Precise Brand Insight Category Analysis

Drivers of satisfaction & dissatisfaction in retail banking

Contact:

James Withey

Head of Brand Insight

james.withey@precise.co.uk

020 7264 6316

@PreciseTweets

www.precise.co.uk

Contents

Objective & approach 3

Findings 4

Key drivers of satisfaction & dissatisfaction 5

Sector benchmarking 6

Key insights 7

2

Objective & approach

3

Objective

To use social media to provide insight into the key drivers

of satisfaction and dissatisfaction in the retail banking

category.

Approach

In order to capture in-the-moment opinions we focused

on analysing Twitter conversations from the UK in which

any of the following retail banks were mentioned: HSBC,

Barclays, Lloyds TSB, Natwest, Santander and Halifax.

We excluded any neutral tweets in which people were

sharing news without comment or mentioning a bank in

passing and focused our analysis on conversations in

which an opinion was expressed. We categorised the

content by sentiment and theme in order to establish the

key drivers of satisfaction and dissatisfaction.

In addition, we looked at sentiment towards the retail

banking sector as a whole and compared this with

sentiment towards the UK supermarket sector.

Findings

4

Time was at the heart of conversations about retail

banks. The focus of complaints was the time wasted by

frustrations and inconvenience caused by being held on

the phone, having a card blocked or being unable to log

into an online account. In contrast, it was time-saving

apps or surprise at receiving speedy and efficient

customer service that drove satisfaction.

Within both favourable and unfavourable

discussions, the conversation was almost entirely

emotionally driven by an experience that had just

taken place. Rational discussions about which banks

offered the best interest rates on accounts or mortgages

were almost non-existent.

The two themes of satisfaction were around apps

and customer service. The launch of new apps led to

some expressions of genuine delight. Barclays’ Pingit in

part drove these conversations, but banking apps from

HSBC, Lloyds, NatWest and Santander also generated

favourable mentions. Positive mentions of customer

service experiences tended to arise from surprise that the

issue had been handled efficiently.

Complaints about customer service and issues with

logging into online accounts were the two dominant

drivers of dissatisfaction. Customer service complaints

nearly all focused on problems with call centres, whilst

dissatisfaction with branches centred around

inconvenient opening hours; restricted Saturday hours

and waiting for late-opening banks to open their doors at

9 during the week. Preventing fraud rarely resulted in

tweets of gratitude, but the inconvenience of using card

key devices caused frustration, as did cards being

blocked abroad.

Key drivers of satisfaction & dissatisfaction

5

0% 2% 4% 6% 8% 10% 12% 14%

Customer services

New apps

Drivers of satisfaction by share of opinion-based conversation*

0% 2% 4% 6% 8% 10% 12% 14%

ATM problems

Branch opening hours

Disputes over charges and transfers

Security frustrations (inc. blocked cards)

Online banking problems

Customer service complaints

Drivers of dissatisfaction by share of opinion-based conversation*

* A further 7% of opinion-based tweets conveyed satisfaction with a bank and 23% expressed dissatisfaction. In both cases, this content was

made up of a number of smaller themes of conversation.

75%

25%

Share of opinion-based sentiment

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Retail banking Supermarkets

Perc

enta

ge o

f convers

ations

Sector sentiment by share of conversations

Favourable Unfavourable Neutral

Sector benchmarking

6

By way of a benchmark, conversations about brands

within the supermarket sector (Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s,

Morrisons, Waitrose) were much more positive. This

demonstrates that Twitter (which accounts for 92% of

content about supermarkets) is not always a platform for

complaints. Supermarkets saw positive mentions around

everyday aspects of their offering e.g. interest rate

comparisons rarely took place on Twitter, whilst favourable

comparisons of prices in supermarkets were common.

People generally took to Twitter to complain, other than

when they were pleasantly surprised by service, or when

something new was launched. This is partially a function

of how Twitter is used, but the financial services sector

does attract a greater level of dissatisfied comment than

some other sectors. It may be that the context of the

crisis has encouraged consumers to complain, but it also

appears that there is less propensity to comment about

positive experiences, and innovations are quickly

assimilated into everyday expectations.

Neutral mentions of retail

banking focused on the

sharing of news, whilst

supermarket conversations

centred around passing

mentions of being in a shop.

Key insights

7

Whether customers think banks are wasting their time or saving their time, time is clearly an important

criterion for the evaluation of experiences with retail banking – and customers are often willing to take more

time in order to comment on it.

Resentment over lost time appears in general to have different drivers across online and offline banking,

however. Online frustrations are generally the accumulation of a number of minor inconveniences that

essentially centre around the individual experiencing hassle (even though this might be described in terms of

the impact on time); whilst ‘real-world’ experiences can be an isolated incident but fundamentally focus on the

person’s time being wasted.

There appears to be a subtle inflation in expectations of the use of technology in banking, such as the launch

of new apps. Innovations that are seen as saving time generate goodwill, but this appears to be quite short-

term and soon dissipates as they become accepted and everyday.

Expectations of customer service are low and surprise at receiving good service can often prompt people to

comment on this. Identifying the drivers of these positive experiences is likely to provide a focus for innovation

and improvement, but is arguably unlikely to be enough to fundamentally shift perceptions of the sector.

Contact:

Contact:

James Withey

Head of Brand Insight

james.withey@precise.co.uk

020 7264 6316

www.precise.co.uk