What industry needs the most help in customer service? Banking.
At least that’s what a recent survey from analytics firm ForeSee revealed. The survey ranked financial services firms like Santander, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, among others.
As a group, the financial services industry earned woeful customer service marks, with an average score of 75 out of 100 points — the worst scores of any other industries, including automotive, retail and apparel, and technology and electronics, according to ForeSee’s results.
The survey comes as the general perception of banks has taken a massive hit since the epic mortgage crisis eroded confidence in mortgage lenders and bankers.
Scoring the lowest at 65 among the 11 banks targeted in the survey was Spanish lender Santander, which is a virtual newcomer in the US market.
Not so new to the US market is Citigroup, which scored a 72 in ForeSee’s survey.
ForeSee execs say that companies are realizing that these surveys are indeed meaningful and can portend poor performance.
“This study is not just a beauty contest,” noted Larry Freed, CEO of ForeSee, based in Ann Arbor, Mich.
“We see more and more CEOs monitoring and improving the customer experience because research shows that, when measured correctly, satisfaction predicts future financial results, revenue and even stock prices,” he noted via an email.
The research firm’s survey factored in not just customers’ overall experiences with a business, such as a bank, but also weighed in its scores whether survey takers would recommend the company to others.
The best-performing company out of the 100 surveyed was Jeff Bezos’ Amazon.com, with a satisfaction score of 87, while Santander’s 65 put it dead last.
As an industry, automotive companies, like Honda (85), placed highest with an average score of 82, tied with the consumer packaged goods sector.