Customer SatisfactiononServiceQualityBJMS
Customer SatisfactiononServiceQualityBJMS
Customer SatisfactiononServiceQualityBJMS
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Rashed Al Karim
[Assistant Professor, School of Business, East Delta University,
Tabassum Chowdhury
[Lecturer, School of Business, East Delta University]
ABSTRACT: Customer satisfaction is essential for the success of service firms like bank. The
quality of service has become an aspect of customer satisfaction. Day by day it has been proven
that service quality is related to customer satisfaction. This study endeavors to discover the impact
of service quality on customer satisfaction in private sector banks in Bangladesh. Five dimensions
in service quality (servqual) such as tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, empathy, and
assurance (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, & Berry, 1985) are considered as the base for this study. A
structured questionnaire with 5 point Likert scale has been used to collect the data by conducting
survey. The sample size is 110 and is chosen on a convenient basis. Data has been analysed by
using SPSS software (version: 17). Result of the study showed that tangibility, reliability,
responsiveness, assurance and empathy significantly and positively influenced customer attitudes
in terms of satisfaction that is service quality dimensions are crucial for customer satisfaction in
private commercial banking sector in Bangladesh.
INTRODUCTION
Bank is a customer oriented services industry. A bank depends upon the customers for their
survival in the market. The customer is the focus and customer service is the differentiating factors
(Guo et al., 2008). A bank can differentiate itself from competitors by providing high quality
customer service (Naeem & Saif, 2009). Efficacy of customer service is related with progressive
operation. In the competitive banking industry, customer satisfaction is considered as the essence
of success. Organizations operating in service industries should consider service quality a key
strategic issue for the business success (Spathis et al., 2004). Those service providers who establish
a high level of service quality retain a high level of customer satisfaction; they also obtained a
sustainable competitive advantage. Research indicates that companies with an excellent customer
service record reported a 72% increase in profit per employee, compared to similar organizations
that have demonstrated poor customer service; it is also five times costlier to attract new customers
than to retain existing customers (Duncan, 2004). In some earlier studies, service quality has been
referred as the extent to which a service meets customer’s needs or expectations (Lewis & Mitchell,
1990). Bank should be known about the expectation and perception of the customer. Measuring
customer’s expectation is the key to being able to serve the customer satisfactorily. On the other
hand, with better understanding of customer’s perceptions, bank can determine the actions required
to meet the customer’s needs. In this way they can easily satisfied the customer which is directly
impact on the overall performance of the bank. Customer satisfaction is one of the important tools
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Published by European Centre for Research Training and Development UK (www.ea-journals.org)
to run a business and to achieve the mission statement. Indeed, customer satisfaction has great
significance for the future of an institution and it is seen as a basis for securing market position
and achieving other objectives of the institution. Therefore, achieving high levels of service is one
method to keep customers both satisfied and loyal (Perng, 2007).
In Bangladesh, customers in the banking sector are in a strong bargaining position due to the
significant growth of banks. Therefore, banks have to provide service carefully because of the
availability of banks. Service quality has been a vital issue of discussion and research over the past
three decades. Research on service quality has well established that the customer perception of the
quality of a service depends on customer’s pre-service expectations. Studies by Parasuraman et al.
(1985), Zeithmal et al. (1990), noted that the key strategy for the success and survival of any
business institution is the deliverance of quality services to customers. Accordingly, Chang (2008)
deemed that excellent service quality is vital to business success and survival. Hence, delivering
quality service to clients is a necessity for success and survival in today’s competitive world
(Kheng et al., 2010). Banks do business with customer’s money. So, the more satisfied customers
are involved in a bank’s row, the more secure business and profitability. If a bank cannot provide
proper customer service, then the bank would be losing its customers. The profitability would also
be decreasing because of the poor customer service. According to Kang (2004) many service
delivery errors and problems can occur and that is not beneficial for the reputation of the
organization. Ha and Jang (2009) argued that service failure occurs when customer perceptions do
not meet customer expectations. The problem with service failure is that it may lead to a destroyed
relationship between the customer and the organization. Thus the importance of customer
satisfaction in today’s dynamic corporate environment is obvious as it greatly influences
customer’s repurchase intensions whereas dissatisfaction has been seen as a primary reason for
customer’s intentions to switch. Satisfied customers are most likely to share their experiences with
other five or six people around them. Equally well, dissatisfied customers are more likely to tell
another ten people about their unfortunate experiences with a particular organization. In order to
achieve customer satisfaction, organizations must be able to build and maintain long lasting
relationships with customers through satisfying various customers needs and demands (Pizam &
Ellis, 1999). Otherwise, the combined effect of negative word-of-mouth, switching and reduced
consumption will affect the productivity and profitability of the bank.
Research Objective:
The research objectives of this study are:-
To determine the impact of service quality on customer satisfaction in the private
commercial banks of Bangladesh in terms of service dimensions: Tangibles, Reliability,
Responsiveness, Assurance and Empathy.
To put forward some possible recommendation to improve customer satisfaction.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Service Quality
Service quality is considered an important tool for a firm’s struggle to differentiate itself from its
competitors (Ladhari, 2008). Service quality has received a great deal of attention from both
academicians and practitioners (Negi, 2009) and service marketing literature defined service
quality as the overall assessment of a service by the customer (Eshghi et al., 2007). Duff et al.
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(2008) pointed out that, by defining service quality, companies will be able to deliver services with
higher quality level presumably resulting in increased customer satisfaction. Akroush (2008) also
pointed out that service quality is the result of the comparison made by customers about what they
feel service firms should offer, and perceptions of the performance of firms providing the services.
Gronroos (2007) also defined service quality as the outcome of the comparison that consumers
make between their expectations and perceptions. Customer’s expectation serves as a foundation
for evaluating service quality because, quality is high when performance exceeds expectation and
quality is low when performance does not meet their expectation (Athanassopoulos et al., 2001).
Perceived service is the outcome of the consumer’s view of the service dimensions, which are both
technical and functional in nature. It is very vital to note here that, service quality is not only
assessed as the end results but also on how it is delivered during service process and its ultimate
effect on consumer’s perceptions (Duncan & Elliot, 2004). Service quality has a strong correlation
with customer satisfaction, financial performance, manufacturing costs, customer retention,
customer loyalty, and the success of marketing strategy (Cronin et al., 2000; Wong et al., 2008).
Organizations operating within the service sector consider service quality to be a strategic
component of their marketing plan (Spathis et al., 2004). Through service quality, organizations
can reach a higher level of service quality, a higher level of customer satisfaction, and can maintain
a constant competitive advantage (Meuter et al., 2000).
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satisfaction or dissatisfaction is a measure or evaluation of a product or service’s ability to meet a
customer’s need or expectations. Razak et al. (2007) also reported that overall satisfaction is the
outcome of customer’s evaluation of a set of experiences that are linked with the specific service
provider. It is observed that organization’s concentration on customer expectations resulted into
greater satisfaction. If the customers of an organization are satisfied by their services the result is
that, they will be loyal to them and consequently be retained by the organization, which is positive
for the organization because it could also mean higher profits, higher market share, and increasing
customer base (Karatepe et al., 2005). Customer satisfaction has become important due to
increased competition as it is considered very important factor in the determination of bank’s
competitiveness (Berry et al., 2002). Continuous measurement of satisfaction level is necessary in
a systematic manner (Chakravarty et al., 1996). Because satisfied customer is the real asset for an
organization that ensures long-term profitability even in the era of great competition. Cronin et al.,
(2000) mentioned in their study that satisfied customer repeat his/her experience to buy the
products and also create new customers by communication of positive message about it to others.
On the other hand, dissatisfied customer may switch to alternative products/services and
communicate negative message to others. Customer satisfaction is a set of feeling or outcome
attached with customer’s experience towards any product/ service (Solomon, 1998). Hence,
organizations must ensure the customer satisfaction regarding their goods/services.
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Research Framework
Since the main objective of the study is to identify the impact of the five dimensions of
service quality on customer satisfaction thus the framework of this study is given bellow:
Tangibles
Reliability Service Customer
Quality
Responsiveness Satisfaction
Assurances
Empathy Figure 1: Research Framework
Research Hypothesis
Based on objective and literature review, only one hypothesis was developed for this research, that
is –
H1: There is a significant impact of service quality on overall customer satisfaction.
Null Hypothesis (H0): Service quality has no significant impact on overall customer satisfaction.
Alternative Hypothesis (HA): Service quality has significant impact on overall customer
satisfaction.
METHODOLOGY
Sampling Method and Sample Size: As the study is about measuring service quality of banks,
the population included mainly clients of different private banks like- Bank Asia, City Bank, Dutch
Bangla bank, Eastern Bank Ltd., Dhaka Bank and The Standard Chartered Bank, which are located
in the Chittagong City. In this study 110 respondents of different banks have been selected by
using convenience sampling method.
Data Collection and analysis: A survey was conducted in various private commercial banks in
Chittagong city to collect primary data by using structured questionnaire. A convenience sampling
process has been used to collect data for this research. All questions are closed-ended because all
possible answers were given to the respondents. The five-point Likert scale (where 1= strongly
disagree to 5 = strongly agree) has been used for the main research questions. After data collection,
by using SPSS software (17.0 versions), correlation and multiple regressions analysis have been
conducted to test the strength of associations between the study variables
Reliability Assessment: In order to prove the internal reliability, this study has performed
Cronbach’s Alpha Test of Reliability. Applying this test specifies whether the items pertaining to
each dimension are internally consistent and whether they can be used to measure the same
construct or dimension of service quality. According to Nunnally (1978) Cronbach’s alpha should
be 0.700 or above. But, some of studies 0.600 also considered acceptable (Gerrard, et al, 2006). In
this study, the value of Cronbach’s alpha is 0.891 which is greater than the standard value, 0.7.
Thus it can be concluded that the measures used in this study are valid and highly reliable.
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FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS:
Std. Error
R Adjusted R of the
Model R Square Square Estimate Change Statistics
R
Square F
Change Change df1 df2 Sig. F Change
1 .752(a) .566 .545 .14770 .566 27.112 5 104 .000
a Predictors: (Constant), EMP, TAN, RES, REL, ASS
From table-2, it has been seen that R value is 0.752. Therefore, R value (.752) for the overall
service quality dimensions namely tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy
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suggested that there is a strong effect of these five independent variables on customer satisfaction.
From the table-2 it can also observed that the coefficient of determination i.e. the R-square (R2)
value is 0.566, which representing that 56.6% variation of the dependent variable (Average
Customer Satisfaction) is due to the independent variables (Service quality), which in fact, is a
strong explanatory power of regression.
Table-3: ANOVA(b)
Sum of
Model Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
1 Regression 2.957 5 .591 27.112 .000(a)
Residual 2.269 104 .022
Total 5.226 109
a Predictors: (Constant), EMP, TAN, RES, REL, ASS
b Dependent Variable: Avg. Satisfaction
From the table-3, it is identified that the value of F-stat is 27.112 and is significant as the level of
significance is less than 5% (p 0.05). This indicates that the overall model was reasonable fit and
there was a statistically significant association between service quality dimension and customer
satisfaction. Additionally, this also indicated that the null hypothesis is rejected and alternative
hypothesis is accepted. Hence it can be concluded that service quality dimensions have significant
impact on customer satisfaction of Bangladeshi private commercial banks.
Table- 4: Coefficients (a)
Unstandardized Standardized
Model Coefficients Coefficients t Sig.
In the table-4, Unstandardized coefficients indicated how much the dependent variable varies with
an independent variable, when all other independent variables are held constant. The beta
coefficients indicated that how and to what extent servqual dimensions such as tangibility,
reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy influence customer’s satisfaction of a bank. It
has been found that, responsiveness (beta =.382, t=5.572, p<0.001) and tangibility (beta=.358,
t=5.352, p<0.001) have the highest influence or significant impact on customer’s satisfaction,
whereas, empathy (beta =.329, t=4.835, p<0.001), assurance (beta=.284, t=4.226, p<0.001)and
reliability (beta =.149, t=2.246, p<0.001), have a relatively lower impact on customers satisfaction
of a bank. The Regression Model is:
Overall Customer Satisfaction = 0.622 + 0.358(TAN) + 0.149(REL) + 0.382(RES) +
0.284(ASS) + 0.329(EMP)
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CONCLUSION
In this section, a list of recommendations has been presented based on the findings of the survey
conducted on customers of private sector bank of Bangladesh. In relation to the findings, the study
came up with following recommendations:
Since bank is a service oriented organization, hence providing continuous training to the
employees on issues like courtesy, etiquette and communication skills while dealing with
customers is of immense importance.
Since bank is a customer oriented organization, hiring potential human resource is a must.
And for this reason, the bank should hire self-motivated, enthusiastic employees who will
like to deal with customer and will try to solve customer complaints and other issues in
an effective manner. Only then the bank can render superior customer services and enjoy
the benefit in the long run
The bank can set itself as a market leader in customer service by going beyond the
conventional way of dealing with customers, such as, having customized working hour
for every client, delivering and accepting payment as per the convenience of the customer
in times of difficulty of the customer, which hardly other competitors provide. This will
help the bank to retain the existing customer very well.
In order to retain the existing customers and to improve service quality, the bank should
continuously maintain error-free transactions, since bank accounts and figures are very
sensitive for each and every customer.
The management needs to improve quality services so as to satisfy customer’s needs. The
bank needs to pay much attention on the customer complaints in order satisfy the
customer’s expectation. Individual attention should be given to customers in order to
better understand their needs and better satisfy them.
The management of the bank should regularly run research activities in order to keep a
regular track of customer satisfaction level. Regular research should also be conducted to
find out customer expectations about various service aspects. As customer expectations
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and satisfaction are not static figures, regular research at sufficient intervals should be
conducted.
The sample size of this study is too small which may not represent the whole
population.
Due to time constrain it was not possible to cover all the branches of private
commercial banking sector
The data and information related with the topic was not easily available.
The bank confidentially keeps the data. Bank’s policy of not disclosing some
sensitive data and information for obvious reason posed an obstacle to the practical
orientation that could be very much useful.
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