Survey Says: Bank Call Centers Earn High Marks

ANN ARBOR, Mich. - Banking call centers rank second only to those of catalog retailers in customer satisfaction, though more than half of bank customers say they would defect over a bad phone experience, according to a new survey.

The survey of 900 consumers by the consulting firm CFI Group gave banks' call centers high marks overall, compared with four other industries, largely because bank employees were able to resolve customers' questions 80% of the time.

However, some experts said consumers in general still tend to consider call centers a source of frustration, especially offshore call centers. In fact, of the 66% of customers who said that had a bad experience with their bank's call center, 53% said they "will not do business with their bank again."