While client satisfaction in the UK wealth management space fell to all time low last year, as measured by the MRDC index, two firms at least – C Hoare & Co and Credit Suisse Private Banking – have a reason to smile, having jointly garnered the highest overall score in this category.

In compiling its client satisfaction index, MDRC, a Surrey-based consultancy, looks at how UK wealth manageres performed across the whole client experience, focusing in particular on how service provision matched up to client expectations. Using MDRC’s methodology a firm with a score over 75 would be considered “excellent”, one between 60 and 75 would be “good” and one between 50 and 60 would be “acceptable.”

The score of 78 attained by both C Hoare & Co and Credit Suisse Private Banking is then somewhat of a coup, showing that clients judge their service provision to be well above the threshold for excellence. Last year’s score does however represent a slight falling off for C Hoare & Co, as the venerable private bank secured the top spot alone in 2008 and 2007, scoring 82 in both years.

More generally, in addition to the fact that UK client satisfaction reached an all time low last year, it would seem that the best-performing firms are increasingly pulling away from their peers. Last year’s client satisfaction index gave a re-based reading of 54.9, falling from 57.5 for 2008. Satisfaction at the top decile firms fell by 2.6 per cent to 75.9 and satisfaction at the top quartile firms fell by 2.7 per cent to 68.4. Contrastingly, the average score of the bottom quartile of firms fell by nearly 11 per cent.

MDRC also cautions that while the industry average score for client satisfaction was 54.9, indicating that most clients found the quality of products and services they were offered to be “acceptable”, the 2009 study shows that clients are not satisfied with all aspects of the product or service mix.

Key areas of dissatisfaction, as reported by those surveyed by MDRC were: fee levels (particularly for “mediocre investment performance and poor quality”); the availability of impartial advice (not simply advice on investments); the frequency and quality of communication from the relationship manager; the high level of relationship staff turnover and the quality of some staff.

MDRC’s 2009 client focus groups highlighted two particular areas of concern, the first of which being the mismatch between clients’ expectations on portfolio stability and firms’ desire to continue to sell products. The overall reputation of       organisations was the second particular area for concern, perhaps unsurprisingly following the number of frauds which were uncovered as a result of the financial crisis, and a number of high profile scandals where it has been alleged that firms were helping clients to evade taxes – in several cases on a huge scale.