Big Four customers dissatisfied
The Big Four Banks' personal customers' satisfaction levels have dropped by two percentage points to 79.5 per cent since May 2015 on the back of dissatisfied home loan customers, according to Roy Morgan Research.
Roy Morgan's single source survey found in the six months to October, satisfaction with the Big Four dropped to 79.5 per cent from 79.8 per cent in September, while their home loan customer satisfaction dropped 3.4 percentage points to 75.8 per cent. This was in comparison to a decline of only 0.9 per cent to 80.4 per cent for other customers.
Among the Big Four, National Australia Bank (NAB) was the only bank that showed improved satisfaction (up 0.7 per cent to 78.7 per cent) and bumped up to second place, leaving ANZ in third place (78.1 per cent).
The Commonwealth Bank led the way with 87.7 per cent satisfaction, while Westpac's satisfaction fell 0.5 percentage points to 76.8 per cent.
When it came to the largest 10 banks, mutual banks such as Bendigo, ING, Suncorp, Bankwest, Bank of Queensland, and St George all surpassed the Big Four in terms of banking satisfaction.
Roy Morgan Research industry communications director, Norman Morris, said: "Although bank customers have a generally positive view of their bank, there are some problem signs emerging".
"Despite the very low loan and deposit interest rates that favour borrowers, home-loan customer satisfaction with the Big Four banks has fallen even further over the last year, and is proving to be a drag on overall satisfaction," he said.
"We have seen in this research that customers who are 'very satisfied' with their bank are much more likely to be 'high advocates' than those who are only 'fairly satisfied'. It therefore makes sense to focus more on tracking 'very satisfied' customers.
"This is an area where the mutual banks and some of the other smaller banks remain well ahead of the Big Four and are the real pacesetters."
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