Bad Service Means Lost Business for Banks, Insurers, Others

Bank customers tired of bad service are closing their accounts according to a new survey. More than 60 percent of consumers polled by software company Mobius Management Systems Inc. said they have cancelled bank accounts because of poor service.

According to Mobius, people would rather switch banks than argue about mishandled problems with customer service representatives. Mobius, a creator of customer service support software, polled 300 people in charge of making purchases for their households.

The survey also found 36 percent of those polled had changed insurance providers, 40 percent had changed telephone companies, 35 percent had changed credit card companies and 37 percent had changed Internet service providers. The survey also showed 80 percent of consumers would rather speak to a real person, not a machine, about their account and 94 percent did not want to be transferred to another customer service representative more than once.

Of those polled, 80 percent also preferred speaking with customer service representatives on the weekends and 84 percent were frustrated when the representative could not immediately access their account information.