Satisfaction levels among the most valuable 20% of customers have been found to be much lower at the big four banks than at smaller lenders such as mutual banks and credit unions.
Researchers at Roy Morgan found that on average, 73.4% of the most valuable customers at the major banks said they were ‘very satisfied’ or ‘fairly satisfied’ of the service levels given in the six months prior to December 2016.
Examining each of the major banks, satisfaction levels for the top quintile (top 20%) were found to be lower than the average levels when looking at customers across the board:
| Bank |
Satisfied customers
(top quintile) |
Satisfied customers
(total) |
| Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) |
75.6% |
81.9% |
| Westpac |
74.3% |
77.7% |
| Australia & New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) |
71.3% |
77.6% |
| National Australia Bank (NAB) |
70.6% |
79.4% |
On average, satisfaction levels for the top four banks were at 79.9% – a figure which levelled out after reaching a peak of around 82% in the middle of 2015, Norman Morris, industry communications director at Roy Morgan Research told
Australian Broker.
This was after decrease in 2000 when satisfaction levels dropped to around 60%.
For home loan customers with the major banks, 76% were very or fairly satisfied – compared to the 80.4% for non-home loan customers. Satisfaction levels among home loan customers were split between the major banks as follows:
- ANZ (75%)
- CBA (78.5%)
- NAB (73.1%)
- Westpac (75.3%)
Smaller lenders such as Bendigo Bank, Bank SA,
ING Direct, and ME had higher satisfaction levels amongst home loan customers than non-home loan customers, Morris said.
“With most of the smaller banks, home loan customers are just happier and happier.”
The Roy Morgan research found that the three highest non-major banks were ING Direct (97.1%), Bendigo Bank (91.8%) and ME (91.9%).
Bankwest (79.8%) had the lowest satisfaction levels among smaller lenders which Morris said may have been a CBA influence.
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