Survey finds banks' customer service is hurt by mergers.

Customer service at Arizona banks is mediocre at best, and bank mergers are making it worse, according to Databanq Enterprises, an independent bank research and development firm.

After evaluating almost 1,000 bank branches in Arizona and about 3,000 branches throughout the West over the past two years, Databanq has given the industry a grade of "C" for customer service.

"Customer service is hard to measure, but it is an important indicator of the performance of a bank," says Mike Sosnowski, a principal with Gilbert-based Databanq and a former executive vice president and chief financial officer of First Interstate Bank of Arizona. "Overall, we found that customer service at banks was average, and that one bank didn't perform consistently better than another."

Several Arizona bankers agree that customer service is a key to success and must be constantly monitored, evaluated and promoted. But they …