Detroit, MI/April 22, 2010: Is bigger better?  The latest customer satisfaction survey from J.D. Powers seems to suggest otherwise.

Smaller banks and even large regional banks fared better than the three biggest U.S. retail banks. counterparts, according toJ.D. Power's 2010 Retail Banking Satisfaction Study.

JPMorgan Chase, Citibank, and Bank of America consistently rank at or near the bottom for customer service in the regions they serve, the survey found.

Despite finding that big banks lag in customer satisfaction, the survey Index also suggest that for most regions, the difference between best and worst performers only varied by 10 to 15%.  Is this small difference enough to make customers switch financial institutions?  Apparently, yes.  Just 34% of those surveyed said this year that they "definitely will not" switch banks in the next twelve months, compared with 46% in 2007.

According to Michael Beird, director of banking at J.D. Power and Associates, being big can make providing good customer service more difficult.  "It's spotty and very geographic.  US Bancorp, for example, has done well in some regions and not in others.  That's the challenge for the larger banks, being able to deliver a consistent level of service," he said.

Overall, customer satisfaction edged slightly lower compared to the 2009 report, as J.D. Power's index of satisfaction fell to 748 from 749 on a scale of 1,000.

The 2010 Retail Banking Satisfaction Study is the fourth annual and was conducted in January and February.  Responses were based upon 48,000 online respondents.