(23 April 2012 – Australia) East & Partners’ latest Business Banking Index has revealed a banks’ Corporate customers, those companies turning over between A$20-530 million per year, are the most likely to advocate their banking relationships to peers.Over the last two months Corporate banking customers have advocated their
primary bank and/or Relationship Manager an average of 0.73 times, compared to
larger, Institutional customers (actual advocacy 0.48 times) and Micro
businesses (0.20 times). Corporates are clearly the more aggressive advocates of
their banks, although at less than one such referral in the past two months, it
is difficult to read this as a ringing endorsement of their banking
relationships.
Easts’ research also shows that business banking customers in Queensland are far
more likely to advocate their primary bank than companies in other states. New
South Wales based enterprises by contrast are the least willing advocates.
Business banking customers across all four segments nominate Service Level
Experienced as the most important driver encouraging advocacy, overall Product
Features & Performance being the least important factor driving bank advocacy.
Exhibit 1:
Propensity to Advocate Primary Bank – March 2012
Bank |
Average Advocacy Score 10=would not recommend — 100=would recommend |
ANZ |
13.3 |
CBA |
11.2 |
NAB |
34.6 |
WBC |
12.8 |
Regionals |
33.2 |
Internationals |
29.3 |
TOTAL |
22.1 |
East & Partners’ Principal Analyst Paul Dowling commented, “These are important
performance measures of the customer relationship for banks as business
customers nominate significant impacts on their buying behaviour based on how
strong an advocate they are – stronger advocates buy more from their incumbent
relationship bank than weaker advocates”
“Actual levels of advocacy, however, remain relatively weak and mirror weak
propensity or intent to advocate. Monetising the investment being made by
commercial banks in customer advocacy programs has clearly become harder in
today’s credit environment but remains critical to customer retention and margin
enhancement for providers.” Mr Dowling added.
About East & Partners’ Business Banking Index
A bi-monthly Index of business customer behaviour toward their banks, based on
interviews conducted Australia-wide with a structured sample of over 6,150
companies across four segments annually.
The Index provides a monitor of a number of important drivers of customer
engagement behaviour with their banks including advocacy, detraction, empathy,
satisfaction, loyalty, channel engagement, advertising recognition, product
demand, product advocacy and mind share.
Note: Business Depositor Segments:
› Institutional – A$530 million plus
› Corporate – A$20-530 million
› SME – A$5-20 million
› Micro – A$1-5 million
For more information or to interview East & Partners, please contact:
Sian Dowling
Marcomms & Client Services
East & Partners
t: 02 9004 7848
m: 0420 583 553
e: sian.d@eastandpartners.com