Aussies still love the Big Four banks
But customers aren't shouting about it from the rooftops.
Despite some minor weaknesses over the past 12 months, new research reveals customer satisfaction with the big four banks of Australia remains at near-historically high levels.
According to Roy Morgan Research, overall satisfaction levels for May 2016 averaged 80.1%, slightly down from 80.2% in April.
This reduction can be attributed to a consistent dissatisfaction among home-loan customers across the big four banks - ANZ, Commonwealth Bank Australia (CBA), National Australia Bank (NAB) and Westpac.
Customer satisfaction with home-loans was 77.8% in May this year, down from 80.1% in September 2015.
The big four banks are relatively equal in terms of satisfaction. CBA (81.7%) levels remained unchanged month-over-month between April and May. ANZ (79.%) was also steady in May and remains as it was 12 months ago. Westpac (79.2%) dropped 2.1% in the year to May, while NAB (78.5%) has lost 3.3% in the last 12 months.
The ways in which we deal with the big four banks can be broken down into five separate categories and each of these channels has witnessed a decline in satisfaction over the last year.
As can be seen in the infographic below, mobile and internet banking are the most popular channels, while branch banking has suffered a sharp decline (-3.5%) in its ratings over the last 12 months.
The research also indicates customers of smaller banks and institutions are more likely to recommend their bank to others.Only about half (52.9%) of big four bank customers would endorse their bank. ING Direct (79.6%) clients were far more likely to advocate their bank's services, followed by Bendigo Bank (69.5%) and Bank of Queensland (65.1%) customers.
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