So why not just skip this seemingly fruitless effort and turn to social media where you can tweet your grievances and move on? Young people in particular are doing this in increasing numbers--often receiving instant feedback, though not usually from the vendor in question. According to a survey by Our Social Times, a social media marketing consultancy, , even when asked a direct question.

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Frank Eliason, senior vice president of social media at Citibank, the $19.4 billion financial services company that serves more than 100 million customers in 40 countries, saw as much room for improvement in how banks use social media as he did challenges. Too many banks offer cookie cutter customer service, he says: "When we looked at banks and social, they all looked alike. The whole challenge was differentiating the service we provide to customers."

Customer service is a crucial aspect of any business, but can be an especially delicate matter for financial services companies because of the sensitive and private information they manage and the regulations around how they do that.