Absa and Cooperative banks are the only financial institutions that have received positive net sentiment in the 2022 study.
In the 2022 Kenya Banking Sentiment Index benchmarking consumer sentiment on social media towards major Kenyan banks, the study found Absa led in net sentiment with a score of 12.7%, followed by Co-operative Bank with 2.6%.  This is after Deloitte in collaboration with DataEQ tracked 336,434 consumer posts over a one-year.
The net sentiment is the net value of all opinions expressed on social media about a brand or product. It is calculated by subtracting overall negative sentiment from positive sentiment.
And where negative sentiment is more than positive sentiment, the overall net sentiment outcome is a nett negative.
The study comes at a time social media adoption continues to rise across Kenya, with increasingly more customers utilising social channels to engage with their service providers.
For the banking industry, this engagement paints a generally negative picture that requires swift attention.
“These were the only two banks to achieve positive scores, with the average net sentiment for the industry sitting at -7.6%. Digital experience featured heavily in this conversation, driven largely by system outages or app downtime, which occasionally impacted the banks’ ability to perform operationally,” the statement by the two organisations said.
DataEQ MD Melanie Malherbe said the Index has shown that downtime poses a significant risk across the industry.
“In the case of multiple transacting channels failing simultaneously – for example, if a bank’s mobile app is down while Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) fails – consumers are left feeling helpless and frustrated,” Malherbe said.
Making matters worse is the generally poor level of responsiveness to customers shown by the banks on social media.
On average, only 53% priority conversation[2] received a public response, meaning almost half of customers’ requests went unanswered.
“Given the increasingly significant role that mobile money services driven through telco platforms and other fintech players are playing in the provision of “traditional” banking services”, Deloitte East Africa Risk Advisory Leader Urvi Patel said.
Patel noted a growing impetus for banks to enhance their customer-centricity by continuously improving their digital offerings and responsiveness to their customers’ changing needs.
“Against this constantly evolving environment, driven by new competitors and changing customers’ profiles, the influence of social media cannot be ignored, and the impact it has on shaping overall brand loyalty cannot be overlooked.
“As such, the bank of the future would be well advised to enhance their customer centric strategies with their clients to improve their overall experience,” Patel said.
