Service quality of banks drops 0.45%, while that of financial platforms falls 3.78%, study shows

The Finance Research Center (FGVcef) at Fundação Getulio Vargas’ Sao Paulo School of Business Administration, in partnership with Toluna, has concluded that between 2020 and 2022, the Customer Service Quality Index score of Brazilian banks fell 0.45%, while the score of financial platforms declined even more, 3.78%. The results indicate that financial platforms seem to be more sensitive to the country’s macroeconomic and investment performance than traditional institutions.

FGVcef and Toluna also found an inverse relationship between customers’ perceptions of the quality of services offered by banks and financial platforms. This becomes clear when we look at a graph plotting the Customer Service Quality Index over time, particularly in recent months, when banks’ scores recovered strongly while financial platforms’ ratings did not.

Customers’ perceptions of service quality at Brazil’s major banks were similar. Bradesco had the highest average score in the two years in question, followed by Itaú.

Change in scores for different criteria

Scores worsened for all criteria except Availability and Privacy, especially Performance and Efficiency. These results were related to the time taken to complete operations, ease of use of tools, and the way tools are organized.

On the positive side, the average score for the Availability criterion increased almost 12%. This is due to the technological improvement of tools, which presented fewer problems over time.

Breaking down the changes in criteria between banks and financial platforms, the results are almost the same. In general, financial platforms presented worse numbers than banks. Furthermore, in terms of Advice, banks improved, while financial platforms lost points.

Correlations between Customer Service Quality Index and market indicators

Generally speaking, the performance of the stock exchange and interest rates seemed to correlate with the perceived quality of both banks and financial platforms. The Sao Paulo Stock Exchange’s performance in a given month, as measured by the IBOVESPA benchmark index (and other indexes such as SMLL, IFNC, ICON, INDX and IMOB), directly influences the quality perception in the following month. In other words, if IBOVESPA goes up one month, the quality perception will tend to increase the next month, for both banks and financial platforms. In the timeframe in question, IBOVESPA was on an upward trend, notwithstanding some temporary declines, and the correlation between it and the Customer Service Quality Index was positive.

In the case of interest rates, the impact was the opposite. That is, if rates go up one month, the quality perception will tend to decline the following month, for both banks and financial platforms. According to the study, this is because interest rates correlate negatively with the prices of fixed income securities, meaning that when rates rise, bond prices drop, generating a loss for investors who hold them, whether directly or via fixed income and multimarket funds.

Conclusions

The evolution of the Customer Service Quality Index over the last two years and its relationship with market factors show that Brazilian investors still maintain a short-term view of their investments, perhaps even encouraged by the actions of banks and platforms through their investment advisors. The change in the Performance criterion, which was the worst of all, clearly bears this out. Short-term results affect investors’ perceptions. Likewise, the Efficiency criterion is another indicator of this process. Thus, much remains to be done to cultivate a long-term mindset among Brazilian investors.

About the Customer Service Quality Index

The Customer Service Quality Index seeks to identify the quality of customer service at banks and financial platforms from the point of view of investors. Every month (sometimes every two months), 500 investors across the country are surveyed. They are asked 36 questions aimed at identifying their perceptions across nine different criteria:

• Efficiency: Ease of use and organization of tools;
• Availability: The bank/platform website’s availability and problems;
• Performance: Time taken to perform operations;
• Privacy: Security of data/information;
• Responsibility: How problems are handled;
• Advice: Clarity of advice and results obtained from it;
• Contact: Ease of solving problems through personal contact;
• Perceived Value: Transparency and competitiveness of different costs;
• Loyalty: Whether users would recommend the bank/platform to friends and relatives.