Products, services and accessibility

Lloyds TSB (www.lloydstsb.com) provides visually impaired customers who require it with adapted formats of its literature, such as large print, Braille, CD-ROM and plain text. Over 25,000 statements a month are sent out in different formats.

In 2005 Lloyds TSB reviewed its in-house provision of other literature such as brochures, forms and letters and decided to work with MPH, one of the UK’s largest transcription agencies, to harness their expertise, speed of delivery and economies of scale. The group publicised this service via its retail bank’s intranet site and, as a result, “more customers than ever before are receiving items in different formats”. In 2006, 23,843 items were transcribed into alternative formats.

When Lloyds TSB’s corporate banking business unit decided to develop a secure electronic authentication device for all customers to sign on to internet banking, it recognised that this needed to be accessible to customers with visual and motor neurological impairments. Consequently, it developed and patented a new authentication card and reader in consultation with disabled users. The new card and reader are fully accessible and enable disabled customers to enjoy secure internet banking.

Lloyds TSB records details of all customer concerns on a database that captures disability-related complaints. One example was a concern about internet banking response times, where the service level agreement could disadvantage disabled customers who found telephone or branch use difficult.

As a result it is reviewing the internet banking service so that all customer questions are answered within 24 hours. This improvement “benefits all customers, not just those with disabilities”.