Among the SME market, it appears there is opportunity for banking marketers to make some ground as consumer facing efforts outstrip business banking.

Roy Morgan has reported the results of over 3,000 face-to-face interviews showing customer satisfaction among SME owners with the big four banks has risen just 0.2% to 64.3% at December 2010. Their performance with consumers shows a marked gap, at 72.4% for the same period.

Of the big four, ANZ performed best in both consumer and SME markets. Outside the big four, Bendigo bank was the market leader at 84.5% satisfaction.

“It would appear that despite all the unfavourable publicity associated with the banks’ treatment of business customers, that at the smaller end of the market, business owners have generally maintained their level of satisfaction with the major banks over the last 12 months and in some cases even improved slightly. There is obviously plenty of room by banks for improved performance amongst this important segment as they are still well behind the satisfaction level of consumers overall, 67.9% compared to 74.3%,” said Norman Morris, industry communications director at Roy Morgan Research.