Over two thirds - 68% - of corporates would consider switching banks for better customer service around on-boarding, account maintenance and query handling, a 24% rise on the previous year, according to a survey from Finextra Research and Pegasystems.
The survey of 98 senior professionals from banks and corporates in Europe, Asia and the US built on a similar one conducted last year, which focused on client on-boarding and account opening. This year the research was extended to cover account maintenance, inquiry and request management, corporate customer satisfaction and propensity to switch.
In perhaps the most telling responses, 57% of corporates say they would accept paying higher fees for a Web portal with more sophisticated self-service that allows them to manage their entire portfolio online. Another 46% say they would pay more for consistent service across different regions, channels and lines of business.
Over half - 53% - cite quick turnaround times to requests and inquiries as one reason they would increase doing business with a particular bank.
This message from increasingly demanding and sophisticated corporate clients appears to be getting through to the banking sector. While just 26% of bank respondents in last year's survey said they had invested money in improving and automating on-boarding and service processes in 2009, 64% claim to have done so in 2010, with 84% indicating they have budgeted for investment in this area in 2011.
Download the full free Corporate Customer Satisfaction Survey report here.