NO SURPRISE? Customers Grow Less Satisfied With Their Own Banks!
OVERALL SATISFACTION LEVEL FALLS 14.6% SINCE 2007 - J.D. POWER SURVEY!
Less money available for businesses and consumers. Far-tightened mortgage loan underwriting requirements. Longer lines, and fewer tellers. Less service, and higher fees.
All of these factors have contributed to lagging satisfaction of consumers for the banks in which they hold their business and personal accounts, according to a study released last month by J.D. Power and Associates. The results were summarized and reported by Mary Ellen Podmolik in her Chicago Tribune story of May 19th.
The Customer Satisfaction Survey found that only 35% of customers were "highly committed to their retail bank" so far in 2009. This compares to 37% responding with satisfaction last year, and 41% two years ago, in 2007.
Three major banks serving the Chicago area, however, fared pretty well in the survey. Harris Bank here in Chicago, as well as locally-represented Midwest Bancshares and J.P Morgan Chase, ranked the highest in terms of overall customer satisfaction.
Bones of contention among many bank customers, according to Michael Beird, the Director of the Banking Practice at J.D. Power, included perceived staff cutbacks, resulting in less personalized service, along with higher service fees, and the perception by many that recent mergers with large, out-of-area banks have made them less personal, and less inclined to take an interest in their needs and concerns.
DEAN MOSS & DEAN'S TEAM CHICAGO
