Five banks scored above the threshold of 98 per cent at the release of this year’s Customer Satisfaction Index report (CSI) by the Chartered Institute of Marketing Ghana (CIMG), held in Accra, last Wednesday.
They are Universal Merchant Bank (UMB), Stanbic Bank Ghana, Republic Bank Ghana PLC, ABSA Bank Ghana and First Atlantic Bank (FAB).
The banks performed 95 per cent in service quality and customer satisfaction respectively for traditional banking (Customers who visit the bank for their transactions) and performed 88 per cent each in service quality and customer satisfaction for remote banking (customers who perform banking transaction on their devices such as laptop, cell phone, tablets etc).
Launching the report, the Lead Researcher and Chief Executive of the Consumer Insights Consults Limited, Dr Ireneus Gundona said the report aimed to assist banks to improve service quality and customer satisfaction as world-class businesses.
He said the report which was conducted between October 18 and December 29, 2022 targeted existing customers of universal banks who were currently active bank account holders (performing bank transactions within the last three months prior to the survey).
Dr Gundona said a total of 3,300 consumer and 2,200 Business Customers were interviewed, mainly males and females between the ages of 18 years and above.
“This year, the report focused on two studies, namely Consumer Banking and Business Banking unlike the 2021 maiden report which covered only Consumer Banking,” he added.
He indicated that the overall index for this year which scored 98 per cent, went up by 3 per cent as compared to the 2021 index which scored 95 per cent.
“However for 2021, only two banks met the threshold. For this year, we have seen the improvement where five banks met the threshold, although the index went up by three digits which is 98 per cent.
However with the traditional banking, the service of quality went up by 5 per cent, nonetheless, there was a challenge with the remote banking (digital banking) where the overall industry declined by 1 per cent,” he stated.
Dr Gundona urged the banks to improve technology to enable customers experience the level of service quality in terms of the digital and remote banking.
The President of CIMG, Daniel Kasser-Tee appealed to the 23 universal banks to subscribe to the report as the findings would be useful in shaping their decisions and actions on the three important study variables of Service Quality, Customer Satisfaction and Customer Loyalty, and their individual and combined effects on bank performance.
“It is an established fact that high service quality promotes customer satisfaction, which intend aids in shaping customer behavioural intentions, by way of loyalty, and guarantees positive financial consequences on both the income statements and balance sheets of organisations.
Besides this all-important measure, each bank will also be able to determine how they performed against their peers, on the one hand, and the best-in-class on the other, as well as the industry averages,” he added.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Association of Banks, Mr John Awuah, said the report would help in shaping customer service and urged its members to improve on that aspect going forward.
BY VIVIAN ARTHUR
