Online bill payment key to customer satisfaction

The data suggests that converting online bankers to online bill paying customers represents the best opportunity for banks and credit unions to increase share of wallet while driving customers toward the most cost-efficient channel for services.

The results, from a survey of 900 Forbes.com newsletter subscribers, show that the more engaged customers are with their bank's Website, the more satisfied they are. The survey uses the methodology of the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), which has been proven to link customer satisfaction to financial returns.

Customer satisfaction with the bank overall is highest among online bankers who pay bills via their bank's Website: 79 on a 100-point scale. Online bankers who do not pay bills via their bank's Website rated bank satisfaction a 76 while non-online bankers scored 70. Higher customer satisfaction boosts share of wallet, too: online bill pay customers are 31% more likely to purchase additional services from their bank than online bankers that do not pay bills via their bank's Website.

Larry Freed, president and CEO of ForeSee Results, comments: "Banks' most desirable customers are busy people who want the convenience of online banking and bill payment. The more banks can get their customers to engage online, the happier those customers will be, and the more likely they'll give the bank a bigger share of their wallet."

In addition to being more satisfied, customers who bank online are 19% more likely to recommend their bank than those who don't, which helps fuel acquisition. In addition, online bill payers are 21% more likely to use the Website as their primary channel than those who do online banking alone.

Almost half of non-online bankers in the survey cited privacy and security concerns as their primary reasons for not adopting online banking.