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Cape Town - Capitec is the SA bank that has been garnering the best buzz on social media, according to BrandsEye.
In a new “opinion mining” study released on Monday, BrandsEye, in partnership with customer experience expert Julia Ahlfeldt, analysed the sentiment of SA social media users to local banks.
The findings were based on 1.8 million social media posts by 554 600 unique users about South Africa’s big five banks between September 2016 and August 2017
The banks included in the study were FNB, Capitec, Nedbank, Absa and Standard Bank.
“The unsolicited nature of social media makes platforms like Facebook and Twitter ideal sources to gauge public opinion. Unlike traditional polling surveys, people take to social media to post their views without prompting or guidance on what to say or how to say it,” said BrandsEye in its report.
On top
The report found that of the five banks, Capitec had the highest net sentiment. Social media users were enthusiastic about its service.
“Low bank charges from Capitec was one of the bank’s strongest advantages over its competitors and the most positive topic discussed. Simplicity of use was another function customers value from this bank.”
This is the third year in a row that Capitec has led bank sentiment scores.
“When being compared to other banks, Capitec was the most favoured bank, followed by FNB. Standard Bank and Absa were the least favoured banks overall,” stated the study’s authors.
The study also found that Capitec had grown its share of online social media conversation by the largest margin. While in 2015 only 5.2% of SA bank-related social media posts were related to Capitec, by 2017 this had risen to 12.1%.
While its share of social media chatter had decreased over the past three years, FNB still had the highest share with 29.5%.
The BrandsEye findings are another feather in the Capitec's cap this year.
In late September it was named SA's "most loved" bank in the annual Sunday Times Top Brands awards.
READ: Capitec, OUTsurance most loved by SA consumers
It was also named Company of the Year at the All Africa Business Leaders Awards in Partnership with CNBC Africa, also in September.
In July it was rated the best bank in the world in Lafferty Group’s 2017 Global Bank Quality Benchmarking study.
Capitec's stock [JSE:CPI] meanwhile, had risen by over a third in the year to date.
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