According to Roy Morgan Research’s Business Satisfaction – Business Banking in Australia Monthly Report for March 2012, business bank customer satisfaction has fallen for the first time since July 2011, from 66.3 per cent in February to 65.6 per cent.
The decline parallels declining rates of business confidence in recent months from 118.7 in January to 108.9 in March, as reported in Roy Morgan’s Business Confidence Report March 2012.
The number of businesses that believe it is a bad move to invest money in expansion operations has risen from 44 per cent in February to 51 per cent in March, and is the likely cause of the decline, the report stated.
Micro businesses which account for 89 per cent of businesses surveyed have the lowest level of confidence, while medium and large businesses were reported as more optimistic.
From February, satisfaction with banks among micro customers fell by 0.8 per cent points and among small businesses by 0.7 per cent points, while medium/large businesses increased their customer satisfaction by 1.4 per cent.
Roy Morgan found business bank customer satisfaction levels are still well below the satisfaction reported by consumers: a February comparison of the two markets revealed business satisfaction was 66.3 per cent compared to 79.3 per cent for the consumer market.
The big four all scored poorly in relation to maintaining regular contact with business customers and following developments in their business or industry.
The NAB has been slowly inching towards Westpac’s number one spot with 67.4 per cent business customer satisfaction, now only 1.6 per cent behind Westpac compared to 3.6 per cent in February.
The big four average gain over the last six months was 3.2 per cent, although the NAB has been racing ahead to gain 6 per cent over the same period.
Bendigo has maintained its lead ahead of the big four, gaining 6.4 per cent over the past six months, while the ANZ’s lead over the Commonwealth Bank has been largely eroded, with ANZ gaining only 0.9 per cent points compared to CBA’s 3.5 per cent.
Of the four, Westpac performed best for micro businesses, scoring 67.5 per cent, followed by NAB (65.9 per cent), ANZ (63.6 per cent) and Commonwealth Bank (62.8 per cent).
The ANZ (66.8 per cent) led the way in the small business segment, while Westpac (71.7 per cent) managed to edge out the others to gain satisfaction among the medium/large segment.
