Canadians and Ipsos Recognize Customer Service Excellence among Financial Services Sector

Toronto, ON - Ipsos, Canada's market intelligence leader, is pleased to announce the winners of its 2015 Best Banking Awards. The annual awards program recognizes Canadian financial institutions with the top ranked customer service for personal banking experience based on various key performance indicators.

"For the past 28 years, we have been measuring the levels of customer service that Canadian financial institutions provide," says Ray Kong, Executive Vice President and Global Financial Services Practice Leader at Ipsos Reid. "Customer expectations and technology are changing faster than ever before, yet our financial institutions have continued to impress by being able to maintain high levels of customer service across all points of interaction. This is no easy feat."

Established in 1987, the Customer Service Index (CSI) quarterly survey generates the winners of the annual Best Banking Awards. This year's Awards were based on the combined results of 45,391 completed surveys for the 2015 CSI program year ending with the August 2015 survey wave, received from a demographically and regionally representative sample of Canadians. The awards were presented across 13 categories.

"Competition to retain existing customers and attract new ones remains intense," says Adrian Murphy, Vice President of Ipsos Reid and leader of the CSI Study. "As a result financial institutions need to continue to deliver high levels of customer service and leverage the latest technologies, including the convenience of banking by mobile device and now smartwatch."

The overall Customer Service Excellence award for 2015 among all financial institutions in the retail banking sector goes to Canada's Credit Unions, an aggregate of individual Credit Unions across the country. This is the eleventh consecutive year that Canada's Credit Unions have received the award, and this year they also received a record high of nine awards. This year was Tangerine's seventh consecutive solo win for Products & Services Excellence, while National Bank received a record four shared awards.

TD Canada Trust takes top honours among the Big Five Banks for Customer Service Excellence for the eleventh year in a row. In addition, Scotiabank received eight awards and CIBC won six, which marks the most ever in both cases.

Ipsos Best Banking Award Recipients for 2015 among All Financial Institutions

Customer Service Excellence: Credit Unions

Value for Money: Tangerine, President's Choice Financial

Values My Business: Credit Unions

Recommend to Friends or Family: Tangerine

Interest Rates & Service Charges: Tangerine

Products & Services Excellence: Credit Unions, Tangerine, President's Choice Financial

Financial Planning & Advice: BMO Bank of Montreal, CIBC, Credit Unions

Branch Service Excellence: Credit Unions

ATM Banking Excellence: Credit Unions, Desjardins, National Bank

Online Banking Excellence: Credit Unions, Desjardins, National Bank, Tangerine

Mobile Banking Excellence: CIBC, National Bank, Scotiabank, Tangerine

Automated Telephone Banking Excellence: BMO Bank of Montreal, Credit Unions, Desjardins, National Bank

Live Agent Telephone Banking Excellence: Credit Unions, Desjardins

Ipsos Best Banking Award Recipients for 2015 among the Big Five Banks

Customer Service Excellence: TD Canada Trust

Value for Money: Scotiabank, TD Canada Trust

Values My Business: CIBC, RBC Royal Bank, Scotiabank, TD Canada Trust

Recommend to Friends or Family: TD Canada Trust

Interest Rates & Service Charges: BMO Bank of Montreal, CIBC, Scotiabank

Products & Services Excellence: CIBC, RBC Royal Bank, Scotiabank, TD Canada Trust

Financial Planning & Advice: BMO Bank of Montreal, CIBC, RBC Royal Bank, TD Canada Trust

Branch Service Excellence: Scotiabank, TD Canada Trust

ATM Banking Excellence: TD Canada Trust

Online Banking Excellence: CIBC, RBC Royal Bank, Scotiabank, TD Canada Trust

Mobile Banking Excellence: CIBC, Scotiabank, TD Canada Trust

Automated Telephone Banking Excellence: BMO Bank of Montreal, RBC Royal Bank

Live Agent Telephone Banking Excellence: BMO Bank of Montreal, RBC Royal Bank, Scotiabank

Disclaimers

Only those financial institutions which subscribe to CSI may claim an Award and use it for external communication purposes.

Mandatory legal disclaimer to be used by all eligible Award recipients when quoting Award results in any external communication: Ipsos 2015 Best Banking Awards are based on ongoing quarterly Customer Service Index (CSI) survey results. Sample size for the total 2015 CSI program year ended with the August 2015 survey wave was 45,391 completed surveys yielding 65,991 financial institution ratings nationally.

Notes

Where more than one financial institution shares an Award, it indicates that there was no statistically significant difference between the eligible FI with the highest score and that of one or more other eligible FI's for the relevant Awards category; based on top box results stat tested at the 95% confidence level.

Awards sample size requirement: Minimum total unweighted institution count of 400 per financial institution per Awards category.

Methodology

Ipsos 2015 Best Banking Awards are based on ongoing quarterly Customer Service Index (CSI) survey results. The sample source for CSI is from the Ipsos Online Global Opinion Panel for Canada, using online data collection. Sample size for the total 2015 CSI program year ended August 2015 was 45,391 completed surveys yielding 65,991 financial institution ratings nationally. The sample is representative of the general household population based on Statistics Canada census data.

For CSI, panel members rate their own specific primary and secondary (where applicable) financial institution on a series of statements dealing with all aspects of personal banking. Respondents rate their experience in dealing with their specific financial institution(s) based on detailed questions related to each retail banking channel/touchpoint; including in-branch, online, mobile, ATM as well as live and automated telephone banking.

For more information on this news release, please contact:

Elen Alexov
Director, Marketing Services, North America
Ipsos
(778) 373-5136
[email protected]

About Ipsos

Ipsos is an independent market research company controlled and managed by research professionals. Founded in France in 1975, Ipsos has grown into a worldwide research group with a strong presence in all key markets. Ipsos ranks third in the global research industry.

With offices in 87 countries, Ipsos delivers insightful expertise across five research specializations: brand, advertising and media, customer loyalty, marketing, public affairs research, and survey management.

Ipsos researchers assess market potential and interpret market trends. They develop and build brands. They help clients build long-term relationships with their customers. They test advertising and study audience responses to various media and they measure public opinion around the globe.

Ipsos has been listed on the Paris Stock Exchange since 1999 and generated global revenues of e1,669.5 ($2,218.4 million) in 2014.

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