Citibank surges in customer satisfaction stakes

Meanwhile, the report from Roy Morgan Research found the overall satisfaction level of bank customers has continued to rise.

The customer satisfaction level for all banks was 82.6 per cent in December 2014 – up 1.1 percentage points on December 2013, and only 0.2 points below the 18-year record high of 82.8 per cent recorded in November 2014.

Customer satisfaction in the mutual sector rose 2.3 percentage points to 90.3 per cent over the 12 months to December 2014, while satisfaction with the big four banks increased by 0.7 points to 80.8 per cent.

Looking at the banks individually, Citibank experienced the greatest growth in customer satisfaction – up 18.2 percentage points to 81.8 per cent.

HSBC had the next largest rise – up 13.1 points to 84.5 per cent – while Bankmecu’s customer satisfaction level rose 8.7 points to 94.7 per cent.

Norman Morris, industry communications director at Roy Morgan Research, said the flexibility of having many ways to deal with banks has proven popular with customers.

“Banks will be competing to become the leader in channel options and functionality as customers move away from branches which were the traditional strength of the big banks,” he said.

“The increasing focus of banks to create a customer base with a high level of advocacy and improved cross-sell will need to be generated by higher levels of satisfied customers.”