Large US bank customers more dissatisfied-study

NEW YORK: Some of the largest US bankswere ranked very low for retail customer satisfaction, a marketing researchcompany said on Thursday. The study implies that as some of the biggest banksget bigger, customers may not be happy.

Smaller banks and even largeregional banks fared better than their colossal counterparts, according to thesurvey from J.D. Power and Associates. The three biggest US retail banks --JPMorgan Chase & Co's Chase, Citigroup's Citibank, and Bank ofAmerica Corp's Bank of America -- consistently rank at or near thebottom for customer service in the regions they serve, the survey said.

Of course the difference between relative levels of customersatisfaction may not be that material -- in most regions, the J.D. Power'scustomer satisfaction index scores for the top banks were 10 to 15 per centhigher than the weakest banks. But even that small difference can be enough tomake customers switch their banks.

Only 34 per cent of customerssurveyed said this year that they "definitely will not" switch banks in the nexttwelve months, compared with 46 per cent in 2007. Being big can make providinggood customer service more difficult, said Michael Beird, director of banking atJ.D. Power and Associates.

"It's spotty and it's very geographic. USBancorp, for example, has done well in some regions and not in others. That'sthe challenge for the larger banks -- how do they create a consistent level ofdelivery," he said.

Overall, customer satisfaction in banks ingeneral in 2010 edged lower from last year, with J.D. Power's index ofsatisfaction falling to 748 from 749, out of a scale of 1,000.

J.D.Power compiled its 2010 U.S. Retail Banking Satisfaction Study based on theresponses of almost 48,000 online respondents. The latest edition of thefour-year-old survey was conducted in January and February of this year.