Westpac tops satisfaction rating

WESTPAC has snared one of Commonwealth Bank’s prized top customer satisfaction rankings.

WESTPAC CEO Gail Kelly delivering half-year profit, photographed at WESTPAC headquarters, Monday 05 May, 2014. Pic - Sam Mooy

WESTPAC has snared one of Commonwealth Bank’s prized top customer satisfaction rankings, potentially taking a toll on executives’ salaries at its larger rival.

Amid jockeying by the banks to be best prepared for any revival in business borrowing, Westpac jumped to the top of the pile for satisfaction from the small business segment last month, ending CBA’s 2½ -year run as first or joint first in all segments and overall, according to DBM Consultants’ business financial services monitor (BFSM).

The data, to be released today, ranks CBA, ANZ and National Australia Bank — the nation’s biggest lender to businesses — equal second among small businesses, behind Westpac.

CBA remains rated outright or equal leader by micro, medium and large businesses. Overall, customers from large to small businesses rate Westpac, CBA and ANZ equal first, with NAB the ­laggard.

While there are several survey providers such as Roy Morgan and East & Partners, the DBM results are notable for CBA because senior executives’ at the nation’s largest bank have their long-term incentives linked to customer satisfaction outcomes under a strategy put in place in 2006 by former chief executive Ralph Norris to be No 1 satisfaction across all business lines.

At its interim profit result in February, CBA cited the DBM survey that ranked it equal first for business satisfaction. The ranking was based on DBM’s average satisfaction of CBA’s main financial institution customers across all business segments, large and small.

According to CBA’s annual report, 25 per cent of group executives’ long-term incentives are subject to the group’s customer satisfaction relative to ANZ, NAB and Westpac, with the remaining 75 per cent based on relative total shareholder return. Last financial year, CBA maintained outright or equal first ­position in customer satisfaction in all four of DBM’s business segments among the four major banks.

A CBA spokesman declined to comment on the impact of the latest survey, less than two weeks from the end of the financial year.

“It’s not that CBA has suddenly dropped its standards. It’s just that Westpac is improving its strength in the market,” DBM Consultants director Maria Claridad said.

Julie Rynski, Westpac’s general manager of small business, said satisfaction surveys were one of the most important measures she watched for “proof” of how the business was travelling.

“I still think we have a long way to go, and all the banks do, but it’s nice to prove some of the things we are doing is working, which is great,” she said. “It is almost like a proof point — you can see market shares growing, but you can get market share through pricing and all sorts of things.”

DBM’s survey comes ahead of the release of the financial system inquiry’s interim report next month that is expected to focus on several issues surrounding small businesses’ access to finance.

Ms Rynski reiterated Westpac’s stance that the inquiry could explore the thresholds of the capital rules for small business loans when secured by mortgages. “I’d love us to do more and as a country we do need to do more,” she said.