Customer service is paying off for the business support teams at Barclays in Bradford.

The number of firms that the mid corporate teams now help has risen by six per cent on a year ago which John Brown - the new area corporate manager - puts down to better treatment of customers.

The team is made up of 13 managers in Bradford, Keighley, Skipton, Huddersfield and Halifax with 30 support staff in Bradford and Halifax.

They deal with firms which have a turnover of between £5 million and £10 million and employ between 20 and 50 workers.

John Brown said: "The secret of our success is that we provide three people who can deal with each client so that if somebody is away when the customer calls for advice there is somebody there to help them.

"In December I had intense discussions customers about levels of service we are providing. The response was that we were doing OK because competitor banks were not offering three people who know about a client's business so we have won business that way."

The other big thing Mr Brown is encouraging managers to make more face-to-face contact with clients.

They are being provided with laptops to allow them to provide the sort of service in the workplace which was previously only available by clients visiting the bank.

"We are using the Intranet and Internet to provide information which allows our managers to have greater speed in making decisions about companies.

"This means they can given economic data and industry comparisons at the touch of a button," he added.

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