Temporarily vulnerable consumers in a bank services setting

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore how temporarily vulnerable customers and their bank advisors cope with incidents that occur over the course of their service relationships. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative design based on ten case studies, involving interviews with both sides of the dyad (client–bank advisor) and internal secondary data from the bank, was conducted. Findings – The findings show that the two sides of the dyad span a gradation of coping strategies that are enacted to solve the incidents encountered. Thus, temporarily vulnerable consumers turn out to be non-passive in their asymmetrical relationship with advisors and deploy residual resources to co-create solutions. Research limitations/implications – The results enrich the knowledge of consumers' vulnerability insofar as the authors extend the transformative service literature to temporarily vulnerable clients who project themselves beyond the crisis period and consider ensuring satisfactory levels of their well-being. Practical implications – The findings suggest that banks can refine their categorization of vulnerable clients by identifying those that remain profitable and for which an effort is worth making, and those in whom it is appropriate to disinvest. They also prompt banks to design supports for the advisors in managing increased stressful interactions with precarious customers. Social implications – To prevent the risk of slippage by or exclusion of, vulnerable customers who experience serious banking incidents, the paper points out the necessity to mobilize alternative levers from the public and associative spheres to allow these customers access to a minimum of banking services. Originality/value – As an early exploration of transient vulnerable clients, this research fuels the understanding of their capacity to consider cocreating, alongside bank advisors, solutions to the incidents encountered with a view to preserving their well-being and ensuring their social and economic inclusion.