The banking industry announces Customer Satisfaction Survey Results for 2019

November 2, 2020

Kuala Lumpur, Monday, 2 November 2020 – The Association of Banks in Malaysia (ABM) is pleased to announce the Customer Satisfaction Survey (“the Survey”) results for the banking industry for the year 2019, which saw the participation of 13 of our member banks. The Survey is supported by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) and is in alignment with BNM’s initiatives formulated under the Financial Sector Blueprint 2011-2020. The Survey aims to promote the quality and transparency of customer services of the Malaysian banking sector as set out in the Customer Service Charter. (the Charter).

The purpose of the Survey is to establish an industry benchmark of the Malaysian banking sector in terms of customer service which will be used as a baseline to measure current performance and track future improvement.

The key metric used in the Survey is Net Promoter Score (NPS) and Customer Satisfaction is utilisedas a second level of measure.

NPS looks at how likely a customer would be to recommend, in this case, their bank to a friend or colleague. The Survey respondents assign a rating of between 0 (not at all likely to recommend) to 10 (extremely likely to recommend) in their response and the reason for their response. The higher the score from the Survey respondents, the better the customer experience.

A total of 7,000 respondents from across all states in Malaysia participated in and completed the Survey. Bank customers were randomly interviewed and are based on each participating banks’ customers’ distribution and profile to ensure a representative sample of customers of the Malaysian retail banking industry.

The Survey respondents comprised those who fulfil the following criteria:-

1) Being the main or joint account holder. The account could be any ofthe following products: savings account, current account, credit card, debit card, fixed deposits, home loan, hire purchase loan or personal loan; and

2) Performed at least one transaction with their bank in the last 3 months excluding transactions via a self-service terminal (SST).

The Malaysian banking industry scored an overall of +41 NPS and outperformed the Global Ipsos NPS banking benchmark of +30. The results indicated a strong industry performance in customer service. On the other hand however, the Malaysian banking industry scored 15 NPS points lower in comparison with its South East Asian banking counterparts.

The findings of the Survey generated insights on the top three reasons for customers to recommend their banks as set out below:-

a) the staff’s attitude and services;
b) the products and processes of the banks; and
c) branch related experiences.

Overall, based on the overview of the Industry Satisfaction score, Malaysian bank customers’ satisfaction towards their banks stood at 81%. Staff behaviour underpins the reason for satisfaction scores and is the key reason attributed to high satisfaction. Notwithstanding the encouraging NPS score, the banking industry will work towards addressing any gaps in the key areas of focus in the banks’ efforts towards continuous improvement in customer experience. This is to further enhance overall banking services and front-line staff service delivery including online banking experiences. More information on the Customer Satisfaction Survey 2019 can be found on the ABM website at www.abm.org.my .

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