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Capitec Bank has come out tops for the 6th year in a row in the annual Consulta SA Customer Satisfaction Index (SA-csi) for Banking.
For the SA-csi, 15 542 consumers from lower, middle and upper retail banking segments were surveyed to establish the overall level of satisfaction of customers of SA's big six retail banks, namely Capitec, FNB, Nedbank, Absa, Standard Bank and African Bank.
According to the index, Capitec once again leads by a significant margin, followed by FNB. At the same time, both Nedbank and Standard Bank have seen strong improvement in their scores due to significant infrastructure investment since 2016.
Furthermore, after what the report calls "years of decline", Absa has rebounded – mostly due to what the report calls the "halo effect" after its "Africanacity" launch.
Enter the disruptors
The index report foresees that, as banking moves through technological disruption, it will be "heavily tested" with fierce competition among current players as well as the entrance of new "disruptor" banks like Discovery Bank, Bank Zero and TymeBank.
"Capitec's consistent performance over the last six years demonstrates there is real substance to its value proposition," states the report.
"Capitec understanding its target markets, their needs, and how the value proposition filters into that. The Capitec promise of simple, easy, and affordable banking is strongly backed by its ability to deliver in terms of processes, people, and systems."
Capitec scored very well in reducing total customer costs in terms of reduced red tape, less documentation, more speed, efficiency and convenience - which translates into perceived value.
These "simplicity factors" also contributed to African Bank being perceived as offering great value for money.
Capitec also has the lowest complaint incidence ratio (10%) - line with global benchmarks - coupled with a high complaint resolution rate.
FNB has seen a 4% increase in complaints incidence compared with the previous year, which, according to the report, suggests that, while FNB has strongly positioned itself as the "digital" bank, its systems and processes have at times not supported this move seamlessly and reliably for its customers.
Absa, Nedbank and Standard Bank have excelled in this year’s index on customer loyalty improvements and also show consistent year-on-year growth.
Capitec CEO Gerrie Fourie said in a statement that the acknowledgement in the SA-csi shows the bank is headed in the right direction.
"However, we realise there is always the opportunity for further improvement," he added.
Professor Adré Schreuder, SA-csi founder and chairperson, commented that "it's well and truly 'game on' for banks in 2019".
"As the SA banking sector heads into an environment of intense competition and rapidly increasing customer expectations, banks will need to thoroughly interrogate the drivers behind their performance, or lack thereof, in terms of customer satisfaction and loyalty," said Schreuder.
"Getting an in-depth handle on how to deliver on all the variables of customer experience will mean the difference between barely surviving and growing."
(Source: SA-csi)
