New Westpac service culture still a work in progress
Steps taken by Westpac chief executive Gail Kelly to develop the sort of strong service culture that distinguished St George Bank have not made much of an impression on the business customer base, if the latest East & Partners business banking customer satisfaction survey is any guide.Westpac rates lowest among its peers for relationship manager penetration among small business, middle market and corporate customers.The East & Partners' survey, released yesterday, shows Westpac failing to achieve best practice in any of the factors contributing to overall satisfaction - pricing, convenience, quality of advice, range of products and services, access to dedicated banker, access to specialists and responsiveness.It also lags its rivals in customers' assessments of their relationship managers.Westpac has an overall satisfaction score of 4.61 (out of 10). Top of the East & Partners ranking is NAB, with a score of 6.59, followed by St George, with 6.31, Westpac, ANZ (3.91) and Commonwealth (3.7).All the big banks lost ground in the latest survey and the overall bank satisfaction score fell 2.6 per cent to 4.96.The factor that has had the biggest influence in pushing down ratings is pricing. Business is not happy about the repricing for risk that has been going on.