Business customers are not satisfied with the major banks, according to a survey from Roy Morgan Research, with results suggesting the majors are "struggling" to mirror the satisfaction ratings from their personal customers.
The satisfaction of the big four banks' business customers in March was 64 per cent, down from 64.9 per cent 12 months ago. However, the March result was up 0.1 percentage points from February, indicating satisfaction may have steadied.
Westpac has the highest satisfaction levels at 67.9 per cent satisfaction, followed by NAB at 63.9 per cent, CBA at 63.7 per cent and ANZ at 60.4 per cent, according to the survey.
CBA and Westpac both improved by 0.5 percentage points over the past 12 months, with NAB and ANZ declining by 1.9 percentage points and 3.5 percentage points respectively.
"I think the major problem is the banks don't really take a great deal of interest in or have knowledge in their customers' business," Norman Morris industry communications director at Roy Morgan Research told InvestorDaily.
"We continually see a very low score for understanding the business and keeping up to date with what's going on in the business generally," he added.
The micro segment, accounting for approximately 85 per cent of businesses in Australia, is the least satisfied with the major banks, according to the survey. Mirco segments have an annual turnover of less than $1 million.
"It probably comes down to the bank paying more attention to the big customers, simply because it's more profitable to do so because [most of] the micro [segment] is very small," Mr Morris said.
Approximately one in six businesses intends to increase investments in their business over the next 12 months, according to Roy Morgan's business survey results in the first quarter of 2013. Banks will need to focus on satisfying their customers to gain from the anticipated demand, Mr Morris said.
"They ought to look at the businesses that are already their customers and concentrate on them, and if you've got a knowledge of them, you'll have a better idea of where and who is likely to borrow more," he said.
