Since 2007, when the Customer Satisfaction Index of Singapore was first launched, qualifying full banks (QFBs) such as Citibank and HSBC typically performed better than DBS, OCBC and UOB. That is till 2011, when they overtook the global names to clinch the top three highest customer satisfaction scores. But they did not stay ahead for long. The 2012 round of surveys, conducted in the final quarter of last year, showed the QFBs overtaking the local ones in customer satisfaction performance. The Institute of Service Excellence at SMU (ISES) observed that respondent groups of each bank had distinctive drivers of satisfaction. "This suggests that the psychographic profile of customers differs from bank to bank.

The strategy that works for one bank may not be effective in another," said ISES Director Ms Caroline Lim. In addition to segmenting by income, which most banks already do, she thought it useful to understand the needs and motivations of different customer groups. "For example, the strategy to satisfaction and loyalty for a price sensitive customer will be different from a service sensitive customer," she said.