These are SA’s best and favourite banks

A survey of almost 12 500 banking customers of the country’s six big retail banks have shown that customers were most satisfied with Capitec, which also had the lowest number of complaints and the most loyal customers, while African Bank tied with Capitec for the fairest treatment of customers.

The survey, the 2020 South African Customer Satisfaction Index (SA-csi) for Banking, was done by Consulta among customers from the lower, middle, and upper retail banking segments during 2020. Customers of Absa, African Bank, Capitec, FNB, Nedbank and Standard Bank participated.

“It has been a tumultuous year in terms of customer satisfaction and loyalty. Every aspect of customer service and engagement has been radically changed by technology, digitisation and remote working models. Banks and their customers adapted to new technology platforms and unprecedented circumstances,” says Ineke Prinsloo, head of customer insights at Consulta.

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Overall customer satisfaction

Capitec has the most satisfied customers with 84.7%, followed by African Bank with 83.4%, Nedbank with 81.1% and FNB with 80.2%. The industry average is 79.6%. Absa (78.6%) and Standard Bank (77.7%) showed improvement on their 2019 scores.

Complaints

Banking customers mostly complained about account queries, debit orders and payments, card issues, fees and costs. Banks also seemed to be poor at preventing repeat causes of complaints and customer dissatisfaction.

Capitec had the lowest number of complaints on 11.9% and a high complaint resolution rate of 55.4%, in line with global benchmarks, followed by African Bank (14% complaints and 59.7% resolutions). FNB had the highest number of complaints at 23.0% and the lowest complaint resolution rate 49.8%, followed by Standard Bank, with complaints at 22.5% and a resolution rate of 51.9%.

Customer expectations and perceived quality

Customer expectations continued to rise to a new high of 83.1% (82.4% in 2019). Capitec, FNB, Nedbank and African Bank are in the lead here, consistently performing above industry par over a five-year period, with Absa and Standard Bank below par.

All the banks exceeded customer expectations, except Standard Bank that had a marginal negative gap with perceived quality falling short. Capitec also led on perceived value with 87.7%, followed by African Bank at 84.2% and Nedbank at 78.1%, FNB at 76.0%, Absa at 73.6% and Standard Bank at 74.5%.

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Customer loyalty

Where customer loyalty is concerned, Capitec had the most loyal customers at 76.7%, followed by African Bank (76.2%), Nedbank (73.5%), FNB (72,8%), Absa (70.4%) and Standard Bank (69.3%). The industry average is 71,6%.

Will you recommend your bank?

The net promoter score measures the likelihood of someone recommending a brand to friends, family or colleagues. Here Capitec (56.6%) and African Bank (50.8%) had the highest score, well above the industry average of 33.5%. Nedbank scored 40.8%, followed by FNB (39.8%), Absa (26.9%) and Standard Bank (24.41%).

Treating customers fairly

African Bank’s customers (86.3%) indicated that the bank treated them fairly, ahead of Capitec (86.3%) and Nedbank (82.9%), all above the industry average of 81.1%.

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