Banks looking to improve their retail customer satisfaction scores should get rid of monthly account-keeping fees and improve their mobile phone access.Banking researcher RFi looked at 33 attributes of a transaction account and plotted the correlation between particular attributes and overall satisfaction.The two attributes that tend to be rated not satisfactory and have an important influence on overall satisfaction are monthly account fees and mobile access.There are plenty of other attributes that tend to receive unsatisfactory ratings, but RFi found that they did not influence overall satisfaction. These include cheque access, exception fees, overseas' access, overseas' transaction fees, the number of ATM locations and the convenience of ATM locations.Attributes that tend to receive satisfactory ratings and have an important influence on overall ratings are card security and the level of functionality of internet banking.Attributes that receive satisfactory ratings but have little bearing on overall satisfaction include customer service, brand strength, a low or no minimum balance requirement, the availability of electronic statements and access to phone banking.RFi's Australian research director, Alex Boorman, said satisfaction levels and loyalty were increasingly important in the current market conditions, where banks had less marketing budget for new customer acquisition and were reluctant to get into expensive price competition. Hanging onto existing customers is the priority.Boorman said the problem banks have is that switching has become recognised as "savvy" consumer behaviour.According to RFi's surveys, 32 per cent of consumers have changed their car insurance in the past three years, 28 per cent have refinanced an investment loan over the same period, 27 per cent have changed their mobile phone provider, 26 per cent have moved their term deposit to another provider, 24 have changed their internet service provider and 24 per cent have changed their home insurance company.Boorman said switchers tended to be older and middle to high income earners. "This is a group banks want," he said.He said customers acquired through comparison sites were more likely to switch, while those acquired through branches stayed around for longer. He said banks developing loyalty strategies needed to recognise that satisfaction scores were very important. "Customers who are not satisfied have a high switching intention," he said. "Programs that increase satisfaction have a strong loyalty benefit."He said one area where banks were failing was rewards. "Credit card reward programs are not engaging customers."Consumers say they are earnings fewer rewards and that they have less interest in earning rewards."People who want rewards sign up for an average of three programs. That is telling us that nothing stands out."Boorman said banks had to accept that switching was "here to stay", but they could be doing a lot more to slow the turnover.