Sunday 2 November 2014

Loyalty and Fairness in Childhood and Beyond... #HelloNatWest

As a child the values of loyalty and fairness are instilled in you. From an early age we are taught about what's fair, we know the rules and we are brought up to believe that being loyal will be rewarded. As children the things we are loyal to tend to be our friends, our families and our sports teams. 

Loyalty to to friends is rewarded in kind, I grew up not being popular but having a small group of close friends, I was there to support them in tough times and when I needed them I knew I had a shoulder to cry on too. Even as we've gotten older and circumstance has put distance between us there are a few numbers in my phone book that may not be used very often but when they are I know they will be answered with a warm greeting and a listening ear.

Loyalty to family can be a bit harder. My parents divorced when I was just a baby and my father remarried and started a 'new' family. As a teenager I was often torn between wanting to get to know my step siblings and being 'loyal' to my mum as I knew that spending time with them upset her. It was a difficult situation but as I grew older I realised that by being honest with her I was being fair and I soon found a way to make everyone happy.

Loyalty to sport teams especially football teams is something that almost seems to be in the blood. My beloved Grandad was a true blue, he had lived with walking distance of Goodison park his whole life and was an Evertonian born and bred. My dad however was a Red, images of Anfield adorn his walls and 'You'll Never Walk Alone' is a theme tune in his house. When I was born the bets were on to see if I would turn out a Toffee or a Kopite. I have photographs of me as a tiny baby in my cot with two giant teddy bears, one blue, one red! As it turned out I was never really that into football and 25 years later I married an avid Man Utd supporter and now have a seven yea old Red Devil, so you never can tell!



As you get older and have more responsibilities you have more things to be loyal to. As a house holder with bills to pay, loyalty can often mean that you aren't getting the best deal. I'm sure we are all familiar with companies who offer incentives to new customers to tempt them to switch their business over to them. This can be the case with utility bills, car and home insurance and mobile phone and broadband contracts. Often you can speak to the company where your loyalties lie and they will match the deal but that is not always the case. I've recently been looking to upgrade my mobile phone and found that the offers that my contract provider have for new customes wold not be extended to myself dispite having been loyal to them for over 6 years.


One company that is vowing to put an end to this practise is high street bank, NatWest. They are launching a new campaign that says hello to fairer banking and goodbye to the sort of incentives that are offered to only new customers, such as short term teaser rates on credit cards and ISA rates that aren't available to existing customers. Other ways they are making their services fairer include warning customers by text before they get overdrawn and giving a little bit of flexibility when card payments are late.

Natwest realise that loyalty is important even as an adult and they want to show their customers that they really are valued and won't miss out on the best deals and rates just because they have been banking with them a while.

Natwest created this fun video featuring a talking sofa (with the voice of Dom Joly no less!)  to show how unfair it is to to give gifts to entice new customers but take them away again as soon as someone else comes along, it's quite amusing and certainly worth a watch...





I’m working with BritMums and NatWest on this project and have been compensated. All opinions are my own. 

1 comment:

  1. Loyalty must be respected and thanked for. I am so pleased that finally a company as big as NatWest are taking this on board and changing the current way companies treat their clients.

    ReplyDelete

I love to read your comments, thank you for sharing your thoughts.