Survey: Boston, New York lag in service

The Red Sox and Yankees may be tops in the AL East, but Boston and New York are in a race for the bottom when it comes to providing customer service.

That's the lowdown from a "nationwide mystery shopping survey" conducted by a company called Grass Roots; the survey looked at service experiences in a number of cities and in a number of sectors, including service at bars, banks, and coffee cafes.

According to the survey, Phoenix ranked best for all-around customer service; Boston tied second to the bottom, and the worst performing city was New York.

Locals need not despair, however. The survey found that because of high service levels in two particular sectors, Boston is the best place in the county to open a bank account or order a fast-food hamburger.

"The US service experience is still one of the highest in the world," Jane Edwards-Hall, general manager of Grass Roots Performance Measurement in the USA, said in a statement. "What did surprise us was the wide variation of standards in different cities in the US - some of our cities have a lot of catching up to do!"
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)