Small Business Banking: Why Relationships Are Slipping
A financial institution that assigns a relationship manager to a small business is promising that someone will know the business, and satisfaction with those managers fell 35 points among customers of two years or less.
Published on November 2026 in Business Banking
Overall small business satisfaction with banks rose 10 points in J.D. Power’s 2026 U.S. Small Business Banking Satisfaction Study. Satisfaction with relationship managers fell 15 points. Businesses that have banked with their institution for two years or less cut their relationship manager score by 35 points, nearly three times the drop among customers of three years or longer.
In this Banking Insights episode, Jim Marous explains why an assigned relationship manager is a promise that someone will know the business, why small businesses say that promise is getting harder to see, and what a bank or credit union can do to give its bankers what they need to keep it.
Inside the episode
→ Satisfaction with relationship managers dropped 15 points in the J.D. Power 2026 U.S. Small Business Banking Satisfaction Study, even as overall small business satisfaction with banks rose 10 points.
→ Businesses that have banked with their institution two years or less cut their relationship manager score by 35 points, compared with 13 points for customers of three years or longer.
→ 61% of small businesses now have an assigned relationship manager, up from 58%, while customer-initiated contacts and face-to-face meetings with those managers both declined.
→ Small businesses told J.D. Power their relationship managers are harder to reach and slower to respond, and more of them question whether those managers understand and care about the business.
→ Jim’s own business banker calls every quarter, but the call is usually very general. A call with a specific reason behind it is the form Fifth Third and Bank of America already use with branch managers and associates.
→ Predictive and generative AI are starting to reach calling officers, pointing to which small business to call and turning what the institution knows about the account into a question the banker can ask.
→ Four actions: a substantive onboarding conversation with a 30-day follow-up, a one-page review before the quarterly call, the manager’s name and direct line in the app, and a same-day response with an owner.
Research and institutions mentioned: J.D. Power 2026 U.S. Small Business Banking Satisfaction Study (https://www.jdpower.com/business/u-s-small-business-banking-satisfaction-study/), Fifth Third Bank, Bank of America.
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