SA banks leapfrog insurers and retailers to become the most-liked sector

Survey finds that people have a generally better experience with banks than with retailers, insurers and telecom firms

SA banks have overtaken insurers and retailers to become the country’s most-liked sector, according to an annual social media survey conducted by Dataeq.

The survey tracked just over four-million social media posts on African Bank, Absa, Capitec Bank, Discovery Bank, FNB, Nedbank, Standard Bank and Tymebank from September 1 2021 until the end of August 2022.

The banking industry’s net sentiment score shot up almost 17 percentage points, from a negative 7.5% in 2021 to a positive 9.4% in 2022.

The climb suggests that South Africans had a generally better experience with their banks than with local retailers, insurers and telecommunication companies.

Successful social media campaigns and improved customer experience generally boosted the standing of the commercial lenders on social media platforms, according to the survey.

Absa’s #Wedomorewednesdays and FNB’S #LOVEFNB campaigns featured prominently in online conversation, along with others such as #Icanwithabsa and Standard Bank’s #Itcanbe.

The broader themes were customer service, reputation, account administration, digital experience, products, transactions, physical facilities and pricing or fees. FNB topped this year’s overall sentiment rankings followed by Absa, while Capitec and Standard Bank lagged their counterparts.

Digital experience overtook general customer service as consumers’ biggest pain point with banks, suggesting a rise in customer use of digital platforms.

“For the first time, the topic of digital experience garnered a higher volume of conversation than general customer service,” said Sarah Lamb, head of client service at Dataeq.

“Digital downtime and digital security were both major drivers of negativity in this regard. Complimentary conversation around platform navigation and third-party purchases emerged as net positive.”

Earlier this year, Capitec and Standard Bank were gripped by instances of temporary system glitches which left customers unable to perform online and shopping services. They took to Twitter to vent their frustrations. “In terms of Capitec and Standard Bank’s performance, several factors were at play here. Firstly, Capitec has seen massive growth in its customer base in recent years, which has led to some operational challenges such as downtime, as is to be expected,” Lamb told Business Day in an emailed response to questions.

“Standard Bank also experienced significant bouts of downtime, which negatively impacted their sentiment. Standard Bank also seemed to use fewer campaigns than other banks to mask their overall sentiment.”

Capitec has a client base of well over 18-million, making it the largest retail bank by customer numbers in SA.

Capitec overtook FNB in terms of the volume of mentions from consumers threatening to leave for another bank, with 17.3% of its churn conversation referencing another bank, according to the study.

Standard Bank had the second-highest number of customers threatening to leave for another bank.

As for the smaller banks — Discovery Bank, African Bank and Tymebank — acquisition opportunities were likely to come from Capitec Bank customers, the survey showed.

The banking industry’s net sentiment score shot up almost 17 percentage points, from a negative 7.5% in 2021 to a positive 9.4% in 2022, Dataeq said