Customer Satisfaction Drops: Results for Banks, Mortgage Lenders, Credit Cards and Insurance

Abbey Mortgages, Aviva Insurance Strengthen Customer Relationships amid Overall Decline in the Financial Services Sector

RBS Group Drops Across Banking, Mortgage and Credit Card Services; Nationwide Also Struggles

Business Wire

posted: 78 DAYS 8 HOURS AGO

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The National Customer Satisfaction Index (NCSI-UK) drops slightly for a second straight quarter, now 72.8 on a 100-point scale. The decline is a result of an overall loss of customer satisfaction in the financial services sector.

Retail banking, mortgage lending and credit card services all show declining customer satisfaction in Q3; only home and motor insurance remains steady. Among individual companies, decliners outnumber gainers: 32% have improved NCSI scores this year, 50% decline and another 18% are unchanged.

Retail Banks:

· Customer satisfaction with the retail banking industry falls 1.4% to a score of 70.

· HSBC is still #1 among big retail banks, but customers are more satisfied with smaller banks despite less value for the money.

· RBS Group shows the biggest loss of customer satisfaction, down 3% to a score of 69, but still above HBOS and Abbey.

Mortgage Lenders:

· Consumer satisfaction is lower for mortgage lending than for any other financial service. The industry falls 1.4% to a score of 69.

· Abbey is the only mortgage lender to improve customer satisfaction, rising 8% to a score of 70.

· Nationwide remains the leader, despite dropping 4% to a score of 74.

Credit Card Providers:

· The credit card industry slips 1% to a score of 72, driven by growing displeasure with RSB and Lloyds TSB.

· Smaller credit card issuers have maintained high customer satisfaction levels despite being hit by less value just like their larger competitors.

· HSBC leads by a substantial margin with a score of 73, but Barclays is the only credit card provider to improve customer satisfaction (up 1% to 69).

Home and Motor Insurance:

· Customer satisfaction with home and motor insurance is unchanged (NCSI score of 77), far better than other financial services.

· Churchill, a bright star for RBS Group, now takes the lead (up 1% to 79), followed closely by Zurich (down 1% to 78).

· Aviva (formerly Norwich Union) improves the most (up 6% to 73), but remains last among major home and motor insurers.

For full report and commentary, visit http://www.cfigroup.com .

For other industry scores, visit www.ncsiuk.com .

About the NCSI-UK

The National Customer Satisfaction Index - UK is a national economic indicator of customer evaluations of the quality of products and services available to household consumers in the UK. It is updated each quarter with new results for different sectors of the economy replacing data from the prior year. Second quarter results are based on econometric modelling of survey data from more than 4,000 respondents. The overall NCSI score for a given quarter factors in scores from the leading companies in 16 industries over the previous four quarters. The NCSI – UK applies the science of the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) and is produced by CFI Group .