Nationwide Building Society tops new satisfaction survey
Society beats rivals on trust and promoting financial well being.
Nationwide Building Society has the most satisfied account holders in the UK.
That’s according to a national retail banking study conducted by Market Force Information.
It looked at eight major UK banks and building societies and analysed them against four key factors believed to drive satisfaction and loyalty.
These included how easy it was to do business with the bank, how well the bank created trust and focused on financial well-being of account holders, the reputation of the bank and finally location convenience of branches.
Overall customer satisfaction and loyalty was found to be relatively low for five of the eight major financial institutions with Royal Bank of Scotland account holders the least satisfied.
The results
Here is how each of the eight banks and building societies fared across the four categories and how they ranked according to their overall Composite Loyalty Score.
|
Bank/building society |
Easy to do business |
Trust and financial well-being |
Reputation |
Location convenience |
Overall score |
|
Nationwide Building Society |
46% |
24% |
51% |
56% |
55% |
|
Santander |
32% |
16% |
28% |
52% |
38% |
|
Halifax |
34% |
15% |
26% |
54% |
35% |
|
NatWest |
35% |
18% |
28% |
56% |
33% |
|
Lloyds Bank |
33% |
16% |
26% |
54% |
32% |
|
Barclays |
35% |
17% |
31% |
57% |
32% |
|
HSBC |
34% |
15% |
38% |
52% |
32% |
|
Royal Bank of Scotland |
35% |
17% |
15% |
55% |
29% |
Nationwide Building Society was the clear winner in the survey with an overall score of 55%, miles better than it's closest rival Santander which achieved a score of just 38% and Halifax which came third with a score of 35%.
The society scored the highest in three of the four areas looked at in the survey, beaten by Barclays on location convenience by just 1%.
Trust and promoting financial wellbeing was a sore point with all account holders in the survey, with every provider apart from Nationwide, scoring under 19%.
Nationwide’s higher score in this category could be explained by the benefits of accounts like the FlexDirect, which offers 5% in credit interest on balances up to £2,500 for a year as well as an interest free overdraft for 12 months. Account holders also get access to exclusive deals.
Meanwhile rival Santander offers the 123 Current Account which comes with perks like up to 3% cashback on direct debits and up to 3% interest on balances up to £20,000.
The worst performing provider was Royal Bank of Scotland which scored 29% overall. Its rock bottom score for reputation contributed to its poor performance in the survey.
Low satisfaction driving switches
Overall the report found a quarter of people in the UK are dissatisfied with the service they receive from their primary bank and 15% said they would consider switching banks in the next six months.
The majority considering a switch were most attracted to better returns on their money with rivals, but many also said they didn’t feel their bank helped improve their financial wellbeing and they weren’t happy with the service they received.
The three top providers in the survey correspond to figures showing who we are switching to.
The latest figures from the Payments Council show Nationwide was the third most-switched-to bank or building society since the introduction of the Current Account Switch Service. Over 22,000 people switched to one of Nationwide’s current accounts between October 2013 and September 2014.
Halifax has won over the most customers since the introduction of the scheme though, with 40,000 making the move, while Santander had the second largest influx of new customers with 37,000 switching.
More on banking and borrowing:
Co-operative Bank fails Bank of England stress test
Treasury and banks agree to fee-free basic accounts
Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks launch £150 current account switching incentive
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