Loyal businesses hard to come by
(27 October 2009 – Australia) Loyalty in business banking is increasingly hard to come by, with loyalty ratings continuing to fall, according to the latest East & Partners’ Business Banking Sentiment Index (BBSI).
According to the BBSI, loyalty of businesses turning over between $1 million and $100 million annually has fallen in each month since June 2008 and now sits at 32.1 in the September 2009 index (using a scale from a low of 10 to a high of 100).
In fact, loyalty has fallen by nearly 20 percent from the level it was one year ago, to now sit at the lowest level since the BBSI began in June 2006.
"While there is a justified focus on customer satisfaction in business banking, the importance of loyal customers should not be underestimated, particularly in the current environment", East & Partners’ financial markets analyst, Peter Drennan said.
"Loyal business customers are a key part of market retention when the economy improves and banking relationships lose their debt focus", Mr Drennan added.
In the BBSI, loyalty is one of the four key metrics that make up customer sentiment. The overall Sentiment Score is an aggregated rating metric comprising four different measures of customer sentiment – Empathy, Satisfaction, Loyalty and Advocacy.
Each month, East & Partners’ research team conducts telephone interviews with a sample of 750 businesses nationally, providing an in depth study of businesses in the A$1 to 5 million, $5 to 20 million and $20 to 100 million turnover segments across Australia.
In fact, loyalty has fallen by nearly 20 percent from the level it was one year ago, to now sit at the lowest level since the BBSI began in June 2006.
"While there is a justified focus on customer satisfaction in business banking, the importance of loyal customers should not be underestimated, particularly in the current environment", East & Partners’ financial markets analyst, Peter Drennan said.
"Loyal business customers are a key part of market retention when the economy improves and banking relationships lose their debt focus", Mr Drennan added.
In the BBSI, loyalty is one of the four key metrics that make up customer sentiment. The overall Sentiment Score is an aggregated rating metric comprising four different measures of customer sentiment – Empathy, Satisfaction, Loyalty and Advocacy.
Each month, East & Partners’ research team conducts telephone interviews with a sample of 750 businesses nationally, providing an in depth study of businesses in the A$1 to 5 million, $5 to 20 million and $20 to 100 million turnover segments across Australia.
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