Dive Brief:
- Customers are more satisfied with their banks in 2025 than in 2024, according to J.D. Power research based on a survey of nearly 110,000 retail customers regarding their experiences.
- Customer satisfaction rose modestly to 655 on a 1,000-point scale, an 11 point increase from last year. Customers’ likelihood to stay loyal increased 2 percentage points.
- The growth in customer satisfaction has no single source, according to Jennifer White, senior director of banking and payments intelligence at J.D. Power. “It spreads from the more routine transactional efficiency satisfaction to an increased satisfaction with value-added interactions, whether that is advice exchanges, problem resolution, new account openings, and those journeys that are more engagement oriented,” she said. “We see satisfaction rising, really, in both instances.”
Dive Insight:
Amid economic uncertainty and looming inflation, consumers are understandably worried about their personal finances and economic future. Even so, customers’ satisfaction with their banks is strong.
“Since 2022, the most impactful key performance indicator [of customer satisfaction] has been the degree to which customers agree that their bank completely supports them in challenging times,” White said. “Times aren't getting easier.”
Retail banks are providing customers the resources they need to navigate a challenging economic environment, whether that's credit card monitoring, budget tools or easy access to direct deposit, White said. “It's this idea that value-added interaction, supportive services, empower customers to manage their financial lives, even if they aren't actually doing it right now.”
These tools improve overall satisfaction, even when customers are only aware of them and don’t use them.
“We ask customers, ‘Do you agree that your bank completely supports you in challenging times?’ If they're not aware of any of those types of supportive services or tools, 27% agree with that statement,” she said. “When they are aware, 49% agree.”
Customers’ belief that their primary bank “completely supports me in challenging times” grew 4 percentage points.
Improvements in problem resolution also contributed to an increase in overall satisfaction, according to J.D. Power.
Among customers who had a problem and reached out to their bank about it within the past year, 66% had their problem resolved within one day, an increase of 4 percentage points from the year prior. Three in five had their issues resolved in one contact.
“Banks are paying close attention to the most common problem types to ensure that their frontline staff are prepared to handle those,” White said. “That could be as extensive and life impactful as fraud and unauthorized activity, or it could be the need to change your address because you know your statement isn't arriving appropriately.”
