BANKS RATE LOW IN QUALITY OF SERVICES
By Adnews Staff
One out of every four Canadians say the quality of services offered by banks has declined in the past three years, according to a consumer survey on the quality of services in the financial sector commissioned by the National Quality Institute. Banks were consistently in the bottom tier of the list of 21 industry sectors when it came to five service attributes: providing clear and complete information, providing prompt service delivery, level of courtesy, quality of after-sales service and quality of service people at the point of sale. In the survey, banks and insurance companies ranked 17th and 15th respectively, while trust companies were ninth and credit unions were third. Insurance companies ranked low in all five service categories, with sales service and clarity of information noted as key areas for improvement. In addition, only 13% of Canadians have seen an improvement in the insurance industry in the past three years. Credit unions were rated in the top five, with courtesy and the quality of people at the point of sale being their highest ranking category. Trust companies floated in the middle with prompt service delivery being their weakest point. For overall service quality, Pharmacies received the highest ranking, with 92.8% of respondents giving them an excellent or good rating. Pharmacies were followed by hotels, credit unions, small retailers and supermarkets. The postal service, cable companies and the government were the lowest rated categories in terms of service quality. The survey was done by ACNielsen of Markham, Ont., which interviewed 10,333 adults across Canada.