Despite reporting a higher level of customer satisfaction, the mutual banking sector has been less successful at capturing customer dollars compared to the four major banks, a Roy Morgan Research survey has found.
In the six months to August 2013, 89.2 per cent of total mutual sector customers were satisfied with their institution, a higher proportion when compared to the Commonwealth Bank (81.1 per cent), National Australia Bank (79.1 per cent), Westpac (78.7 per cent) and ANZ (78.0 per cent).
When the survey compared the proportion of customer money held by the mutual sector and banks, each of the big four trumped the total mutual sector.
Overall, CBA holds 59 per cent of their customers' dollars, with 41 per cent held at other institutions. ANZ and NAB both captured 53 per cent of customer dollars, followed by Westpac at 50 per cent.
In comparison, the total mutual sector — including building societies, credit unions and mutual banks — captured less than half (44 per cent) of all dollars of their customers, with the remainder held by other institutions.
"A good customer satisfaction score can help to increase customer share, retention, loyalty and advocacy, but as seen above it does not always translate into capturing customer dollars," Roy Morgan general manager, financial services Steve Laue said.
"Customers are ever-increasingly looking for institutions that can provide banking services as per their needs and requirements."
He said the challenge for the mutual banking sector was to capitalise on the advantage they had over the banks in terms of satisfaction.
