Despite more customers than ever interacting with their banks and credit card providers via mobile apps and websites in Canada—and investment continuing to pour into the user experience of those digital channels—customer satisfaction with those tools is not improving. This, according to an update from J.D. Power.
According to a series of recent studies of bank and credit card mobile app and online users, released by J.D. Power, a sense of complacency “has started to emerge among bank and credit card customers in Canada when it comes to using digital channels.”
Customer satisfaction with banking apps and websites “is flat while satisfaction with credit card apps and websites is declining, with few customers making use of more advanced features like virtual assistants, alerts and budgeting tools.”
The studies—J.D. Power 2024 Canada Banking Mobile App Satisfaction Study; 2024 Canada Online Banking Satisfaction Study; 2024 Canada Credit Card Mobile App Satisfaction Study; and 2024 Canada Online Credit Card Satisfaction Study—”track overall customer satisfaction with banking and credit card providers’ digital offerings.”
Jennifer White, senior director of banking and payments intelligence at J.D. Power, said:
“Across both bank and credit card digital offerings, we’re seeing a situation in which customers have been slow to adopt the newer tools and resources that were meant to improve their digital experience. While customers are routinely accessing digital channels for routine tasks, like making payments, checking balances or tracking transactions, use of more advanced features is lagging. As a result, customer satisfaction is stagnating.”
Following are some key findings of the 2024 studies:
- Digital customer satisfaction languishes: Overall customer satisfaction with banking apps and websites is flat year over year, with very little variability between top- and bottom-ranked banks. Among credit card providers, overall satisfaction with credit card apps is down 12 points (on a 1,000-point scale) and overall satisfaction with credit card websites is down 4 points. The range of scores in the credit card space is significantly wider than in banking, reflecting intense competition among credit card providers in the digital space.
- Not all banks digital offerings perform equally: While the industry averages show aggregate customer complacency and a narrowing of overall satisfaction ratings, high-performing banks and card issuers are improving customer satisfaction by distinguishing themselves in specific areas of the experience. Not all banks perform similarly year over year, as the aggregate results are based on notably different year-over-year bank experiences. For all banks, however, it is critical that more customers engage with their digital tools.
- Virtual assistants sparsely used outside of Gen Y1 and Gen Z: While overall use of virtual assistants is still relatively low for banking customers, it has been trending up among members of Gen Y and Gen Z. The primary uses of virtual assistants are still routine tasks, such as checking account balances and looking up transactions. More advanced features, such as receiving personalized financial advice or locking/unlocking cards still have low levels of utilization.
- Personal financial management tools not gaining traction: While use of personal financial management tools, such as credit score monitoring, spending analysis categorization and budgeting tools, have a substantial effect on customer satisfaction among bank and credit card customers in the United States, overall satisfaction and adoption rates of these tools in Canada remains stubbornly low.
