Half Of The Valley’s Bank Customers Up For Grabs

Banks in the metropolitan Phoenix area appear to have a tenuous grasp on many of their customers, with only half of the Valley’s population saying they definitely would reopen their accounts at the same bank if they had it to do all over again. This information comes from a special banking edition of the O’Neil Associates Valley Monitor Poll, which asked 459 Maricopa County adults the following question:

Assume that you had to reopen all of your banking accounts, and interest rates were the same everywhere, would you reopen at the same bank or would you shop around?

 

By asking respondents to leave aside the question of interest rates, we sought to explore customer attitudes toward their current bank’s level and quality of service. And the picture these customers drew for us was not very positive: only a bare majority (51%) said they would remain at their current bank, leaving nearly as many who were not so sure. In fact, over two fifths (41%) said they definitely would shop around for a new bank. Certainly, this question’s high level of generality, as well as the extremely hypothetical situation on which it is based, make it an imprecise predictor of actual customer turnover. But this question does demonstrate one thing: at least half of the Valley’s banking customers readily would leave their current banks if properly enticed by another institution.

Data Show Noteworthy Differences Between Subgroups

In our crosstabular analysis of these survey responses we observed several interesting results. Specifically, we found that each of the following groups demonstrated a higher-than-average tendency to say they would shop around for a new bank—implying a lower-than-average attachment to their current financial institution:

Households with Children: Over half (53%) of the households that include at least one child said they would shop around for a different bank, while only 42 percent said they would reopen at the same bank—one of the lowest percentages returned for this question from any demographic group. These numbers are reversed among households that do not include children: 42% said they would shop around, while 51% said they definitely would stay put.

Younger Customers: A majority (52%) of Phoenix adults under fifty years old said they would shop around for a new bank, compared to only 38% of those age fifty or older.

Middle-Income Earners: Only 48% of the Valley’s residents who report annual incomes between $30,000 and $75,000 per year said they would keep their money with the same bank if they needed to reopen their accounts. In contrast, solid majorities of the respondents reporting annual incomes of less than $30,000 (57%) or more than $75,000 (60%) said they would reopen their accounts at their current banks.

Computer Owners: Only 45% of the respondents who have a computer in their home said they would reopen their accounts at the same bank if they had to do it over again, compared to 55% of those who do not have computers. This might suggest that the customers most vulnerable to being wooed to another bank are those who would be relatively attracted to new types of automated and on-line services.

These results are based on 459 interviews conducted with randomly selected heads of household in metropolitan Phoenix. The "sampling error" associated with a survey of this size is approximately ±4.6 percent. This means that the chances are approximately 95 in 100 that we would have obtained the same results, within a margin of ±4.6%, had we interviewed every adult resident of Maricopa County.