UK Banking Analysis APRIL JUNE 2017 PUBLISHED 13 SEPTEMBER 2017

Transcription

1 UK Banking Analysis APRIL JUNE 2017 PUBLISHED 13 SEPTEMBER 2017

2 Executive summary APR - JUNE 2017 Over a 3 month period BrandsEye tracked over mentions on six UK banks namely, HSBC, Lloyds Bank, NatWest Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays Bank and Santander Bank. The data for the banks were analysed in order to understand the sentiment towards each institution as well as the topics that consumers most often discuss. Main topics of conversation Among all banks three topics were the main drivers of conversation. No access to services outweighed most other topics with customers complaining about online banking and the banking app being offline, problems at ATMs, bank accounts being closed for unknown reasons and not being able to get through to the call centre. Secondly, turn around time frustrated customers due to delays in fixing issues on accounts, long lead times for new cards and the call centre having very long hold times. Finally, ethics plagued banks due to fraud, corruption, poor fraud prevention and customers feeling a lack of trust in banks. Topics driving positive sentiment Innovation was the most positive topic for four of the six banks HSBC, NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays. Santander had very high positive sentiment for branch location as accessibility was a major concern for customers. Lloyds Bank was the only bank to receive positive sentiment for their pricing, cost of banking products was a much discussed topic amongst all the banks with customers more often feeling negative about the topic than positive. Finally, staff at Santander were often praised for being helpful and efficient, a contradiction to other banks that received high volumes of complaints related to staff. Communicating with customers A comparison of times at which the brand is active versus consumer activity shows that most banks mirror the behaviour of consumers when replying to specific queries and questions. However, brand content varies hugely and none but one bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, posts during times when consumers show high volumes of activity. Response rate In general all six banks have a relatively high response rate to customer queries, reflecting active engagement with users of their products. Lloyds Bank had the lowest response rate with only 63% of consumer queries responded to over the period. Santander had the highest response rate, replying to 89% of customer queries. All other banks averaged a response rate between 72% and 84%.

3 Net sentiment ranking APR JUNE 2017

4 Sentiment ranking APR JUNE 2017 THEMES INFLUENCING SENTIMENT OF EACH BANK HSBC Bank Innovation contributed to positive sentiment for the bank as well as events and sponsorships. Service related issues and turn around time drove negative conversation for HSBC. Lloyds Bank Positive sentiment towards pricing and an the new advert released by the bank in April. Consumers responded negatively to Lloyds Bank closing branches as well as to issues with the bank s app and online banking. NatWest Bank The bank experienced a system glitch with its online and app banking causing issues with transfers and making it appear as if money was going missing from account, this was the main driver of negative sentiment for the bank. Sponsorships and awards contributed to positive conversation. Royal Bank of Scotland RBS showing profit for the first time since 2015 as well as its branches network contributed to positive sentiment. Corruption and fraud charges against top executives, as well as RBS being perceived as the most untrustworthy bank drove negative sentiment towards the bank. Barclays Bank In May 2017 Barclays Bank s system crashed causing frustration with customers as they could not access their accounts. Sponsorships and charity events drove positive sentiment for the bank. Santander Bank Santander Bank s staff contributed to the overall positive experience of customers. Access to services was the dominant complaint amongst customers, including issues with app and online banking as well as branch location.

5 Topic wheel displaying main topics contributing to the conversation for UK banks.

6 Topics APR-JUNE 2017 CONTRIBUTION TO THE OVERALL CONVERSATION Products 23.3% No Access to Service 18.3% Turn Around Time 12.8% Ethics Customer Service Staff Call Centre Payments 6.3% 5.7% 4.7% 4.4% 4.2% Branch Location / Reference Fraud and Scams Innovation 2.3% 2.0% 3.0% *Note that the topic listed above provides an indication of the main topics impacting the banking industry

7 Topics comparison APR JUNE 2017 NET SENTIMENT SCORED BY EACH BANK FOR TOP 10 TOPICS PRODUCTS NO ACCESS TO SERVICES TURN AROUND TIME ETHICS CUSTOMER SERVICE STAFF CALL CENTRE PAYMENTS BRANCH LOCATION FRAUD & SCAMS INNOVATION Santander Bank HSBC Bank Lloyds Bank NatWest Bank Royal Bank of Scotland Barclays Bank -67.0% -88.8% -79.3% -70.4% -59.8% -36.0% -76.5% -89.0% -43.6% -68.2% -38.0% -82.9% -93.4% -86.8% -66.8% -75.9% -56.6% -86.8% -93.0% -64.8% -87.0% -48.8% -58.5% -88.1% -76.7% -73.9% -64.7% -41.8% -80.6% -79.4% -72.4% -87.3% -22.2% -62.2% -85.2% -76.6% -73.2% -60.9% -40.8% -77.6% -83.4% -59.2% -90.6% -15.4% -63.5% -91.1% -79.4% -84.0% -67.4% -65.9% -88.0% -85.1% -67.9% -85.5% -7.6% -75.1% -92.5% -86.4% -79.9% -71.9% -57.6% -88.4% -88.6% -71.4% -81.3% -36.0%

8 Topic analysis ACCESS TO SERVICES Access to services appeared to be one of the biggest issues that customers faced regardless of the institution they banked with. All six banks analysed as part of this study had a high level of negative sentiment related to this topic. 95 % Issues affecting customers were also similar for all banks, save for NatWest and Barclays who had particularly negative sentiment due to errors affecting their banking systems. The errors frustrated customers who could not access their accounts or make transfers and, in the case of NatWest, money seemed to be disappearing from accounts. Other complaints related to issues with the various banks mobile app, not being able to access online banking, ATMs being offline or swallowing cards as well as cards being declined at POS. Access to branches was a major complaint as most of the researched banks were in the process of closing branches in various areas meaning that consumers no longer found it convenient to do transactions in branch. Finally, call centres were also a major complaint often due to long holding times or waiting for calls to be answered. Customers often shared the time they were on hold for, for example being on hold for over 25 minutes before speaking to a consultant. Furthermore, once calls were answered by consultants, customers felt that many were unhelpful and did not solve their problem satisfactorily. 5% Positive Negative

9 Topic analysis STAFF Staff were mostly rated as unhelpful and did not address issues to the satisfaction of clients. Cell centre agents, as mentioned previously, was also a very negative topic of conversation among customers. 75 % The topic, staff, had the biggest difference between the bank with the most positive sentiment towards their staff and the bank with the most negative. The two banks had an almost 30% difference in net sentiment with Santander Bank scoring the most positive on this topic and the Royal Bank of Scotland scoring the most negative sentiment. Royal Bank of Scotland scored a high level of negative sentiment towards staff due to the fact that executives of the bank were taken to court by shareholders over losses incurred by investors due to an investment made on misleading terms. Barclays Bank also had issues with executives being charged over fraud committed during the 2008 financial crisis. 25% Other staff issues included unknowledgeable and unhelpful employees at branches which caused frustration for customers. Complaints also included rude branch managers. Finally, too few staff at counters during busy times causing delays in service was frequently mentioned by authors. Positive Negative

10 Response times per brand APR - Customer queries No response Response rate* 83.5% 63.0% 72.9% 76.3% 80.9% 89.0% Total responses Average response time 43m 27s 1h 2m 23s 14m 2s 51m 54s 25m 8s 1h 27m 14s Minimum response time 49s 1m 17s 24s 1m 31s 32s 21s Maximum response time 36d 8h 15m 38s 10d 17h 13m 33s 5d 16h 16m 56s 1d 12h 38m 20s 4d 15h 9m 13s 61d 8m 37s Response Rate* = (customer queries no responses) / customer queries x 100

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12 Santander APR - JUNE 2017 OVERALL SUMMARY BRAND MENTIONS PLATFORMS 85% SENTIMENT 69% UNIQUE AUTHORS ADVERTISING VALUE EQUIVALENT O.T.S. GENERATED % 11% 20% 0% Facebook Instagram Twitter Positive Negative Neutral

13 Consumer posts/brand replies Brand posts Brand Posts vs. Consumer Mentions DAILY AVERAGE MENTIONS OVER TIME Thursdays is the most popular day for brand posts while the rest of the week remains low in volume. Consumer posts and brand replies follow a consistent pattern which speaks to the brands 89% response rate Consumer tend to be most active on Tuesdays and Thursdays and the brand could consider posting on these days to ensure engagement. 0 0 Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Brand posts Brand replies Consumer posts

14 12 AM 1 AM 2 AM 3 AM 4 AM 5 AM 6 AM 7 AM 8 AM 9 AM 10 AM 11 AM 12 PM 1 PM 2 PM 3 PM 4 PM 5 PM 6 PM 7 PM 8 PM 9 PM 10 PM 11 PM Brand Posts vs. Consumer Mentions AVERAGE MENTIONS OVER TIME HOURLY Brand posts and consumer posts display similar behaviour in terms of the time of day that they start being active, both starting conversations from 6AM Different to consumers who remain active throughout the day, the brand shows two significant spikes at the start and end of the day, 6AM and 8PM respectively Brand replies follow a similar patter to consumer posts, but tapers off throughout the day whilst consumers remain active until approximately 7PM. Consumer posts Brand replies Brand posts

15 Sentiment analysis APR- JUNE 2017 SANTANDER NEGATIVE The dominant complaint among consumers were related to accounts fraudulent activities, blocked accounts and difficulties with payments were some of the chief complaints. Cards getting blocked for no reason, payments declined and problems with contactless cards contributed to negative sentiment. Consumers also complained about branches and that they were inconveniently situated and that their trading times were problematic for people who worked during the week. Issues with transfers and cash withdrawals at ATMs increased negative sentiment towards the brand. Bank charges causing accounts to go into overdraft was a prominent complaint in June. Call centre agents being unhelpful as well as the long hold times when calling customer service contributed to negative sentiment. POSITIVE Compliments for good customer service Winning the award for Strategic Business Partner of the Year contributed to positive sentiment for the brand. Santander s sponsorship of race car driver Jenson Button contributed to positive sentiment. The Santander Entrepreneurship Awards contributed to positive sentiment for the bank.

16 Examples of mentions SANTANDER APR - JUNE 2017

17 Full report available on request JOHANNESBURG , 12th Avenue, Rivonia Johannesburg 2128 South Africa CAPE TOWN st Floor, Mirum Building 97 Durham Avenue, Salt River Cape Town 7925 South Africa DUBAI Level 9, The H Dubai Office Tower One Sheikh Zayed Road P.O.Box Dubai United Arab Emirates