Kevin puts ANZ on top

The humble automatic teller machine has played an important part in ANZ's plan to lead its rivals in retail customer satisfaction ratings. The bank has found in its research that ATM access is a key part of the convenience that customers want.

Since 2004 ANZ has added 1000 ATMs to its network. The bank has 2500 across Australia and will have another 100 in place by September.

The bank also claims the highest number of ATMs per customer.

ANZ managing director of strategy and marketing David Lindberg said convenience was the word that came up most often when the bank asked retail customers what was most important to them.

Lindberg said: "There are three pillars of convenience:  access, time and transparency. Access is about call centres, branches, online and ATMs.

"Customers tell us it is very important to be able to find an ATM wherever they are, and that feeling has become stronger with the move to direct charging. That is why we keep adding machines to our network."

It is not hard to discern this obsession with ATMs at ANZ. The machines play a central role in the bank's advertising.

For the past couple of years it has used "Kevin", a robot-like ATM that pops up at crucial moments to help customers.

Kevin (whose name was chosen by staff in a company-wide poll) has taken on a life of his own. He has a Facebook page that went live in March and has gathered 4000 friends.

In April ANZ expanded the concept by launching a new television ad that introduced a mate for Kevin, "Kathy".

Lindberg said the payoff for the bank was a satisfaction score ahead of its peers and strong customer acquisition.

The latest Roy Morgan Research survey of retail bank customers shows ANZ leading its big four rivals and St George, with a satisfaction rating of 74.5 per cent.

St George is second with 74.3 per cent, followed by Westpac (72.1 per cent), Commonwealth (71.2 per cent) and National Australia Bank (67 per cent).

ANZ also leads a couple of regional banks, BankWest and Suncorp, which had been considered customer friendly but have suffered heavy falls in their ratings over the past year.

Lindberg is a strong believer in the value of customer ratings, which he says are a good indicator of net flow in customer numbers.

Between February 2004 and February 2009 ANZ gained 520,000 new customers, which Roy Morgan says is the highest acquisition number for any bank in Australia in that period.