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Satisfaction rates among business banking customers slipped again in December, falling further below that of personal customers, according to the Roy Morgan Research Consumer and Business Banking Satisfaction Survey.
Despite recording only a minor fall (0.2%) to end December at 64.3%, business satisfaction continued to stand in stark contrast to the 78.4% satisfaction reported for personal customers.
Roy Morgan Research’s industry communication director, Norman Morris, says interest rate cuts appear to have had little effect on business client sentiment.
“The big gap between satisfaction levels of the major banks personal and business customers is probably an indication that in this uncertain economic environment more focus is on the relative safety of the personal bank customers at the expense of the perceived higher risk business customers.”
Morris says business customers continue to rate their bank’s ability to maintain regular contact ‘very poorly’.
“This particularly applies to the micro-business customers of…major banks who consider that their banks focus on the larger customers. Relationship managers obviously play an important role in interfacing with the bank, but satisfaction with them has declined over the last 12 months. Improvements in this area would be likely to have a major positive impact on customer satisfaction.”
