Review of Professional Management- A Journal of New Delhi Institute of Management

T. Vanniarajan ¹

Affiliations
1 N.M.S.S.V.N. College, Madurai-19, Tamil Nadu, IN

Abstract

The research paper intends to find out the differences in the service quality rendered by the commercial banks of India as perceived by the rural and urban customers. This paper is an academically oriented field research conducted in May 2006 in the Madurai district of Tamilnadu, India, covering 255 customers consisting of 159 urban and 96 rural customers who are regular bank customers. The study identified that the perception on service quality among the rural and urban customers are lesser than their level of expectation especially in reliability and responsiveness. The significantly influencing perception of the service quality on the overall customer's satisfaction among the customers is Reliability, Assurance and Empathy. The important discriminate perceptions on service quality among the rural and urban customers are the Reliability and Responsiveness. The urban customers are generally expecting more from the commercial banks than the rural customers. Hence, the study shows the need of differentiated service quality strategy among the commercial banks to satisfy the rural and urban customers.

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T. Vanniarajan ¹, A. C. Kannan ²

Affiliations
1 N.M.S.S.V.N. College, Nagamalai, Madurai-625 019, IN
2 Department of Management Studies, K.L.N. College Engineering, Pottapalayam, Madurai 71, IN

Abstract

Banks service quality is commonly noticed as a critical pre requisite for satisfying and retaining valued customers. This paper extends a modified SERVQUALfor measuring service quality in Indian commercial banks. The construct of service quality consists of 28 variables belonging to the five dimensions of SERVQUAL. By the test of reliability and validity, the construct has only three dimensions namely Human Skills, Tangibles and Empathy. This paper also investigates the significant influence of the construct s dimensions on overall attitude towards banks. Even though, the overall attitude towards banks is highly influenced by all three dimensions, the human skills have more predictive validity. Apart from that, the impact made by tangibles and empathy on the overall attitude is different, but that difference is not statistically confirmed. This is supposed to help bank managers focus their attention on the most important service quality dimensions that matters most to customers.

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T. Vanniarajan ¹, P Gurunathan ²

Affiliations
1 N.M.S.S.V.N. College, Madurai-625019, Tamil Nadu, IN
2 Department of Mgmt., University of Hawassa, Awassa, ET

Abstract

Financial services are inherently intangible and high on experience and credence qualities. In order to promote them effectively, a service provider must first identify the dimensions used by consumer to evaluate the service quality of banks prior to becoming a customer. Based on responses from customer, the current study identifies four dimensions-reliability, responsiveness, assurance and tangibles-which form the domain of customer's evaluation of search quality in the financial services industry. Further, the relationship between these service quality factors and overall assessment of customer's bank is investigated. The important discriminant service quality factors among the public sector, private sector and co-operative banks are also examined. The results indicate that the customer's perception on the service quality factors in private sector banks are higher than in the public sector and co-operative banks. The significantly influencing service quality factors on the overall attitude towards retail banking are the reliability and assurance. The most important discriminant service quality factor among private and public sector bank is 'responsiveness' whereas among the public sector and co-operative banks, it is 'tangibles'. In the case of private and co-operative banks, the important discriminant service quality factors are reliability and responsiveness. These findings suggest that bank managers should be cognizant of service quality factors and their relations with the appropriate contingent variables.

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