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Press releaseFinnish Banks surveyEPSI Rating Customer Satisfaction 2008
This was the essence of the international annual EPSI Rating survey, measuring customer satisfaction and loyalty to Finnish banks. The survey was carried out simultaneously in all Nordic and Baltic countries. Interviews were finished on September 21.
We see Sampo Bank’s EPSI slipping unprecedentedly by 13,2 units, mostly due to their struggle with product quality and image problems. Last year Sampo Bank was among the best improvers (up 4 units) on previous year. Below chart shows customer satisfaction for each bank compared to last year.
Market leader Nordea shows a solid positive trend, now up +1,5 units on top of last year’s climb of four units, making it the best over the last three years.
World class performance over 10 yearsFor ten years EPSI have been surveying the performance of Finnish banks with its consistent systems and methodology and the improvement in satisfaction demonstrates steady growth as depicted below.
Since year 2000 the same banks have been surveyed. The chart below shows the difference between the outcome as of today and the one at the start.
The +15,9 points improvement of Handelsbanken is striking, especially considering the starting point’s representing a good average level. Now performance is state-of-the-art. On the other hand it’s worth noting that in a market with a high average satisfaction level, the competitive edge needs to be sought by carefully analyzing the underlying latents which form the basis for customer satisfaction and loyalty. Women prove more prone to react on deteriorated service or malfunctioning products
We are used to finding customer loyalty more stable than satisfaction, but this year’s survey has shown that the rule works only to a certain point. We could call it the breaking point of TRUST. When exceeding that point, customer loyalty plummets. This is what happened to Sampo Bank. Quite surprising is also the fact that women have reacted more strongly on sharply deteriorated product quality and service. We experienced an almost 10 point difference in this aspect between men and women.
This graph shows each participating bank’s profile with the level of main aspects (latents), which impact the outcome of satisfaction and loyalty. Perceived image and product quality are both major drivers and their impact is heavy on the outcomes. A loyalty level of 50 or below can have severe implications on any business.
Corporate customers are in general more discriminating than private ones. This assumption is further stressed when there is a great gap between expectations and received quality or value. Supporting this statement is the fact that e.g. the plunge in satisfaction among Corporate Customers at Sampo Bank has been 4,5 units steeper than the equivalent with Private Customers. Corporate loyalt polarized
As we last year reported a decline in loyalty to all banks except for Handelsbanken, this year we see an improvement by all, except for Sampo Bank.
Corporate image and Product quality have a strong impact on the outcomes for Satisfaction and Loyalty. Also, if perceived value is lower than expectations it further erodes the outcome. Despite Service Quality being considered good at e.g. Sampo Bank, both satisfaction and loyalty slump to a very low level. EPSI Rating – Nordic and Baltic banking trendsThe banking sector has been measured in the majority of Nordic countries since year 1999 via annual studies. During a couple of years, the Norwegian consumers have given their bank the lowest satisfaction scores, and the Finnish consumers their bank the highest. From year 2004, also the three Baltic States have been included in the annual studies of the banking sector. In these countries – overall - very high satisfaction indices are recorded. In comparison to the countries participating in the same survey, we can establish that Finland has a very high level of customer satisfaction, exceeded only by Lithuania and Latvia.
This year also the corporate market has been studied in the Nordic countries (except Iceland). The following scores are obtained in that segment.
The corporate customer segment was in the Baltic countries measured for the first time and Lithuania shows a very high level. However, there is a significant difference compared to B2C, which could mean that we also here see higher demands from corporate customers, which are not fully met. Remarkable is also the fact that we see a similar drop in EPSI in Finland, Sweden and Norway. Although we can establish that that satisfaction level is comparatively high in all surveyed countries, customers are not hesitant to react on deteriorated service, also entailing a negative impact on loyalty. More detailed results for the Nordic and Baltic countries are available on the respective national EPSI websites. Please see www.epsi-rating.com for links to the different country press releases (public domain).
Background information on EPSI surveyInformation for this survey was collected by telephone interviews in August-September. The respondents were asked to give their evaluation on their main bank. The objective is to interview 250 randomly chosen customers of each participating bank. The respondents thus represent a random sample of each bank’s own clientele. Error margin is approximately 2 index points up and down. This customer satisfaction survey has been conducted at the same time and in the same way in all Nordic and Baltic countries and is part of the pan-European EPSI Rating program, which is coordinated by the EPSI Research Center, who also is responsible for its development together with the Stockholm School of Economics. Since 1984 this survey has been conducted in Sweden and today it covers more than 20 industries, the largest of which are also covered in Finland. Responsible for the coordination of this survey in Finland is the EPSI Finland CEO Mats Nybondas together with Senior Analyst Juhani Kuokkanen. CEO Mats Nybondas puh. (09) 2512 3616 mats.nybondas@epsi-finland.org |
