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EPSI Rating Banking Study Finland 2005: This year, first time also business customers' satisfaction was studied in addition to private customer satisfaction. People responsible for the banking relationships in different companies evaluated their main bank. The best satisfaction scores were given to the "smaller" banks, for example, Savings Banks, Local Co-operative Banks, Bank of Åland, and Tapiola Bank. Typical for them is that they mainly act locally or concentrate on special customer segments.
Among the bigger corporate banks, the best scores were given to Handelsbanken (index 79,9) and OP Bank Group (77,9), next Sampo Bank (74,5) and Nordea (74,1). Overall, the Finnish business customers gave to their bank an average customer satisfaction index 76,7. In Finland, private customers' satisfaction with banks has increased every year from 1999, when the first measurement was done by EPSI Rating methodology. However, it is still at lower level than business customers' satisfaction. The Finnish private customers gave this year their bank an average customer satisfaction index 75,9.
In the private customer segment, the ranking order is similar to the order of the banks in the business customer segment, except Handelsbanken "beats" the Other banks group and Nordea "beats" Sampo Bank.
Noteworthy with Sampo Bank is that Sampo Bank's business customers are considerably more satisfied with Sampo that its private customers. In Handelsbanken the situation is vice versa, Handelsbanken's private customers are more satisfied with Handelsbanken that its business customers. Noteworthy with Nordea is that its private customers satisfaction has increased considerably from last year (from 71,8 to 74,1) and especially from year 1999, when it was 66,6. Totally 14 per cent of all private customers of the Finnish banks responded that during the last year, they have had reasons to complain to the bank. However, nearly half of them did not bother to complain. Among those who complained, they were treated very differently. The scores of complaint handling varied from 1 (extremely poor) to 10 (extremely well). The average scores for the banks for their complaint handling, varied from Nordea's 6,9 to Handelsbanken's 8,5. Bad complaint handling seemed to have great influence on customers' willingness to switch their bank to another. As the average loyalty index for all customers was 79,8, among those customers who said that their complaint was poorly handled, the index dropped as low as 53,5. And among those, whose complaint was handled extremely well the loyalty index reached 83,1. This means that with poor complaint handling, the bank will certainly loose customers to the other banks. However, with good handling of complaints, the customers become very loyal to the bank, even more loyal than before. The EPSI study The data for the research was gathered by telephone interviews. The respondents were asked to evaluate the bank they mainly use. The respondents were selected by randomizing procedures to participate to the research. Totally 250 respondents we interviewed from each major bank. This research is a part of European Customer Satisfaction Research, EPSI Rating. It is coordinated by Institutet för Kvalitetsutveckling (SIQ) and Stockholm School of Economics. European quality organizations EFQM (European Foundation for Quality Management) and EOQ (European Organisation for Quality) are backing the research, as well as, the International Foundation for Customer Focus (IFCF). In Sweden, the same methodology has been used from the year 1984 and it covers already a major part of the Swedish economy. Also in Finland, it is the intention to gradually enlarge the research to cover the Finnish economy. In few weeks, the results from telecom operators will be released. After that, studies on insurance companies, supermarket chains, "do-it-yourself" chains, and electricity companies will be released. The research is coordinated in Finland by Dr. Juhani Kuokkanen. Additional information Dr. Juhani Kuokkanen, phone: +358-40-5093401, e-mail: juhani.kuokkanen@globalresearch.fi |
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