October 18, 2022 | Stamford, CT — Relationships between banks and their commercial clients have hit a rough patch. Over the past year, key measures of client satisfaction have tumbled for U.S. commercial banks, with average Net Promoter Scores (NPS) dropping four points for community banks, 10 points for regional banks and four points for super regionals.
As a group, national banks receive by far the industry’s lowest NPS scores, while community, regional and super-regional banks outpace national banks in NPS by a significant margin.
However, because superior service is so central to their value proposition, recent declines in client satisfaction are a particularly ominous sign for smaller banks. These banks will need to make every effort to reverse this trend, using all resources at their disposal, including intense coverage from relationship managers and the introduction of the digital tools they can afford to adopt.
“Smaller banks often cannot manage to digitize entire workflows, but they can identify the most impactful client pain points and specifically target technology investments to alleviate them,” says Chris McDonnell, Head of Digital Benchmarking at Coalition Greenwich and co-author of Decline in Client Satisfaction is Ominous Sign for Smaller Commercial Banks.
It is imperative that smaller banks act quickly to shore up service quality to compete with the massive technology investments made by national providers. National banks are incorporating e-signatures, digital document vaults, autofill, and other digital tools to streamline client onboarding and eliminate many of the headaches associated with KYC, ALM and other documentation requirements. They are also integrating data analytics and artificial intelligence to anticipate client needs and deliver timely and relevant recommendations.
The good news for smaller banks is that national banks are still mid-stream in this transformation, and it could be as long as three years before national banks begin to reap the benefits of their technology investments.
“Now is the time to seize the moment and deliver an exceptional client experience that translates into expanded share of wallet and market share,” says Don Raftery, Head of Banking – Americas at Coalition Greenwich and report co-author.
2022 Greenwich CX Leaders in U.S. Commercial Small Business and Middle Market Banking
The 2022 Greenwich CX Leaders in U.S. Commercial Small Business and Middle Market Banking all combine high-touch service with valuable insights and advice that help their clients optimize business performance.
- The 2022 Greenwich CX Leaders in U.S. Commercial Small Business include Camden National Bank, New Mexico Bank & Trust, Oxford Bank, and Wisconsin Bank & Trust.
- The 2022 Greenwich CX Leaders in U.S. Commercial Middle Market Banking include Arizona Bank & Trust, CIBC, Enterprise Bank & Trust, FirstBank & Trust, Illinois Bank & Trust, New Mexico Bank & Trust, Premier Valley Bank, and Wisconsin Bank & Trust.
2022 Greenwich CX Leaders in U.S. Retail Banking
The 2022 Greenwich CX Leaders in Retail Banking excel in customer service, impress their customers with product knowledge and make it easy for their clients to bank through seamless transactions. The 2022 Greenwich CX Leaders Retail Banking are Camden National Bank, CIBC and Oxford Bank.
Click here for the list of 2022 Greenwich CX Leaders