Supporting our customers as we grow

At Starling, our customers are at the centre of everything we do. Our aim is to make it as easy as we can for you to get the help you need, whether it’s for a personal, joint and business account. Our priority is making sure you can get the best out of the features we’ve built and that it’s simple and speedy for you to get help if you’ve forgotten your PIN or want some help making an international payment.

As our customer numbers grow, we’re trying to find ways to improve the support we give you. In the past six months to June 2018, we’ve grown by an average of 20% every month, which is why we’re rapidly increasing the size of our customer service team. In fact, over the last month, 26 people have joined the team, which now has 81 people in total!

Every single member of our customer service team is carefully selected, and everyone spends two weeks doing intensive training before spreading their wings as a fully fledged Starling. Once they’ve graduated, our Starlings will be on hand to answer your phone calls, emails and questions that come through live chat on the app. Building a better bank means building a positive, hardworking and friendly team and we’re very proud of everyone who works here.

FAQs

A big part of making banking better is answering your questions as quickly as we can. Our team are on hand 24/7 to do just that, and we’ve also made the FAQ section more visible so that if you’ve got a quick question, you’ll be able to find your answer in seconds without having to prep your phone voice or type it out to the team. The updated FAQs were released on Android last week and they’ll be coming to iOS in the next few weeks.

We’ve also included your customer code so that you can share this if you’re calling us and the team will be able to find your account details more quickly. If you send a message through live chat in the app, we’ll have your customer code already, which is why live chat is generally the fastest way to get in touch.

Video tutorials

At Starling, we want to give you the tools to manage your money better, and we want to make sure that you understand how our features work so that you can get the best out of the app. That’s why we’ve produced a series of video tutorials.

You’ll find these how-to’s on our YouTube channel, and they’ll walk you through all sorts of features, from how to lock your card to cancelling a direct debit, checking your spending insights or finding out your sort code and account number.

George Buckfield, Starling’s Motion Designer, who has produced the videos, says: “Each video shows a purple dot move through each step of the process, along with on-screen instructions in easy to follow steps to reinforce the visual directions. There are also click sound effects to show you when to tap the app. We’ll be producing new video tutorials all the time as we keep adding features and functionality to the app.”

The series currently features 15 videos covering features in the iOS app, but we’ll be rolling out different versions for the Android app soon.

Humans - not bots

Our customer service team work side-by-side in our east London office. They’re not bots, they’re real people, as they’re better at getting to the bottom of things.

The quickest way to get help is to start a live chat in the app, as we’ll already have your account details. Just go to the Account Management section on iOS or the side menu on Android and click ‘Get in Touch.’

Or if you prefer, you can ping your questions over to us through the live chat on our website or by email to [email protected]. You can also call our team on 0207 930 4450, where you’ll have the option to hold to speak to someone or ask for a call back.

We are family

No blog post about Starling’s customer service would be complete without mention of the Starling Community. We’re immensely proud of our online forum, where our customers can chat, share views and offer tips. We have six fantastic ‘Gurus’ in the community who have a deep knowledge of the product and a determination to spread the word.

If you’re a new or existing customer and you post a question or share feedback in the community, our other users and Gurus can join the conversation and help you out. Our Community Managers, Logan Allan and Ollie Wright, are always happy to join in and regularly pass on feedback to the rest of the team, and they’ll also step in if you need a hand with something. You’ll be able to see if someone is from Team Starling by the Starling badge near their username.

The community isn’t only a great place to get help with bugs or simple questions regarding Starling. It’s developed from a fintech focused forum to a platform where anyone with a connection to Starling can chat and share ideas. In the next few weeks we’ll be changing it up a little, so watch this space!

Looking forward

Every week, thousands of new customers open a bank account with Starling. Increasing numbers obviously create new challenges for any company as it grows, but as you’d expect, we’re committed to meeting them head-on and continuing to improve our customer service. From the people we recruit through to our systems and technology, we’re constantly developing our customer service process to make sure that when you need us, we’re there.

And as always, we only get better with your help, so if you think there’s something we can do to improve our customer service – we’re all ears.