London (PRWEB UK) 12 August 2011
DigitalMR analysed thousands of customer comments about high street banks for the month of June 2011. Over half (57%) of these customer views are positive, compared with 43% negative.
The three most mentioned banking brands are: Halifax and HSBC with a 16% share of all comments, followed by Lloyds TSB (15 %).
However there is a large difference between the positive and negative mentions that these banks generate. Halifax (20%) and HSBC (16%) attracted the largest proportion of positive posts, while Lloyds TSB (21%) received the most negative posts, followed by HSBC (17%).
This follows the announcements from the Lloyds Group in May that it was putting aside £3.2bn to pay customers who had been mis-sold payment protection insurance and that at the end of June it was cutting a further 15,000 jobs.
Taking the difference in positive and negative posts into consideration the clear winner for June is the Halifax with a Net Sentiment Score (NSS) of 44% followed by NatWest with 31%. Lloyds TSB was one of only two banks that achieved negative a NSS with minus 15%. Bank of Ireland achieved the lowest NSS with minus 51%.
DigitalMR’s report (powered by SociaNuggets) analyses thousands of customer comments posted via a range of relevant finance related websites and open access social media platforms. It measures, not only the number of comments posted by consumers on the internet, but also sentiment – whether these posts are positive or negative.
Results are based on comments posted by consumers on the major UK banks: Lloyds TSB, HSBC, Halifax, NatWest, Bank of Ireland, Santander, Barclays, RBS, ING Direct, and Clydesdale Bank.
Managing Director of DigitalMR, Michalis Michael commented: “these findings are very encouraging for the Halifax and NatWest brands as they are achieving an overall high net positive sentiment. However, recent events seem to have impacted on the Lloyds TSB brand and it will be interesting to see how online customer sentiment reacts to the planned job cuts announced at the end June.”
1) Net Sentiment Score (NSS)
Most of the banks measured, achieve a positive Net Sentiment Score (NSS) for June. NSS provides an overall percentage score of net positive posts. A positive score means a bank attracts more positive than negative posts, while a negative score suggests a higher proportion of negative posts.
The average NSS taken across all banks measured is 14%, which is good news for the banking industry as it is now attracting more positive sentiment across the internet than it does negative.
Net Sentiment Score ranking
1st Halifax 44%
2nd NatWest 31%
3rd ING Direct 25%
4th Santander 23%
5th Clydesdale Bank 21%
6th Barclays 15%
7th HSBC 12%
8th RBS 6%
9th Lloyds TSB -15%
10th Bank of Ireland -51%
2) Features and Services
DigitalMR measured thousands of customer posts across June regarding the services and features that banks offer. Services attracting a much higher proportion of negative mentions to positive ones were: Customer Care (18% negative vs 9% positive) and Bank Employees (16% negative vs just 4% positive).
While the service attracting a higher proportion of positive comments was Credit Cards with (18% positive vs 11% negative).
Please click here to view customer comments in their words.
3) How can Banks use social media to their advantage?
Banks can use analysis of data from websites and other social media in the following ways:
Engage in a one-to-one dialogue with their customers and respond to negative comments.
Invite some of the customers to join online forums and chat groups to further express their views
Positive sentiment can be leveraged in advertising
Operations can learn about and fix specific branch performance issues
Financial products can be adjusted, and new ones can be designed to meet customer needs
About the syndicated banking report
The monthly banking report monitors thousands of customers’ online conversations through comments posted on open-access social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, forums, blogs, microblogs and commercial websites, for UK banking services.
The report is available on annual subscription with updates provided on a quarterly, monthly or weekly basis. Results will be updated to the press on a monthly basis.
Contact
For regular reports and more information:
Michalis A. Michael
mmichael(at)digital-mr(dot)com
tel: +44 751 571 0370
http://www.digital-mr.com
About DigitalMR
DigitalMR is a specialist agency which provides a holistic approach to web based market research. It specialises in utilising social media research, especially web-listening, and sophisticated technology platforms to enhance its business consulting approach.
DigitalMR’s solutions also include community panels, access panels, web usability and a distinct focus on qualitative research online. The agency has pioneered new methods in online focus groups alongside tools such as video diaries, bulletin boards and online ethnography.
The agency operates in affiliation with international market research company MASMI http://www.masmi.com. DigitalMR is headed by founder and MD, Michalis Michael and is headquartered in London, UK and Nicosia, Cyprus.
About SocialNuggets
SocialNuggets technology delivers real-time market intelligence for fast moving industries by analyzing data from various social media sources with a mission to liberate social media data and sentiment analysis for use in real-time research of brands, products and features. SocialNuggets delivers ready to use market intelligence for various industry verticals including consumer electronics and banking. SocialNuggets data is delivered in bite size, ready-to-consume, infographics and is also available in the form of a full access to our data warehouse for analysis and integration with customers’ data. SocialNuggets, a Serendio company, was founded in 2011 with headquarters in Santa Clara, CA. For more information, please visit http://www.SociaNuggets.net
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