The Standard Bank Menlyn Branch is frustratingly slow and ineffective

The manner in which the Standard Bank Menlyn Branch operates is so ineffective that in my last 2 visits I felt like crying out of frustration.

Today was my second attempt to get a new card since mine (was about to and) has now expired. Both times I waited for over 1,5 hours to be called. I had to give up my space the first time, because I couldn't wait any longer due to other obligations.

Standard Bank clients sitting in the waiting area around me were anxiously bouncing their legs, holding their heads in their hands, shaking their heads or looking incredibly sad. Today, names were being called out with no answer, because many customers decided to rage-quit and walk out.

The way in which the client queues are managed is unclear to many customers, since they think the line in which they sit indicates how many people are in the queue before them. It is not explained properly that they have been added to a list and can sit anywhere until their names are called by an assistant.

Assistants are working at a snail's pace, taking unnecessarily long per client. They make small talk with clients and banter with their colleagues, while we have to sit watching them like school children with fingers on the lips. No one dare complain or the security guard will tell you to be patient and sit back down or leave.

Assistants seem to have to walk to the front desk every time they finish with a client to get the name of the next person in the queue. Surely this is not the most effective way to run your branch efficiently? There were so few operational help desks that I wonder why you bothered to construct so may in the first place. One assistant were taking up a desk while scanning packs of envelope bar codes, while she surely could be of more use to clients during rush hours?

I'm deeply disappointed in Standard Bank's Menlyn Branch and am unfortunately making plans to move over to another bank in 2022. I feel it's my duty to report this, also on behalf of all the lovely people sitting alongside me during these 1,5 hours we'll never get back.