Barclays bankers don age simulation suits
Barclays employees have donned age simulation suits in an effort to appreciate the problems old customers have when banking in-branch, online and over the phone.
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Around 50 bank staffers have been testing life in the Produkt + Projekt-designed suit, which uses weights to limit limb movement and artificially impairs hearing and sight.
The testing comes after a suggestion submitted to Barclays' new crowdsourcing micro-site, Your Bank, where customers can share ideas about how it can improve its service.
The bank says that it has already taken measures to make life easier for old customers, introducing high visibility debit cards, audio ATMs and easier to grip pens. Meanwhile, 3500 'digital eagles' have been deployed across branches to help novice Internet users get to grips with online and mobile banking.
Unfortunately, no amount of 'digital eagle' assistance would have helped customers over the last couple of days because the Barclays online and mobile services have both been hit by outages. The bank has been placating customers on Twitter, assuring them that services are now back up and running: