Only St. George Bank appear to be doing something right to please their business clients. The lender racked up 54.5%, the highest sentiment score given to a bank in the study. The scores are worked out according to four criteria of customer sentiment-empathy, satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy. "It's clear from the findings in this inaugural release that despite the focus on business customers over the past 12 to 18 months, these customers are far from happy with their banks, says Paul Bartholomew, East & Partner senior consultant. The study monitors business customers falling into four categories: micro businesses with up to $5m turnover, SMEs with turnover up to $20m and lower commercial businesses or those with turnover up to $100m. Among these business customers, micro businesses are the least happy, giving their banks just 35.9%. Bartholomew said the results show a shaky relationship between the banks and their customers, which might be due to the fact that banks are placing greater effort in chasing up new customers while neglecting existing clients. "There's plenty of work going into acquiring new business customers at the moment but less in keeping existing ones, it would appear, he said.

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