TORONTO — Royal Bank of Canada and Tangerine ranked highest among Canadian banks this year as overall customer satisfaction among major financial institutions dropped during the pandemic, a prominent market research company reported Tuesday.
J.D. Power said this dissatisfaction was driven by people having their personal finances affected by the pandemic, which led to more disputes around issues like fees.
Problem resolution had the greatest decline, while other factors such as lack of convenience and issues around products and fees contributed to the industry-wide drop, it said.
Banks need to better work on problem-solving and communication with their clients, especially as more interactions had taken place online over the last year, said John Cabell, the company's director of banking and payments intelligence.
Mortgage deferrals, changes to RRSP or TFSA accounts and other interactions
“Nearly four in 10 customers have been financially affected by the pandemic. The subsequent financial insecurity leads to lower trust and satisfaction," Cabell said.
The drop in satisfaction was most apparent with Canada's Big Five banks – RBC Royal Bank, Scotiabank, TD Canada Trust, BMO Bank of Montreal and CIBC, the report says.
The trend was at odds with its U.S. survey, where 63 per cent of customers said they felt supported by their bank, as opposed to only 43 per cent in Canada, the company said.
It said RBC was the highest-rated large bank for customer satisfaction for the second year in a row, while Tangerine was the highest-rated mid-size bank for the tenth consecutive year.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 11, 2021.
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The Canadian Press
