Bank customer satisfaction and Net Promoter Score slip further during Finance Royal Commission
New results from Roy Morgan shows that Australian bank customer satisfaction has dropped from 82.3 per cent in January 2018, prior to the Finance Royal Commission, down to 78.5 per cent in May and slipped even further to 78.3 per cent in June.
This represents a decline of 4.0 per cent points since January and is now at the lowest monthly satisfaction level since April 2012.
But still remains above the long term average of 73.8 per cent calculated since 2001 and well up on the 60 per cent in January 2001. Roy Morgan also measures the Net Promoter Score (NPS) for banks, which has declined in line with satisfaction, going from 0.49 in January to minus 4.03 in June.
These are the latest findings from the Roy Morgan ‘Customer Satisfaction-Consumer Banking in Australia June Report’ which is based on in-depth interviews conducted face-to-face with over 50,000 consumers per annum in their homes, including over 4,000 bank customers per month.
This large sample of bank customers over many years enables an accurate understanding of long term trends rather than being distracted by what in hindsight can often be seen as relatively short term events.
Dissatisfaction with banks low but a threat to retention
A lot has been published over the last two decades regarding satisfaction with banks, which has improved considerably from 60 per cent in 2001 to 78.3 per cent currently but the level of dissatisfaction also needs to be monitored closely. The combination of the 15.5 per cent of bank customers who are indifferent to their relationship with their bank (neither satisfied or dissatisfied) and those who are dissatisfied (6.2 per cent), means that more than one in five (21.7 per cent) bank customers pose a potential threat to customer retention, particularly considering that this has increased from 17.7 per cent in January 2018.
ING and Bendigo Bank have the most satisfied customers
In the six months to June 2018, ING had the highest level of customer satisfaction of the ten largest banks (based on number of customers) with 88.6 per cent, up by 0.5 per cent points over the last 12 months. The other strong performer was Bendigo Bank with 87.7 per cent but it was down by 0.9 per cent points over the year.
These two banks were well ahead of third placed Bankwest on 83.8 per cent.
CBA remained the leader among the big four with 78.3 per cent, followed by NAB (77.1 per cent), Westpac (76.4 per cent) and ANZ (76.1 per cent).
All of the big four showed declines in satisfaction over the year.
Big decline in mortgage customer satisfaction
Satisfaction with the mortgage customers of banks in the six months to June 2018 was 75.7 per cent, a decline of 4.0 per cent points from the same period last year and well below the current level of 80 per cent satisfaction for their nonmortgage customers.
The big decline in mortgage customer satisfaction has been a major contributor to the overall decline in bank satisfaction over the year. Among the big four mortgage customers the largest declines were NAB down by 5.3 per cent points and CBA down by 5.1 per cent points.
ROY MORGAN