Zenith, CalBank tops customer satisfaction survey on banking

Zenith Bank Ghana and CalBank Plc Ghana have been adjudged the best banks in terms of customer service delivery among commercial banks across the country in a latest report. 

The maiden edition of the customer satisfaction and brand health survey report on the Banking sector by Strategic Communication Africa, a communication agency in partnership with Global Info Analytics, a research company, showed that the two banks shared the top spot with 81 per cent each. 

The research conducted from January 17 to 20 this year, in a collaborative effort by the two companies, was launched at the StratComm Africa Office in Accra last Wednesday. 

With a score of 81 per cent apiece, the two banks have outperformed the national average, which stood at 72 per cent. However, Fidelity Bank came in as the next best performing bank in this category with 73 per cent, just a percentage above the national average.

The findings presented by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Global Info Analytics, Mussah Dankwah, cut across 20 traditional banks with 3,097 bank customers from across the entire 16 regions of the country participating in the survey. 

Customer service metrics

The report measured the custom service deliveries in five different dimensions, namely “Tangible, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance and Empathy”. 

With “Tangible Dimension” which represents the “physical aspects of service delivery, including facilities, equipment, personnel appearance, and communication materials”, the Zenith Bank led with 84 per cent, followed by Cal Bank, 80 per cent and Fidelity, 74 per cent while the average performance for the sector on this metric was 72 per cent.

Reliability represented by the bank’s ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately”, the Zenith Bank again led with 83 per cent. In second place was Cal Bank, 79 per cent and the Consolidated Bank of Ghana (CBG) in third place with 75 per cent. The industry average for this score was 71 per cent.

Responsiveness, which emphasised the “willingness and ability of staff to help customers and provide prompt service”, was led this time by Cal Bank PLC with 80 per cent, followed by Zenith Bank with 78 per cent and ABSA, 76 per cent. The industry average score stood at 70 per cent. 

For assurance metric, representing the “competence, knowledge, courtesy and credibility of employees and their ability to inspire trust and confidence in customers” again CalBank led with 81 per cent, in second place was Fidelity Bank with 74 per cent and in third place was CBG with 73 per cent as the average for the industry was 71 per cent.

Empathy, which underscored the “level of personalised attention and care provided to customers, to ensure specific needs and concerns are understood and addressed”, was led by CalBank with 81 per cent, ABSA in second place with 76 per cent. CBG and Fidelity shared the third place with 72 per cent apiece as the average score for the industry stood at 71 per cent.

Brand health 

The study also measured the Brand Health of Banks. The “Unprompted Brand Recall”, which measures how customers think about a brand when asked to think about its industry, was led by the Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB) with 14.3 per cent. 

This was followed by ADB, 11.9 per cent and Ecobank, nine per cent. This indicates that these top three banks have a very good brand name amongst most customers.  

For Brand Purchasing Intent, thus, “how likely customers will use the brand specified in the near future”, CalBank held the top position with 85 per cent, followed by Access Bank and GCB, both with 84 per cent and Fidelity Bank climaxed the top performance with 83 per cent.

Also, for Brand Loyalty, which reflects customers' consistent preference for retaining a long-term relationship with their primary bank, the First National Bank (FNB) led as 92 per cent of their customers affirming their loyalty with the bank, followed by Universal Merchant Bank (UMB) with a score of 86 per cent. Standard Chartered, ABSA and Stanbic banks, with an even score of 82 per cent, took third place.

The FNB also led the industry on Brand Equity (BE) with 84 per cent. The BE describes the “level of sway a brand name has in the minds of consumers. This was followed in distance second by Stanbic Bank with 80 per cent and CalBank with 79 per cent.