SMBs Say Banks Don’t Appreciate Their Business

A new survey has found that small businesses aren’t feeling the love from their banks.

According to the J.D. Power 2018 U.S. Small Business Banking Satisfaction Study, only 37 percent of small business banking customers believe that their bank appreciates their business, while just 32 percent say their bank understands their business.

“Small businesses represent a challenging, but lucrative, customer segment for banks that need to balance customers’ desire for high-touch service with the realities of managing the cost of service,” Bob Neuhaus, Vice President, Financial Services at J.D. Power, said in a press release. “Aside from the table stakes requirement of showing customers that they are appreciated, banks need to focus on better integrating scarce high-touch resources with innovative digital tools to meet the demands of small businesses.”

The data showed that overall SMB bank customer satisfaction is at 800 (on a 1,000-point scale) in 2018, which is lower than the overall satisfaction scores found in the J.D. Power 2018 Retail Banking Satisfaction Study and the J.D. Power 2018 Credit Card Satisfaction Study.

In addition, only 28 percent of SMB customers say their bank specializes in small business banking and 23 percent say their bank anticipates changes in their banking needs.

And banks that provide an account manager score higher on the satisfaction scale. In fact, overall satisfaction is 112 points higher among SMBs who have been assigned an account manager than among those who do not have one.

As for which banks score the highest in SMB satisfaction, Huntington ranks highest in the Midwest region with a score of 841, followed by Citibank (834) and Chase (828); Capital One earns the top spot in the Northeast region with a score of 817, while Chase (816) ranks second and Citizens Bank (807) is third; Citibank ranks highest in the South region with a score of 857, with Chase (836) at second and BB&T (835) at third; and Chase ranks highest in the West for a sixth consecutive year, with a score of 825. Citibank (814) follows at second and Bank of the West (795) is in third place.