.
“Our priority has always been to ensure our members are comfortable with the security of the platform but also still have access to the personal service we have always cherished and built our business around.
“Whether a customer decides to deal with us in person at a branch office, by telephone, by post or online, the service they receive will be the same – friendly, informed, personal, professional and welcoming.”
Swansea Online allows its customers to view savings and mortgage account balances online, transfer money between society savings accounts. They can also use it to withdraw money from their Society savings account(s) to a nominated bank account.
They can also view previous transactions on savings and mortgage accounts and directly contact the Society’s trained experts and advisers using a secure messaging facility.
The online platform has been set up with security and online safety as a priority. It will be accessible from any device including smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktop computers.
However, Swansea stressed it was not a replacement for its personal, face-to-face service. Simply an additional avenue for customers to engage with its staff and products and an especially helpful one in the context of social distancing measures, which remained in place post lockdown.
