Small businesses less satisfied with banks

Bendigo Bank leads the pack in customer satisfaction when it comes to small businesses. However, total scores were down for most mortgage lenders compared to results from 12 months ago.

According to Roy Morgan Research who conducted face-to-face interviews with more than 3,000 Australian small business owners found Bendigo Bank was the overall market leader in satisfaction amongst small business owners with 84.5%, although this was down 4.3 percentage points from a year ago.

St George beat out the Big Four with a score of 72.4% (down 2.1 percentage points). ANZ topped Westpac, followed by CBA and NAB. Despite edging out its competitors, ANZ's satisfaction rating fell slightly by 0.7%, while Westpac and CBA experienced a slight rise in results.

In contrast, satisfaction among NAB's small business customers dropped almost 3% compared to the previous year.

A recent survey by the Council of Small Business of Australia found that among respondents, the biggest concerns were high interest rates and the cost of obtaining finance.

If you are having trouble getting business finance or you don't want to get tied down with the strict lending criteria of the bank, speak to the mortgage brokers at Intellichoice on 1300 55 10 45 about our alternative business finance solutions, including invoice finance, trade finance and inventory finance and equipment rental.