Business customers satisfied with their banks but not loyal
Banks have enjoyed a pick-up in business customer satisfaction this year and are recording their highest satisfaction ratings since 2010, according to Roy Morgan Research. However, loyalty (measured as the proportion of business customers who deal with only one bank) is low.According to Roy Morgan's latest business banking customer satisfaction report, the average rating for the big banks increased 2.5 percentage points over the past 12 months.The improvement in the average rating of all the financial institutions in the Roy Morgan survey was 2.6 percentage points over the same period.However, only two banks - National Australia Bank and Commonwealth Bank - have a majority of business customers using them as their only bank. The proportions were 52 per cent in NAB's case and 51 per cent in CBA's.Bendigo and Adelaide Bank's loyalty rating was 47 per cent, Westpac's 46 per cent and ANZ's also 46 per cent.The ratings were considerably lower for regional and foreign-owned banks. Bank of Queensland's loyalty rating was 36 per cent, Suncorp Bank's 24 per cent, Bankwest's 21 per cent and Citibank's nine per cent.Roy Morgan industry communications director Norman Morris said: "Satisfaction is still below the level that is likely to drive increased customer loyalty, cross-sell and advocacy."Westpac had the highest satisfaction among the big banks, with 72.3 per cent of business customers saying they were satisfied with the bank. NAB's satisfaction rating was 67.3 per cent, ANZ's 65.4 per cent and CBA's 64.6 per cent.Overall, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank had the highest satisfaction rating, at 85.2 per cent. Bankwest's was the lowest, at 57.1 per cent.