We’re living in an increasingly cashless society. According to Canstar’s latest research, 95% of us now do all our banking online and, since the pandemic, contactless payment systems have become the preferred method of payment, for ease of use and hygiene reasons.

For small businesses, having stable and cost-effective payment systems is vital. Retailers need merchant services they can rely upon. If their systems go down, electronic payments cease and the cost in lost business quickly adds up.

So, as part of our mission to inform business consumers of the best NZ has to offer, Canstar canvassed the opinions of 347 NZ small business owners who rely on their merchant service facilities, across a range of categories, to measure and track their satisfaction.

To decide which Merchant Service provider offers the best level of customer satisfaction, each was rated across the following categories:

Coming out on top is ANZ. The ANZ is the only bank in this year’s ratings to earn our top 5-Star rating for Overall Satisfaction. It’s a result that comes on the back of an almost clean sweep of 5-Star ratings across all categories.

→ Related article: ANZ: Supporting the Growth of NZ’s Small Businesses

What Kiwi small businesses want from their merchant service providers

Merchant service fees have been a contentious issue over recent years. Historically, they’ve been higher here than overseas. So much so that the government is in the process of passing new legislation to limit the fees and charges that businesses have to pay.

Merchant service fees generally include:

• Interchange fees (fees paid by an acquiring bank to an issuing bank) 
• Scheme fees (paid to credit card companies)
• Switching fees (paid to the company operating the data switch)
• Fees to cover the cost of systems, fraud, foreign exchange, and a profit margin for the acquiring bank

And it’s clear from our research that these costs are the most important factor for businesses when choosing their merchant service provider. A quarter of businesses say getting a good deal is the biggest driver of their satisfaction, almost double the number that cite either functionality or reliability. Overall, the main drivers of satisfaction are:

ANZ: Supporting the Growth of NZ’s Small Businesses

ANZ’s Merchant Services Award complements its prestigious Canstar Bank of the Year | Small Business Award 2021. While our Merchant Services Award is based on customer satisfaction, our Bank of the Year honour is awarded based on thorough research by our expert research panel.

This year they crunched the numbers on over 50 banking products from five big financial institutions, covering: credit cards, business loans and equipment finance, business savings and transaction accounts, insurance, international banking and risk management.

So whatever your small business banking needs, from merchant services to wider support to help grow your business, Canstar’s small business awards all point in one direction: the ANZ, supporting the growth and future successes of NZ’s small businesses.

To read more about the ANZ’s Merchant Services Award win, just click on the button below:

For more on our Merchant Services award click here!

About the author of this page

This report was written by Canstar’s Editor, Bruce Pitchers. Bruce began his career writing about pop culture, and spent a decade in sports journalism. More recently, he’s applied his editing and writing skills to the world of finance and property. Prior to Canstar, he worked as a freelancer, including for The Australian Financial Review, the NZ Financial Markets Authority, and for real estate companies on both sides of the Tasman.