Every six months the BSA commissions YouGov to ask around 2,000 people about their customer service experience at their Bank or Building society. In July, 88% of building society customers said their provider provides good customer service, this is similar to the 89% in January 2021. However just 79% of Bank customers said the same of their provider, down from 85% in January 2021 and the lowest level since this survey began five years ago.  This gives building societies a 9 percentage point lead over the banking sector on the main indicator of customer service.

Building societies continue to outperform banks on all seven customer service metrics, which they have done since the survey begun in 2016.

On the whole, scores for building scores remained relatively stable in July 2021 compared to January. However, scores for banks across all seven metrics have fallen to their lowest level since the survey began five years ago.

On some metrics such as providing competitive rates and making customers feel their business is valued - building societies extended their lead over the banks significantly from 12 and 13 percentage points respectively to 21 percentage points on both measures. 

Notes

Results are calculated by the BSA and excludes those who said ‘don’t know.’ Based on 461 building society customers and 1,261 customers of other financial service providers.

All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc.  Total sample size was 2202 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 14th - 15th July 2021.  The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all GB adults (aged 18+).