Zim bank customer loyalty still low

Published: 13 December 2013

Zimbabwe bank customer loyalty is very low; banks still need to build their trusts in customers but this is entirely based on the way the banks serve their customers.

According to a survey conducted by KPMG, with only a third of customers indicating that they would absolutely repeat business with their bank, and just 32 percent saying they would absolutely recommend their bank to others, customer loyalty and advocacy in Zimbabwe is rather low.

Most banks are not customer oriented and this has been revealed by the survey results. Banks need to up their game if they intend to retain more clients banking is a game of numbers, they need to build their image so that customers trust them with their money.

Speculative researches have indicated that in Zimbabwe there could be more than $3 billion floating outside the banking system if this figure is proven then it would mean that the country is losing out deeply just because people do not trust banks at all.

With the above view banks need to be more customer oriented than anything else. Of the surveyed customers 21 percent indicated they might change banks, citing 'service quality' as the top factor influencing their decision.

Customers in Zimbabwe want banks to reduce wait times for transaction processing and requests and improve the competitiveness of interest rates, fees and charges.

Other issues that were revealed in the survey included the channel usage and preference. Where the ATM is the most widely used channel on a weekly basis (32 percent) followed by the branch (27 percent).

Eleven percent use internet banking weekly and 2 percent use mobile banking while 17 percent use the POS.
- bh24