Banks are hitting the mark with low-value customers, but higher-value customers are being left dissatisfied, new data suggests.
The Roy Morgan Consumer Banking Satisfaction survey has seen the satisfaction level of personal banking customers hit a record high of 82.2% in June, up from 82% in May. Consumer banking satisfaction is now at its highest in 18 years, the research company said.
But the news isn't all good for banks. While low-value customers showed high levels of satisfaction at 85.9%, satisfaction among high-value customers was 79.1%, while satisfaction was only 65.4% among business customers.
"Improving satisfaction among low-value customers should not be the focus if there is very little to be gained by doing so. The challenge is to increase satisfaction at the top end. The relatively low satisfaction among business customers is also likely to be impacting negatively on banks’ business growth, as the potential value to be gained from this group is considerable," Roy Morgan communications director Norman Morris said.
Morris said despite moves by banks to increase focus on business customers, business banking satisfaction was also lagging.
"Banks continue to lack empathy with their business customers, who require more attention and understanding. This is evidenced by the fact that these customers rate their banks very poorly on ‘maintaining regular contact’, ‘following developments in the industry’ and having a ‘good understanding of their business’," he said.
Amongs major bank personal banking customers,
CBA maintained its lead with 82.1% satisfaction, followed by
NAB on 80.4%,
Westpac at 79.9% and
ANZ at 79.1%. Over the past 12 months,
Westpac has seen the biggest improvement in satisfaction, but this has been driven by non-home loan customers.
Westpac home loan customers, however, showed a decline in satisfaction.
NAB also saw a decline in home loan satisfaction, while
CBA and
ANZ saw home loan satisfaction rise.
