Fact: Building Societies provide superior customer service

Building societies provide better service and higher customer satisfaction than other financial service providers, according to independent research commissioned by the Building Societies Association (BSA).

The GfK NOP Financial Research Survey found that at building societies, 71% of savers were extremely or very satisfied, compared to just 56% of people saving with all other institutions. When it comes to mortgages, 72% of customers were extremely or very satisfied at building societies, versus 62% who said the same of other providers.

The BSA has long asserted that building societies are better at looking after their members due to their mutual status. Having no shareholders means there is only one priority for building societies, their members. Now there is proof that societies deliver higher levels of customer service.

Further research commissioned to GfK NOP showed that treating customers fairly is at the core of regulation for banks and building societies. Two thirds (67%) of customers agreed that that they are treated fairly by their building society, compared to under half (48%) of bank customers. While 34% of bank customers said they did not trust their provider, just 17% of building society customers said they could not trust the advice they were given – a figure building societies will work hard to reduce even further.

Getting good value for money is important when it comes to choosing where to save or borrow. Again, judged on this criteria, over two thirds (68%) of building society customers agreed that they got reasonable value for money from their institution compared to under half of bank customers (45%). In fact, a fifth of bank customers (20%) strongly disagreed with the idea that their institution offered reasonable value for money.

Those questioned in the survey who held both a savings and a mortgage with a building society gave even stronger levels of satisfaction than these results show. Bank customers on the other hand showed even higher levels of disagreement.

Commenting on the survey, the BSA’s Director-General, Adrian Coles said “for a long time we have been saying building societies are better than plcs at working for their customers. It is good to know, but no surprise, that these results back that up.

“Too many people put up with shoddy service from their banks. While I can’t guarantee that building societies are better in every single instance, societies’ customers are happy to sing their praises.

“Such high levels of building society customer satisfaction should not be ignored. You don’t need to put up with bad service from banks as there are building societies on the high street who will put you, not shareholders, first.”