After large banks developed digital platforms to attract younger, more tech-savvy consumers, those same customers have grown dissatisfied with lower-quality service from human employees, according to a new survey.
Consumers' qualms with branch services, new account enrollment processes and banks' ability to solve their problems contributed to an overall decline in satisfaction this year, the research firm J.D. Power found. Discontent increased the most among consumers under the age of 40.
Customers are increasingly finding it "less convenient, more of an effort, and sometimes a worse experience when they interact with bank staff," said Paul McAdam, senior director of banking services at J.D. Power.
He added that the survey results are a "real warning sign for the industry that these larger banks are struggling with this group of customers."
Between August and September, J.D. Power polled customers of nine of the largest U.S. banks on their satisfaction with the bank's digital channels, level of trust, people resources and more. All told, more than 8,800 banking customers were surveyed, and the banks were scored on a 1,000-point scale.
Satisfaction ratings decreased across the board from 2021, which J.D. Power attributed partly to a weakening economy. But the largest declines were in human-involved customer service.
The rating for resolving problems and complaints fell eight points from last year. And the rating for personal interactions dropped 17 points.
The results show that consumers are increasingly frustrated with the "fundamental and important aspects of the customer experience," McAdam said.
The results suggest a reversal of the trend during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when customer satisfaction improved the most among
Between April 2020 and February 2021, 63% of U.S. consumers surveyed by J.D. Power said their bank had "completely supported" them during the pandemic. And the proportion of customers who said they were digital only jumped from 30% to 41%.
At that time, big banks were spending money on customer relief and upgrading digital channels that became necessities for many consumers during lockdowns.
While large banks have been investing heavily in digital services, they have also been cutting the number of branch locations in an effort to reduce expenses.
Banks nationwide closed more than 2,400 branches between June 2021 and June 2022, an average of 200 locations each month, according to an analysis released Thursday by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition.
In this year's J.D. Power survey, Truist Financial finished last among the nine large banks and saw the biggest drop in customer satisfaction.
Truist's score declined 31 points from last year and 64 points from two years ago. Earlier this year, the $548 billion-asset bank
Truist is "intensely focused on improving the client experience," Kyle Tarrance, a spokesperson for the Charlotte, North Carolina bank, said Thursday in a written statement. He added that internal client feedback has shown "consistent and meaningful improvement" since the conversion finished in February.
PNC Financial Services, which finished fourth in the J.D. Power survey, had the second-largest drop in customer satisfaction. A spokesperson for the $547 billion-asset bank did not respond to a request for comment.
Capital One Financial finished first in the ranking, and JPMorgan Chase came in second. Of the nine banks whose customers were surveyed, only those two institutions had leading satisfaction scores in both digital and people services.
McAdam called this the "winning combination," which "reaffirms that customers are multi-channel."
