Barclays Bank is currently facing scrutiny for its recent advertisements promoting paid “mystery shoppers” to feign blindness in order to identify accessibility issues at their walk-in branches.
Shoppers were invited to tell staff members that their eyesight was “becoming increasingly blurry and/or spotty and the situation is not going to improve, so you are wondering how Barclays can help with your day-to-day banking”. The sheet asks for the shoppers to “provide your feedback from the point of view of a customer with a real vulnerability”.
The decision to hire mystery shoppers to effectively mimic a physical symptom of disability which manifests differently depending on the individual, has resulted in widespread derision in newspapers throughout the UK. Additionally, it has resulted in criticism of the branch’s lack of consultation with real disability groups and advocates, such as The National Federation of the Blind UK (NFBUK).
For Direct Access, the outrage is understandable and entirely justified, given how tone-deaf this approach to improving accessibility is. But what is most frustrating about Barclays’ well-meaning if severely ill-judged decision to hire non-disabled people to solve issues directly pertaining to disabled experiences, is that it speaks to a narrative that we regularly experience in our line of work, which is that large corporations simply do not understand the value of consultation when improving accessibility, which is particularly alarming when one considers the vast array of outreach options Barclays had when attempting this measure.
Organisations like The National Federation of the Blind UK (NFBUK), the Royal Society for the Blind (RSBC), and the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) each come to mind, as they exist to promote wider understanding of the everyday experiences of those with visual impairments.
Barclays could have also reached out to accredited access consultants like Direct Access to capitalise on services like Accessibility Audits and Disability Awareness training, which would have helped embed inclusion in every aspect of branch operations, from developing disability-aware management and customer service, to ensuring the availability of audio-descriptions on cash machines, to facilitating the removal of obstacles which might present hazards within banks themselves. Had Barclays received negative feedback on any number of these issues from disabled customers, it stands to reason that disabled people should have been the first port of call when looking to improve the physical, digital, and social infrastructure of their services.
Naturally boosting broad access to disabled contacts as a DOBE operated business enterprise, one of the most useful accessibility services that Direct Access provides is Mystery Shopping, which enables our clients to measure the accessibility of their sales and service quality by having actual disabled people act as customers, providing essential feedback for continuous improvement. By combining our knowledge of local and international accessibility legislation, best practice guidance, and personal experience of disability, we help businesses avoid the same pitfalls which have landed Barclays in deep water, promoting compliance with the law and promoting a culture of true inclusion within different communities.
When executed properly, Mystery Shopping offers businesses a treasure trove of advantages: it uncovers essential insights into the customer journey, serves as a powerful tool for communicating service standards, and provides a way to encourage loyalty among customers. Among disabled people, it has been noted that this social group is most likely to exhibit brand loyalty, which should be unsurprising if you are the least bit aware of just how inaccessible many services there are.
In the end, we can only hope that Barclays set out to do the right thing as a result of the widespread press coverage, and that business owners hoping to become inclusive to all are aware of the story and take swift note of their mistakes.
