We recently launched our first survey to find out what you really think about customer reviews in financial services.

Two weeks on…and you have spoken! See below for a summary of what you have told us about customer reviews in financial services.

Customer reviews in Financial Services, Smart Money People March 2015

We believe that reviews can help other customers find the best companies and products for them. In financial services, they can also help to provide a new source of guidance for customers.

We asked you to tell us how important you thought customer reviews are when deciding which financial services company to do business with.

You told us that customer reviews in financial services are increasingly important

32% said Very important

26% said Important

29% said Somewhat Important

More reviews

Overall you told us that you were 24% more likely to review your bank if your review was written and featured on an independent review site.

Better customer insight

We also asked you about the amount of feedback that you would give to an independent review site versus a survey from your bank. Would you tell an independent site more, less, or the same? You told us that overall, there would be a 19% increase in the quantity of feedback.

What motivates a reviewer?

58% of all respondents told us that their main motivation for writing a review was to ‘share their experience and help other customers.’

When writing a review, customers want to believe that their review will have an impact. Organisations that harness these customers will build valuable brand advocates and also get more customer insight.

Summary

  • Reviews are growing in importance across financial services, with some 87% of all respondents telling us that they factor into the decision making process
  • Customers are motivated to write reviews if they know that they will mean something. Our survey respondents told us that their main motivation for reviewing their bank was to help other customers
  • Customers like being asked to review the organisations that they do business with. Harnessing all reviews on one platform, makes managing customer reviews simpler
  • Independent review platforms also build more trust with customers, meaning that financial services companies can unlock significant brand and marketing value from reviews
  • Partnering with an independent review platform can increase the customer response rate and help businesses to get more insight, meaning that the return on investment (ROI) can be very compelling

Our mission is to use the power of customer reviews to increase trust and transparency in financial services. Only you can help us to make this happen by leaving your reviews here!

82 of you have completed our survey to date, and we will leave it open until the end of March, so why not take our super short survey  now