Business banking customers have reached a new level of satisfaction, according to the latest findings from the Roy Morgan Research Business Banking Satisfaction Report.
Sourced from interviews with approximately 12,000 business decision makers as part of the Roy Morgan Business Single Source survey and 50,000 people from the Roy Morgan Single Source survey, the findings reveal the highest level of business banking customer satisfaction since the survey began four years ago.
The overall satisfaction of Australian business banking customers has hit 69.6 per cent, up from the 61.4 per cent registered back in 2010.
Westpac was found to have the most satisfied business customers, topping the big four banks over the last three years and currently leading with 71.6 per cent. NAB (69.6 per cent), CBA (66.2 per cent) and ANZ (62.3 per cent) followed.
The findings show smaller banks continue to maintain a higher average satisfaction level than all four of the big banks. Consumer satisfaction with banks other than the big four is currently at 86.6 per cent, while business satisfaction is going strong at 72.2 per cent.
“Banks have obviously been making a concerted effort to improve customer satisfaction over a number of years, resulting in considerable gains in satisfaction among both business and personal customers,” Norman Morris, Roy Morgan Research Industry Communications Director, said.
“A major issue now is how to improve the satisfaction levels among business customers and close the gap with personal customers. There is a strong connection between the personal and business banks among small business operators and as such a poor performance in one segment is likely to impact on the other segment’s result.”
Unsurprisingly, satisfaction levels correlate directly with the percentage of customers likely to recommend their bank to others. 51 per cent of Westpac customers said they would likely recommend their banks to others, clearly ahead of NAB (42.9 per cent), ANZ (42 per cent) and CBA (41.4 per cent). Bendigo Bank came out on top, with 74.3 per cent of their customers likely to recommend the bank.
“With a generally increased focus by banks on retaining and growing business through recommendation or advocacy, it is essential they also focus on customers being ‘very satisfied’, not just ‘fairly satisfied’,” Mr Morris said.
“Increased satisfaction levels among both business and personal customers will then result in more recommendations by these satisfied customers.”
