Lloyds TSB has been using special video cameras to cut the amount of time its customers are spending queuing in branches.

The UK’s fifth-largest bank has installed special video cameras in 30 of its branches to monitor customer behaviour and track how long people spend queuing.

As a result, the amount of time customers wait to be served in these branches has fallen from 1.86 minutes in November 2004 to 1.46 minutes in March as the bank redeploys key staff at busy times of day.

The number of customers who are served within two minutes of walking into these branches has risen from 72.4 per cent last November to about 82.6 per cent in March.

The average time each customer spends in front of a cashier has remained stable at just over 2.2 minutes.  Lloyds TSB has identified queuing time as a major gripe amongst customers.

Graham Lindsay, director of the branch network at Lloyds TSB, said: “We have done customer research and two minutes is generally the gratification threshold.  Customers resent waiting five minutes or more.  Levels of customer satisfaction in branches are closely connected to waiting times and efficiency of service.”

The technology has been developed by Brickstream, the US technology company.

There are no comparable figures available from rival banks on how long customers spend queuing.  However, at Barclays’ annual meeting last month, Roger Davis, head of retail banking, said queuing times had fallen to three minutes at Barclays branches.