Westpac scores highest satisfaction of Big Four but still far behind mutual banks

While Roy Morgan results showed Westpac scored the highest satisfaction at 81.5% in October of the Big Four banks, communications director Norman Morris said the real satisfaction pacesetters were the mutual banks with 89.9% satisfaction compared to an average of 81% for the Big Four.

Over the last 12 months the mutual banks have increased their lead over the Big Four with an increase in satisfaction of 1.8% points compared to 1.4% points.

Morris suggested there are many reasons the mutual banks remain well ahead of the Big Four by making customers feel valued, being transparent about product terms and conditions and having “fair and reasonable” fees and charges.

The Mozo People’s Choice Awards 2014 - based on more than 25,000 real customer reviews - revealed that Big Four bank satisfaction has largely increased in the area of convenience with ratings lifting from 6.97 out of ten in 2011 to 8.18 in 2014.

The Roy Morgan results indicated as the customer satisfaction gap between the Big Four banks begins to close, there is a reduced amount of competitive advantage for the major banks.

While personal customer satisfaction reached an eighteen year record high, all four major banks showed significantly lower levels of satisfaction for their business customers.

“The much lower satisfaction levels of business customers remains a problem and should become an increasing focus of the major banks as we have seen over the past decade with personal customers.”

“Low satisfaction among this group will not only be likely to impact on business growth and customer retention but have the potential to be a negative influence on personal customer satisfaction ratings. This is due to the fact that there is a very close connection between the personal bank and business bank of small business owners.”

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