A happy customer means different things to different people, but I’m sure we’ve all had experiences of service that leave us feeling uplifted and charmed, and equally, walked away from some that leave us muttering to ourselves “never again”!

One of the main predictors of customer satisfaction and business growth is the propensity of its customers to recommend their products or services. So we religiously ask our clients “On a scale of zero to 10, with 10 being highest, what’s the likelihood that you would recommend Loan Market Double Bay to a friend or colleague?”.

This question generates something known as a Net Promoter Score, or NPS.  NPS has a range of -100 to +100; a “positive” score (NPS above 0) is considered “good”, +50 is “Excellent,” and above 70 is considered “world class.”  It won’t surprise you to know that many companies use NPS to keep a finger on the pulse of their customer satisfaction, including Apple, Google, Microsoft and eBay.

I’m pretty proud of the client service I offer, and the systems I’ve put in place to deliver a consistently high level of communication, care and value. I particularly enjoy helping clients who’ve come a bit unstuck, like Yasmin: “I was left high and dry during a recent purchase. I was pre-approved for finance but the bank reneged. I was introduced to Dan and Tommy and within 48 hours I got full finance approval whereas the previous broker took six weeks for just pre-approval.”

Or Nicole, who told me: “You did what our bank manager said was impossible. You did in less than two weeks what our bank manager had months to do. Without you, I’d have lost my new home and +my deposit”.

To help measure and validate how well we look after our customers, Loan Market use the NPS question. Our current score is +88. And in case you think it’s a bit irrelevant or ‘so what’, other lenders use NPS too. This is where you might get a bit of a shock.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) is the best performer amongst the major banks with an NPS of -12.7. ANZ follows with -13.8, Westpac with -20.4 and NAB with -20.7. The non-majors score better with NPS: ING Direct boasted an NPS of +3.4.

As good as +88 is compared to our industry fellows, it doesn’t stop me striving for a 10 out of 10 from every one of my clients. I’m focused on saving you both time and money, and you won’t stop hearing from me once your loan is settled. This is why: on a 12 month follow-up for one of my clients, I was able to secure a 1.35% margin discount, dropping his investment loan rate from 4.93% down to 4.25%, saving him $10,880 per year. At no cost to my client.

Has your bank volunteered a way to save you money lately?