KEY POINTS:
National Bank business customers are the happiest bank clients, according to a Roy Morgan Research satisfaction survey.
Last year the National Bank maintained its lead in the business customer satisfaction stakes, with 84.5 per cent of business owners reporting they were very or fairly satisfied with the bank.
In contrast, its parent group ANZ came out bottom, with just 61 per cent of businesses happy with the bank's service.
The National Bank also scored highly across the board - 79.8 per cent of all customers said they were very or fairly satisfied.
ANZ scored the lowest for overall customer satisfaction, with 70.5 per cent.
ASB Bank, which briefly matched the National Bank for business satisfaction levels in the second quarter of last year, was the most consistent - 80.2 per cent and 80.4 per cent of business and total customers respectively were happy with ASB's service.
In comparison, business customers of the five main Australian banking groups were consistently less satisfied than total customers. In the case of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, which owns ASB and is now headed by the ASB's former chief executive Ralph Norris, 69.5 per cent of all customers were happy but only 60.7 per cent of business owners were.
St George, owned by Westpac, was the best-performing Australian bank, scoring 76.4 per cent for all customers and 74.7 per cent for business clients.
Despite its placing on this side of the Tasman, ANZ was rated the number two bank for customer satisfaction in Australia.
Norman Morris, industry communications director for Roy Morgan, said the dramatic decline in the global financial situation would severely test the relationship between banks and their business customers.
"The challenge for banks in this environment is to keep onside with their customers with a view to the longer term. There is some evidence in this survey that not all banks have handled their customers successfully over the past 12 months."
Morris noted that it took a long time to achieve good customer satisfaction levels.
Things were slow to move either way - customer satisfaction did not just whip up and down.
