PhillyDeals: Susquehanna Bank ranked best in customer satisfaction
Susquehanna Bank rates tops among 31 mid-Atlantic banks for retail customer satisfaction, says McGraw-Hill Financial's JD Power market-research agency, in a survey of 80,000 U.S. consumers.
Susquehanna Bank rates tops among 31 mid-Atlantic banks for retail customer satisfaction, says McGraw-Hill Financial's JD Power market-research agency, in a survey of 80,000 U.S. consumers.
At the other end of the scale, Bank of America ranks at or near the bottom, here and in every part of the country.
Is customer-friendliness profitable? After posting disappointing sales and earnings, Susquehanna agreed last fall to be acquired by North Carolina-based BB&T Corp., one of the largest U.S. banks.
Susquehanna scored extra high on the JD Power chart for its network of 245 branches in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and South Jersey, and for its remote banking services. The rating also considers banks' fees, products, and problem resolution.
After Susquehanna, among banks with Philadelphia-area branches, Fulton, TD, and PNC ranked above average in the mid-Atlantic region; Citizens, M&T, National Penn, Wells Fargo, and First Niagara ranked in the middle range; and Santander and HSBC (which ranked last, with just 716 points) were rated below average, along with Bank of America.
Major banks have tried to cut costs by combining offices and pressing customers to switch to smartphones and computers. But even as "mobile banking and mobile deposit is on the rise, branches are still important to customers," Susan Bergen, chief marketing officer at Susquehanna's Lititz, Lancaster County, headquarters, told me.
Indeed, JD Power data shows people in their 20s typically visit bank branches slightly more often than people in their 30s and 40s, as they set up accounts, open loans, and start saving.
Will the new owner maintain Susquehanna's customer-friendly rep?
BB&T said last fall that it plans to cut Susquehanna's half-billion-dollar yearly budget by 32 percent, so it can squeeze profits from the $2.5 billion acquisition.
BB&T promised Susquehanna customers "expanded product offerings, faster, simpler, more effective client service, and a stronger balance sheet," Susquehanna chief executive William J. Reuter said last fall in announcing the merger.
Banks typically cut headquarters staff and information technology workers when they fold acquired banks' systems into their dominant networks; name and policy changes often confuse staff and alienate customers.
BB&T's customer ratings vary, according to JD Power, from above-average (but below Susquehanna) in the mid-Atlantic and its own native Southeast, to below-average in the South-Central states.
A former competitor, ex-Bryn Mawr Bank Corp. chief executive Ted Peters, questioned these ratings. Susquehanna's service, at least in suburban Philadelphia, "was mediocre at best," and its sale isn't surprising, Peters told me. "BB&T has a much better reputation." Peters now runs the Bluestone Financial Institutions Fund, which invests in banks.
Bank of America ranked among the lowest in every region of the country.
"We are committed to making our customers' financial lives better," Bank of America spokeswoman Betty Riess wrote. After consolidating a string of wrenching mergers, the bank says it will take additional steps "to improve our customers' experience."
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