When the big banks set out early last decade to turn around their shocking reputation with customers, their aims were to achieve a degree of respectability and not be the worst in the peer group. It was unthinkable that those big, ugly monoliths would approach the levels of customer satisfaction enjoyed by credit unions and building societies.It is not so unthinkable today. The latest Roy Morgan Research consumer banking customer satisfaction report, released yesterday, shows the four major banks with an average satisfaction rating of 74.3 per cent, as measured in August. The total bank score, taking into account all the second tier banks, is 75.9 per cent.The average satisfaction rating for credit unions is 86.9 per cent; for building societies it is 88.2 per cent.The gap between the building societies and the big banks - 13.9 percentage points - is a big one, but it is a lot closer than it used to be. In 2001 the big banks hit a low point in their ratings, with an average score of around 55 per cent. The credit unions and building societies were close to where they are today. The gap in ratings between big banks and building societies has narrowed by close to 20 percentage points in a decade.The prospect that the big banks, which continue to put a strong emphasis on customer satisfaction, might match the ratings of their small rivals must worry credit union and building society managers. Their friendly image has long been one of their strongest differentiators.The latest figures show that Commonwealth Bank continues to move closer to ANZ, which has the highest customer satisfaction rating of the big banks. ANZ's score is 76 per cent, Commonwealth's 74.7 per cent, Westpac's 73.4 per cent and National Australia Bank's is 72.2.ING has the highest overall bank score, with a satisfaction rating of 87.4 per cent, followed by Bendigo Bank with 85.6 per cent.All institutions included in the survey improved their ratings over the past 12 months and all but three (HSBC, ING and Bank of Queensland) improved their ratings over the past six months.Customers usually express dissatisfaction with banks when interest rates go up, as they did earlier in the year, but on this occasion customers appear to be taking higher rates in their stride.By now all the promised cuts in exception fees have taken effect and maybe that is having a benign effect.