SME’s Grow Increasingly Dissatisfied With Business Banking

Post by Sharat on July 31, 2009 · Under Australian Economy, Business News, banking, interest rates · Comment 

A recent report by a research firm has shown over the last year that Australian small businesses have grow increasingly frustrated with their banks over the high cost of credit and unavailability of dedicated managers to serve them.

East & Partners a banking research firm has released a report showing that satisfaction with banks amongst small and medium enterprises, defined as having turnover of between $5 million and $25 million has dropped by 14 per cent during the 2008/09 year.

The satisfaction rating that small and medium enterprises (SME’s) gave their banks in June 2009 was 4.60 compared with 5.31 given in the same month of 2008.

A reading of zero indicates very dissatisfied and 10 very satisfied.

Head of market analysis for East & Partners Robert Morgan, said that SME’s faced increasing difficulty in finding credit at decent cost, reflecting the economic slowdown and tightening of credit conditions.

SME’s also expressed dissatisfaction with the inability of lenders to provide a single point of contact for handling their banking issues.

“We know that by far SMEs prefer face-to-face banking. There are difficult conversations that are having to be had, and if someone knows your business and can genuinely empathise with your situation, then having that conversation is a lot easier.” Mr. Morgan said.

In order to provide better service and alleviate the situation Mr. Morgan said many lenders and in particular the big four banking groups had deployed a larger number of relationship managers to their branch network.

The chief executive of the Council of Small Business of Australia, Jave Radisich said that many small businesses received contradictory information from their banks and complained about this and the lack of personal attention from their lenders. Ms. Radisich added that increased staff would help solve the issue.

“We appreciate and congratulate those banks who have actually put on more small business advisers in their branches who are specialists in being able to attend to the banking needs of small businesses,” Ms Radisich said.

Ms Radisich also suggested that SME’s should get in touch with their local branches personally and express their greivances, rather than contacting their lenders and transacting over the phone and internet.

“Small businesses need to use their voice, to speak up and to tell their bank that what they want is a personal point of contact. If they don’t hear the concerns, then we can’t blame them for not delivering.” Ms Radisich said.

The report found that whilst the overall satisfaction rating of the Big Four banking groups had declined, regional banks and in particular St. George had seen an improvement.

“They’ve probably always tried to foster closer relationships with their customers. Obviously they don’t have as many customers so it’s arguably easier to do.” Mr. Morgan said of the regional banks and St George.

The overall market average satisfaction rating was 4.85 in June, and has fallen for the last 10 consecutive months.

Compare Australian Business Bank Accounts

Bookmark and Share

Related posts

  • No related posts.

Tags:

Comments

Leave a Reply







Sponsored Ads