Not everyone who comes into the branch is happy to see me at first – even when I’ve known them for donkey’s years.

I started working at Nationwide in Macclesfield straight out of school at the age of 18. I still remember turning up on my first day in my new navy blue suit and tie – I was so, so frightened. I’m still there 33 years later – although it doesn’t feel like half that.

I’ve been at the branch so long I know at least 1,000 customers by name – those whose names I don’t know are in the minority.

I can measure my own life by their life stages. I’ve helped some open their first account as a child – and then, in what feels like the blink of an eye, I’m helping their children open their first accounts.

For about 30 years one couple used to come into the branch like clockwork – week in, week out – to check their transactions. 

They’d query ones they didn’t recognise and tick them off against their statements until all were accounted for. They did that until they were too old to manage it themselves. Then I helped their daughter take over using a registered power of attorney. She is now in her 60s – and came in recently to tell me her parents had both sadly passed away within a week of each other.

But last week a customer I’ve known for years came in to pay a bill, and she became rather frustrated with me.

She wanted to pay an invoice for about £1,000 from her builder – she thought it should be straightforward because she had transferred him money before. But when I tried to put the payment through, the bank details didn’t match those of the builder.

‘I’m sure it’s fine, Michelle,’ she kept saying. ‘Just put it through.’

But because I know her well, I asked her what she thought would happen if it turned out to be a scam, and I had sent it through even though I had suspicions. How would she feel then?

She agreed to phone the builder to check – and discovered that the invoice was fake. 

The real invoice from her builder had been intercepted by a scammer and the bank details changed – if she’d sent the money, it would have gone straight to them. She was over the moon when she realised what I’d done, and went out and bought me a bunch of flowers.

Customers do that from time to time, come back with biscuits or chocolates, when we stop them from losing money or help with something difficult, such as registering a power of attorney.

When I started working here in 1991 there were so many banks on the high street. But over the years, Royal Bank of Scotland, Halifax and Barclays have all shut down. 

And Lloyds is closing its branch in January, so we’re getting a steady stream of their customers coming in to open an account with us – I helped with four yesterday.

Some people think branches simply aren’t needed any more, but from what I see they have never been more important. Most people are happy doing some things online, but they still pop in to see us for reassurance.

When I started out there weren’t scams like there are now, but we’re seeing more and more of them, so people want to come in to speak to someone who they know definitely works for Nationwide, and not someone who rings up who could be impersonating us.

They trust us especially because many have known us for such a long time.

Sometimes I notice changes in customers even before they or their families do, because I have a chat with them so often.

There is an older man who recently started to ask the same question two or three times – I could see his memory was starting to go. I put a note on his file to say he might need a bit more help, and got him some extra support.

And sometimes people just prefer doing things in person.

Last month, 40 per cent of new Nationwide current accounts were opened in branch. That proportion is rising. 

However, so much has changed since when I started.

I remember there were rows and rows of files everywhere in the branch – so much paperwork. Now it’s all digitised. I used to work at the front desk, where I had a big wooden drawer to put all the cash in. Now so much is cashless. 

And I spent so much time dealing with cheques – now, when we process one, we don’t even have to send it off, we just scan it.

The uniform changes as well, to suit the times. For a while it was white and spotty – and it looked terrible. Then there was one with a detachable ruff that you put on the blouse – it looked smart but wasn’t nice to wear.

I like the latest one because it’s still smart and navy blue, but you don’t have to wear a jacket.

Of course, attitudes towards money have changed a lot. There is a worry that customers are

less careful, but I don’t think that’s the case.

Maybe it was before the pandemic, when credit was cheap. People were taking out loans to buy new cars, kitchens, holidays. 

But during Covid they stepped back and thought about what actually mattered, and since then I see a lot more people coming in to set up savings accounts and not so many personal loans.

Every day we get kids coming in to open current accounts – I must have helped thousands over the years – but I still love to see their excitement at saving up for a new videogame, bike or holiday.

I’ve got two sons, aged 22 and 25, and they used to think it was strange that I’ve always worked in the same job. When they were making decisions about what they wanted to do in life, they were under the impression that what they chose at 18 was where they would have to stay for ever.

But I think they understand, now, why I do it.

If you can get up for work in the morning, after so many years of doing the same job, and really want to be there and see your customers and colleagues, I don’t know why you would ever want to leave.

As told to Rachel Rickard Strauss.