Banks to gain customers through ‘trusted’ friends and family: Roy Morgan

According to a statement yesterday, the 2.96 million people who were asked by their friends and families for advice have the potential to influence the financial and banking decisions of the 5.4 million people asking for advice.

Of the 16 largest consumer banks, Citibank was found to have the largest proportion of customers (25.2 per cent) that have been asked for advice.

Macquarie Bank had the second highest proportion of customers who are asked for their advice (24.2 per cent), followed by Heritage Bank (23.3 per cent) and ING Direct (21.8 per cent).

This may lead to those banks gaining customers through personal recommendation, but only if those people have high satisfaction and are likely to advocate, Roy Morgan said.

Although Citibank and Macquarie Bank have the highest proportions of ‘trusted advisers’ in their customer base, they have average levels of satisfaction.

“This research shows that financial decisions for many have the potential to be impacted to a considerable extent by informal advice from friends and family, rather than relying on professional financial planners,” said Roy Morgan industry communications director Norman Morris.

“With nearly 3 million people being asked by family and friends for financial advice and over 5 million asking them for advice, this network is likely to play a major role in financial decisions.

“The banks dealt with by the people who give advice have the potential to gain customers only if they have high satisfaction and positive levels of advocacy or NPS scores, which is not the case currently for many of them. It is therefore worth banks understanding and tracking that important group of their customers – ‘trusted advisers’.”