Relationship status: un is the loneliest number.

• Author: Hall, Robert
• Position: MARKETING SOLUTIONS - J.D. Power and Associates

RELATIONSHIP STATUS IS NOT JUST IMPORTANT IN COLLEGE. It is vital in our home, work, political, and faith lives, which not coincidentally, mirrors the tide of my latest book, "This Land of Strangers The Relationship Crisis That Imperils Home, Work, Politics and Faith." The book's central message is that the status of our society's relationships is in steep decline in all four relationship arenas.

The collapse of relationships at home over the past few decades is startling: The rate of marriage is down 50 percent; divorce is up 50 percent; the births to unwed mothers jumped over 700 percent and now represent over 50 percent of births to those under 30; and, the number of people who report no close friends with whom to discuss important matters tripled, while the average number of close friends dropped a third.

The relational trend in business organizations where we work and buy goods and services are equally troubling: Customer defection rates rose 30 percent from 2003 to 2007; 86 percent of consumers have become more distrustful of corporations than five years ago; for the five years prior to the recession, the turnover of managers, salespeople and skilled workers doubled while CEO turnover jumped 170 percent from 1995 to 2003 and continued to rise prior to the 2008 recession; and, likewise 75 percent of all workers and 82 percent of managers were scouting for a new job.

There are similar stats that reflect alarming political and religious polarization that now sows division, distrust and dysfunction. Voters are defecting from political parties and congregants from organized religion in droves. Explicitly or implicitly, "un"--unconnected, uncommitted, and uncooperative--is the emerging relationship status at home, work, politics and faith.

Those general trends are evident in the world of financial services. J.D. Powers found that 9.6 percent of customers in 2012 indicated they switched their primary banking institution during the past year to a new provider. This is up from 8.7 percent in 2011 and 7.7 percent in 2010. That represents nearly a 25 percent increase in the rate of switching since 2010.

Satisfying relationships are more likely to last

Relationships are increasingly transient. When Powers examined customers leaving over higher fees, they found three out of five who left described their bank as having poor service while only 16 percent of those who had high inperson satisfaction were likely to leave. As technology proliferates...