ANZ halts slide in customer satisfaction but NAB still best among mortgage holders: Roy Morgan Research

ANZ recorded a lift in its customer satisfaction rating in August, reversing a slide that began soon after the bank announcing that it would make interest rate decisions independently of the RBA.

The move to go it alone from the RBA since January has been widely described as a poor public relations move.

ANZ’s customer satisfaction rating improved by 0.8 points – it still remain in fourth place on 73.9% but is only just behind Westpac on 74.7%, according to the latest Roy Morgan Research survey.

All the major banks improved their customer satisfaction ratings over August.

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NAB extended its lead as the major bank with the most satisfied customers, recording the biggest improvement over the month with a 1.3-percentage-point gain to 79.8%.

NAB leads the big four for both the most satisfied home loan and non-home loan customers.

NAB has had the lowest standard variable rate of the major banks for the past three years and has committed to maintaining this position throughout 2012 recorded the biggest improvement coming from NAB customers who increased by 1.3% points to make them a clear leader on 79.8%.

CBA remains in second place with 77.8% satisfaction but fell further behind NAB during August because it only showed a 0.2-percentage-point improvement.

But it remains well behind NAB in customer satisfaction for home loan customers (-3.5% points) and to a lesser extent their non-home loan customers (-2.1% points).

In August the business customers of the big four banks all showed a decline in satisfaction, which was in stark contrast to the improvement they all showed among their personal customers.

NAB shows the biggest gap in the satisfaction rating between personal and business customers, with a 16.7-point lower rating among their business customers. Westpac remains the clear leader among the big four with 66.6% business customer satisfaction, but Suncorp is the best performer among the major banks, with 72.1%.

Norman Morris, industry communications director at Roy Morgan Research, says the widening gap between satisfaction levels of the major banks personal and business customers should be of major concern as it is potentially an indication that in this uncertain economic environment more focus may have been placed on the relative safety of the personal bank customers at the expense of business.

“As a result, when the business outlook turns around the banks will have considerable ground to make up in order to gain and retain customers,” he says.