British high street banks have been on the offensive trying to win over customers of late – not that they ever stop.

Cash rewards for switching providers, honeymoon rates, introductory bonuses, customer charters and even weekend branch access are just some of the carrots being dangled.

One major high street bank, NatWest, has gone as far as opening some of its branches not just on Saturdays but on Sunday too, revealing the lengths some banks are willing to go to in a bid to appeal to customers.

What’s it all for, though? Market share or a desire to improve the customer experience one would presume.

This burningpants scribe believes it to be the latter. Opening a handful of flagship branches in high visibility areas, such as the recently opened gargantuan Westfield shopping centre next to the London 2012 Olympic site in Stratford, has to be seen as a marketing gimmick.

Besides while banks may believe granting customers more access to their staff is a sure fire way to boost customer satisfaction, a more cynical perspective could be that the more exposure customers have to staff the more likely a disappointing experience will occur.

Why? Face-to-face does not mean better service, First Direct – HSBC’s online retail bank brand tops most, if not all, benchmark measures for customer service that you may care to look at.

This implies the drivers of satisfaction are not tangibly touching, smelling and feeling your way around inside a new state of the art designed bank branch but in fact a case of getting the basics right – if and when required.

First Direct offers low to no fees on most products and keeps it simple – with staff on the ground in the UK to answer phone queries, while being quick to embrace banking Apps and other forms of text-based and internet tools for customers wanting access to their banking activities, whenever and wherever they want.

Meanwhile, other banks have continued to run the walk-in branches where customers invariably have to physically wait in line in order to be served.

Most people prefer to be placed on hold on the telephone and more so if they’re stood waiting for 10 to 15 minutes.

So while opening branches on Sunday sounds like a “we’re listening to you” move by the banks – it is unlikely to boost customer experience as satisfaction happens elsewhere – and certainly not in a shopping centre on a Sunday.

Ad for FirstDirect on London Underground. Suggesting customers are not happy with their present bank.