Extended SERVQUAL Attributes, Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty:A Relationship Study of Public Sector Banks in Odisha

The basic objective of this study is to find the interrelationship between extended service quality attributes, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in the city Cuttack, Odisha. In Odisha almost no study has investigated the above mentioned relationship focusing especially on public sector banks. The purpose of the study is to fill that gap. An extensive literature review conducted to identify the relationship among service quality, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. The literature review confirms this relationship. This is an empirical study based on the primary data collected through a well-structured questionnaire. The data has been collected from 120 respondents on a random basis from four public sector banks situated in Cuttack. All four banks (SBI, PNB, BOB, IDBI) are currently occupying the top four positions in India on the basis of their financial performance as ranked by "indiaranker". All respondents are customers of one of the above bank. The result suggests that the service quality gap is highest in case of tangibles and it is lowest in case of assurance. Most of the quality attributes like (Tangibles, reliability, responsiveness and empathy) are positively associated with customer satisfaction; other attributes like assurance and online banking factors are not positively associated with customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction is positively associated with customer loyalty. Better customer loyalty can be achieved by providing high level of satisfaction to its customers. So to achieve this, bankers must reformulate their strategic plan by emphasizing more on weaker attributes and strengthening the strong attributes.