Three of the Big Four register record satisfaction highs
Despite widespread complaints about "big banks" in general, Australian consumers have never been happier about their own Big Four members, says the latest Roy Morgan data. That's as long as the Big Four member is not ANZ.NAB, CBA and Westpac all recorded record customer satisfaction scores for October 2012, according to Roy Morgan data published yesterday. NAB now stands clearly above the 80 per cent satisfaction mark (at 80.4 per cent) and CBA is closing in on it (at 79.1 per cent). Both banks have made big gains since early 2011, when their scores were around 72 per cent.After a mid-year dip, Westpac has consistently pushed its score up in recent months, and it now stands at 76.8 per cent.But the ANZ has managed only a tepid recovery, to 75.1 per cent, after its score collapsed from a high of over 78 per cent registered through the first half of 2012. ANZ, which for several years dominated the customer satisfaction scores, is now the only bank whose score has dropped over the past 12 months.Some analysts believe that ANZ's collapse is related to its January decision to announce its lending rate independently of the Reserve Bank. ANZ's CEO, Mike Smith, said in August that "we are looking to see our customer satisfaction figures return to where they were" and that the bank was working on initiatives which would boost its score.Roy Morgan noted that the Big Four, with 78 per cent of customers satisfied, still trail mutual banks (91.4 per cent), building societies (90.1 per cent) and credit unions (89.4 per cent).Roy Morgan's industry communications director, Norman Morris, said the challenge for banks now was to raise the level of committed customers describing themselves as "very satisfied". Currently 34.5 per cent of customers describe themselves this way.Meanwhile, the monthly DBM Consultants' Business Financial Services Monitor shows ANZ continues to lag in satisfaction among business clients as well. It scored 6.9 out of 10 across all types of businesses in October. Westpac, on 7.4, just led CBA, which was on 7.3, with NAB coming in third, on 7.0.These rankings are little changed from a year ago. CBA scored the most notable 12-month improvements among small- and medium-sized businesses with a turnover of between $1 million and $50 million, while CBA and Westpac both lifted their scores among large businesses."What Westpac has picked up in the large business sector, it has lost in the small sector," said DBM managing director Dhruba Gupta.DBM says that around 20,000 business owners are interviewed each year for the survey.Note: A Banking Day report yesterday said that ANZ had recently climbed past Westpac in the DBM rankings. This was incorrect. Banking Day has corrected the website version of the story and we regret the error.