3. Objective & approach
Objective Approach
To use social media to provide insight into the key drivers In order to capture in-the-moment opinions we focused
of satisfaction and dissatisfaction in the retail banking on analysing Twitter conversations from the UK in which
category. any of the following retail banks were mentioned: HSBC,
Barclays, Lloyds TSB, Natwest, Santander and Halifax.
We excluded any neutral tweets in which people were
sharing news without comment or mentioning a bank in
passing and focused our analysis on conversations in
which an opinion was expressed. We categorised the
content by sentiment and theme in order to establish the
key drivers of satisfaction and dissatisfaction.
In addition, we looked at sentiment towards the retail
banking sector as a whole and compared this with
sentiment towards the UK supermarket sector.
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4. Findings
Time was at the heart of conversations about retail The two themes of satisfaction were around apps
banks. The focus of complaints was the time wasted by and customer service. The launch of new apps led to
frustrations and inconvenience caused by being held on some expressions of genuine delight. Barclays’ Pingit in
the phone, having a card blocked or being unable to log part drove these conversations, but banking apps from
into an online account. In contrast, it was time-saving HSBC, Lloyds, NatWest and Santander also generated
apps or surprise at receiving speedy and efficient favourable mentions. Positive mentions of customer
customer service that drove satisfaction. service experiences tended to arise from surprise that the
issue had been handled efficiently.
Within both favourable and unfavourable
discussions, the conversation was almost entirely Complaints about customer service and issues with
emotionally driven by an experience that had just logging into online accounts were the two dominant
taken place. Rational discussions about which banks drivers of dissatisfaction. Customer service complaints
offered the best interest rates on accounts or mortgages nearly all focused on problems with call centres, whilst
were almost non-existent. dissatisfaction with branches centred around
inconvenient opening hours; restricted Saturday hours
and waiting for late-opening banks to open their doors at
9 during the week. Preventing fraud rarely resulted in
tweets of gratitude, but the inconvenience of using card
key devices caused frustration, as did cards being
blocked abroad.
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5. Key drivers of satisfaction & dissatisfaction
Share of opinion-based
sentiment Drivers of satisfaction by share of opinion-based
conversation*
25% New apps
Customer services
75%
0% 2% 4% 6% 8% 10% 12% 14%
Drivers of dissatisfaction by share of opinion-based conversation*
Customer service complaints
Online banking problems
Security frustrations (inc. blocked cards)
Disputes over charges and transfers
Branch opening hours
ATM problems
0% 2% 4% 6% 8% 10% 12% 14%
* A further 7% of opinion-based tweets conveyed satisfaction with a bank and 23% expressed dissatisfaction. In both cases, this content was
made up of a number of smaller themes of conversation.
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6. Sector benchmarking
People generally took to Twitter to complain, other than By way of a benchmark, conversations about brands
when they were pleasantly surprised by service, or when within the supermarket sector (Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s,
something new was launched. This is partially a function Morrisons, Waitrose) were much more positive. This
of how Twitter is used, but the financial services sector demonstrates that Twitter (which accounts for 92% of
does attract a greater level of dissatisfied comment than content about supermarkets) is not always a platform for
some other sectors. It may be that the context of the complaints. Supermarkets saw positive mentions around
crisis has encouraged consumers to complain, but it also everyday aspects of their offering e.g. interest rate
appears that there is less propensity to comment about comparisons rarely took place on Twitter, whilst favourable
positive experiences, and innovations are quickly comparisons of prices in supermarkets were common.
assimilated into everyday expectations.
Sector sentiment by share of conversations
100%
90%
Percentage of conversations
80%
Neutral mentions of retail
70% banking focused on the
60% sharing of news, whilst
50% supermarket conversations
40% centred around passing
30% mentions of being in a shop.
20%
10%
0%
Retail banking Supermarkets
Favourable Unfavourable Neutral
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7. Key insights
Whether customers think banks are wasting their time or saving their time, time is clearly an important
criterion for the evaluation of experiences with retail banking – and customers are often willing to take more
time in order to comment on it.
Resentment over lost time appears in general to have different drivers across online and offline banking,
however. Online frustrations are generally the accumulation of a number of minor inconveniences that
essentially centre around the individual experiencing hassle (even though this might be described in terms of
the impact on time); whilst ‘real-world’ experiences can be an isolated incident but fundamentally focus on the
person’s time being wasted.
There appears to be a subtle inflation in expectations of the use of technology in banking, such as the launch
of new apps. Innovations that are seen as saving time generate goodwill, but this appears to be quite short-
term and soon dissipates as they become accepted and everyday.
Expectations of customer service are low and surprise at receiving good service can often prompt people to
comment on this. Identifying the drivers of these positive experiences is likely to provide a focus for innovation
and improvement, but is arguably unlikely to be enough to fundamentally shift perceptions of the sector.
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