Kenyan banks have outperformed their global peers in market trust, with service excellence almost hitting 100 per cent.
The latest survey by the Kenya Bankers Association (KBA) shows overall banking industry service excellence rating has risen to 96.2 per cent, from 82.7 per cent in 2019.
This means, customer satisfaction rating has increased by 13.5 per cent in the past three years compared to the global average of 11.9 per cent.
The report analyses the quality of banking customer service in Kenya over a period of three years, based on the industry’s annual Customer Satisfaction Survey, which was introduced by the Association in 2019.
The publication seeks to support the banking industry towards the development of a market environment that provides consumers with the most excellent product choices, ensuring product safety and preserving consumers’ economic interests.
According to KBA chief executive Habil Olaka, the report serves as a banking customer service benchmark, seeking to define service levels for the industry based on the expressed and unexpressed needs of the banking public.
"We know how banks serve customers matters because they give us feedback through our platform," Olaka said.
This year, the Co-operative Bank of Kenya has emerged the overall winner of the Customer Satisfaction Survey.
The survey was conducted by interviewing over 33,000 customers of all member banks of KBA.
Family Bank which took the trophy last year came second. It maintained its status as the best tier two lender.
The 2022 survey was conducted amid the clamour for enhanced support towards economic recovery.
According to the survey, banking apps are the top most preferred digital banking feature, cited by 26 per cent of the respondents, followed by mobile banking at 25 per cent and internet banking at 11 per cent.
Nearly six out of 10 bank customers prefer mobile banking, with 74 per cent of the respondents citing that most of the banks respond to complaints within two days of a complaint being raised.
Nearly all the respondents, 96.2 per cent, expressed their appreciation for the effort banks continued to make to maintain Covid-19 protocols to curb the spread of the disease, without compromising service standards.
This was an improved performance, compared to a proportion of 92 per cent in the previous survey.
For customer support, a majority of the respondents, 46.4 per cent preferred human-assisted forms of services such as call centres and branches in comparison to 22.4 per cent, who prefer fully automated or self-service interventions such as mobile, internet and chat bots.
