KEY POINTS:
A new banking survey has found customers rate Kiwibank and ASB as providing the highest levels of customer service among this country's main banks.
The latest Nielsen Consumer Finance Monitor, released today, shows that for both banks 74 per cent of their customers rated them as either excellent or very good.
Customers thought that nearly every bank was offering a better quality of service now, than a year ago, based on rolling annual data.
The biggest improvement among the main banks came from ANZ and the Bank of New Zealand.
Neilsen financial services research director Lindy Osborne said several initiatives and changes within the banks during the past few months, including new product development, would have contributed to the improvement in ratings.
She said the main banks were being outperformed in service ratings by TSB, BankDirect and PSIS, which had smaller customer bases.
The latest results showed that 95 per cent of TSB customers rated their bank as excellent or very good, with PSIS and BankDirect rating at 88 per cent and 86 per cent respectively, Ms Osborne said.
The greatest improvement shown by banks was in the performance of their branches.
Branch service had been an area of strength for BNZ during the past few years and now 83 per cent of those using BNZ branches at least every two to three months, rated service received at the branch as either excellent or very good.
ANZ and Kiwibank had shown the largest improvements in branch performance during the past 12 months, and now 80 per cent of ANZ customers rated the branch service as very good or excellent.
- NZPA
