Nedbank came up tops among the four leading retail banks in South Africa for the way in which it handled your complaints over the past year.
The bank walked away with the 2004 award for excellence in customer complaint handling at a glittering banquet in Johannesburg this week.
The award, which is sponsored by the Ombudsman for Banking Services, was introduced in 2001 to encourage banks to focus on their handling of complaints, and to treat complaints in a fair, reasonable and professional manner.
NBS won the first award in 2001. Absa won it the following year, and last year Standard Bank took the honours.
Absa, First National Bank, Nedbank and Standard Bank participated in the 2004 survey which was conducted by independent market-research company Markinor.
An independent market-research company is used to avoid creating the impression that the ombudsman's office favours one bank over the others in its dealings with them, or that it endorses the bank found to be the best at resolving customer complaints.
Markinor chose 400 customers from the client lists of each of the banks for the survey.
In his 2002 annual report, Neville Melville, the Ombudsman for Banking Services, noted that customer satisfaction had declined by eight percent in that year.
In 2003 there was a substantial improvement in the level of customer satisfaction, with 44 percent more people than the previous year indicating that they were "somewhat satisfied", "very satisfied" or "extremely satisfied" with the way their complaints were resolved by their respective banks.
This year, the level of customer satisfaction slipped by six percent.
Of all respondents in the survey this year, 26 percent said they were "somewhat satisfied", 33 percent were "very satisfied" and 26 percent were "extremely satisfied" with the manner in which their complaints were handled.
These levels of satisfaction are much higher than the results of similar surveys conducted in other countries, Melville said. For example, research by Ernst and Young for banks in Britain showed that over half of customers who lodged a complaint with their bank were not satisfied with the way that it was handled.
Social responsibility
Jabu Moleketi, the deputy minister of finance who was the guest speaker at the banquet, said the award was another example of how the banking industry was successfully coming to grips with its social responsibilities.
The awards honoured those "who believe that being a bank is not only about short-term profit margins, but is also about the responsibilities of providing access to equitable and appropriate financial services," he said.
Moleketi also welcomed the launch of the Mzansi bank account as the first step in meeting the agreements reached at the Financial Sector Summit in 2002 and the commitments made in the Financial Sector Charter. The Mzansi bank account was launched this week to provide access to banking services for the unbanked.
"Mzansi is another indication of a shared vision of how all social partners should work together in forging a fair and inclusive financial future for all South Africans," Moleketi said.