Revitalizing Customer Satisfaction in Retail Banking
Banks handle and protect our finances, so trust is a critical value they need to nurture. However, one glance at the 2024 US Retail Banking Satisfaction Survey from JD Power shows that trust in banks has been collapsing for over two years now.
What is going on? Customer satisfaction is a critical metric for banking, so why does the JD Power research immediately suggest that so many customers are unhappy?
These are just a few of the headline findings from the JD Power research:
Bank customer satisfaction flatlines while trust declines
Overall customer satisfaction held steady during the past year, declining a single point (on a 1,000-point scale), but trust is down significantly for a second consecutive year. The top contributors to customers losing trust in their financial institution are unexpected fees, delayed availability of deposited funds, news reports about bad banking practices, errors blamed on customer actions, and closed branches and reduced hours.
Customer loyalty at risk:
This year, 8% of retail bank customers say they have changed their primary bank, up from 5% in 2018. Moreover, 13% of retail bank customers say they “probably will” or “definitely will” switch banks in the next 12 months. Fewer than half (46%) of bank customers say they are certain they will remain with their current bank in the next year.
Account fees and poor customer experiences drag on loyalty:
Among customers who are likely to switch banks in the next 12 months, 29% say it is because they were charged either too many or high fees for products and services, and 26% say they had a poor service experience.
Back to the basics of customer engagement:
Overall branch customer satisfaction scores are 123 points higher than average (830 vs. 707, respectively) when banks deliver on the absolute basics of customer service, such as welcoming customers to the branch, delivering fast service, thanking customers for their business, and calling customers by name. Every contact and interaction influences customers’ experiences and their satisfaction.
This should be unsettling reading for any executive with customer service responsibilities. Fewer than half of your customers are sure they will stick around, and trust is in free fall. It doesn’t sound good. JD Power spoke to over 100,000 American bank customers to gather this information, so it is a very authoritative survey of public opinion.
But action can be taken – and immediately. It just requires focus.
The contact center is the beating heart of any customer service operation, especially in banks. Many customers perform most of their routine interactions using an app, but when they hit a problem, they call and talk to an agent.
The agents can really define how the customer sees their bank. They are the direct interface between the bank and the customer. A knowledgeable agent that quickly resolves a customer problem does more than just boosting a CSAT metric, they reinforce the trust that customer has in their bank. The customer feels supported because their problem was resolved quickly and efficiently.
The Bottom Line?
Banks need to pay more attention to the quality of these customer service interactions. Apps may handle most of the routine engagement, but the questions and troubleshooting will all come through your contact center. Are your processes designed to deliver customer satisfaction from the very first interaction?
