CBA remains leader among Australia's major four banks for customer satisfaction

Roy Morgan data has named Commonwealth Bank customers the most satisfied customers of all the big four banks.

Despite recent events, including a money laundering scandal and having to refund around $10 million to customers who were sold “unsuitable” consumer credit insurance, Commonwealth Bank (CBA) clients have recorded customer satisfaction levels at 79.9 per cent in the six months to September 2017.

Consumer satisfaction with banks is down

Roy Morgan has found that satisfaction levels with banks overall has declined amongst consumers from 81.7 per cent to 80.8 per cent in the six months leading to September 2017.

Customer satisfaction with the four major banks overall has also declined from 81.7 per cent to 80.8 per cent in this same time frame. Although they’re still leading the four major banks in satisfaction levels, CBA did have a decline of 0.3 percentage points from August 2017, so they may not be out of the woods yet.

Source: Roy Morgan Single Source (Australia).

If you compare satisfaction levels from June 2005 to September 2017, the four major banks have all seen increases. CBA improved the most significantly, growing customer satisfaction by 16 percentage points, followed by NAB up 13.7 percentage points, Westpac by 10.2 percentage points and ANZ up 4.1 percentage points.

Mortgage holders are the least satisfied

Mortgages may be the thorn in the side of the big four banks customer satisfaction.

Roy Morgan data also shows that satisfaction levels for customers who have taken out home loans with the big four banks are well below that of non-mortgage customers. Over the last 12 months, mortgage holder satisfaction fell to 75.7 per cent, compared to non-mortgage customers with 79.6 per cent customer satisfaction.

Source: Roy Morgan Single Source (Australia).

Norman Morris, Industry Communications Director at Roy Morgan Research, says that keeping bank customers satisfied is a “major challenge given the many factors that contribute to the overall level.”

“Despite a small decline in satisfaction with the major banks over the last 12 months, [CBA’s] customers now have much higher satisfaction levels than they have averaged over the last two decades.

“This highlights the importance of measuring long term trends, as we have seen on many occasions that short term fluctuations are often misleading in understanding the bigger picture,” explained Mr Morris.

Norman Morris also looked to mortgage holder satisfaction levels as an indicator that keeping customers “satisfied” is a huge challenge.

“This research has shown that home loan customers continue to be a drag on overall satisfaction levels for each of the big four banks.

“Despite historically low home loan rates, each of the big four’s mortgage customers have lower satisfaction levels than that of their non-mortgage customers.

“This is despite the fact that the current low deposit rates would be expected to negatively impact satisfaction of non-mortgage customers,” said Mr Morris.

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