Small Business Owners Less Satisfied with Credit Card Issuers, Mostly Due to Lack of Communication

A study by J.D. Power points to declining levels of satisfaction among small businesses towards credit card users in 2020. According to the 2020 Small Business Credit Card Satisfaction Study, customer satisfaction, loyalty or brand advocacy for credit card issuers have declined during COVID-19. This despite relief efforts put in place by card issuers.

Small Business Owners Dissatisfied with Credit Card Companies

Overall satisfaction among small business credit card customers has reached 840 out of 1,000 in 2020. This is down by nine points from last year. Despite their efforts, small businesses say credit issuers fall short in terms of communicating with their clients. Particularly in terms of communicating digitally related offers, guidance, community support and late payment forgiveness.

Other findings of the study include:

• One in four small business customers say they are spending less with their cards and have lower levels of trust and feel less loyal to their card issuer.
• 91% of small businesses say their business has been affected by the pandemic and 29% say their business is worse than it was a year ago.
• This year’s decline is the sharpest decline on record with retail co-brand cards satisfaction levels going down by 35 points.
• Satisfaction is 58 points higher among business owners who are aware of card issuer relief efforts than among those who are not aware of the availability of the support
• 47% of customers who started to search for information online eventually have turned to the phone for assistance. Website satisfaction has declined by 13 points this year, while mobile satisfaction is down 10 points.

More Satisfaction

Those in the know however are more satisfied. With 71% of small business customers who are aware of card issuers’ response to COVID-19-related business, challenges admit to having positive customer satisfaction in regards to late payment forgiveness and waived charges and fees.

In 2020, Discover Card leads with 867 overall satisfaction points among small business credit card issuers. Others who performed well include American Express (861 pts), Bank of America (849 pts) and Capital One (842 pts).

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