High transaction charges and poor customer service are the top reasons why Nigerian bank consumers may choose to close or stop running an account with a bank, according to a recent report by Afrinvest Research, a leading independent investment banking firm.
The report titled “The Nigerian Banking Experience in 2019” sampled a total of 1,052 respondents with varying experiences and age range of 22-35 years (60.8%), 15-21 years (22.8%), 36-50 years (12.5%) and 51 & above years (3.9%).
Now in its sixth consecutive year, the report seeks to evaluate how technological adaptation, efficiency in service delivery and product offerings have affected the banking experience of customers.
Other reasons cited were fraud and lack of innovation for possible account closure.
The report said that “30.7 of respondents cited high transaction cost; poor customer service delivery was 30.0 percent, fraud occurrence on an account (25.2%), lack of innovation (11.8%) and other unspecified reasons (2.4%) were the justifications for account closure.”
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Muyiwa Nejo, a banker, said that in some banks, the rate at which people close their accounts is on the increase due to lack of support when customers need one, poor services, no account officer or change of account officer, fraud proximity and poor network.
The report also noted that for people selecting in choosing a bank, 16.9 percent said that bank accessibility and 15. 3 percent cited (search for) right product offerings as the most important criteria, although 13.4 percent also specified brand, ambience and staff appearance are other factors.
“Also, 66.2 percent of our respondents find that the resolution of queries by banks was satisfactory with 35.1 percent identifying bank visit as the most effective channel. This probably indicates that banks are not effectively utilising other communication channels such as internet banking (22.4%), phone call (15.6%), electronic mail (14.7%) and social media (12.1%). Therefore, we opine that banks need to stay vigilant to ever-changing customer needs and improve on online customer complaint solutions for continued patronage and loyalty,” the report said.
It was also noticed that banks have improved the banking experience of existing customers while amassing new ones through continued innovative service offerings.
From the analysis, respondents operate more than one bank account, with 24.3 percent banking with Guaranty Trust Bank trailed by Access (18.3 percent) and First Bank (11.1 percent), while 46.3 percent cumulatively represent customers from other banks. Also, 64.3 percent of the respondents run a savings account, perhaps reflective of its lower cost and interest-yielding feature.
