Building societies beat banks on customer satisfaction

Building society customers value the skills and knowledge of staff and manual approach to underwriting in particular.

Building societies beat banks on customer satisfaction

Mortgage borrowers of building societies have a 93% satisfaction rate with their providers, versus a 80% satisfaction rate for customers of banks, financial services review website Smart Money People has found.

Building society customers value the skills and knowledge of staff and manual approach to underwriting in particular. If this approach is slower than banks, it’s not being mentioned by customers.

Michael Fotis, founder of Smart Money People said, “Our analysis highlights important differences between banks and building societies which make a real impact on their customers’ satisfaction levels.

“Potential and existing customers need to know if a bank or building society will deliver the quality they demand both in terms of product and customer satisfaction. Feedback from over 4,000 reviews indicates that building societies appear to have the edge for now.”

The sentiment around the interest rates offered by banks is higher. Building societies perform better than banks by providing a better quality face-to-face and telephone service

While borrowers tend to focus on people themes, such as the skills and knowledge of staff, mortgage brokers tend to focus on process themes, such as the speed to completion

Branch-based banking is now preferred by just 11% of the population, although 24% of customers aged 65 and over still prefer and value the high quality engagement building societies are able to offer, and building societies often provide an important lifeline for these customers.