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Top1. Introduction
The phenomenon of declining in customer satisfaction and customer retention becomes the major concern of the stock broking firms because the two factors determine the customer loyalty and then financial performance of the firms. The factors that simultaneously influence customer satisfaction and loyalty are the customer perception on service quality dimensions. The constructs of service quality namely tangibility, responsiveness, reliability, assurance, and empathy are high management concerns ((Parasuraman, 1997; Olorunniwo and Hsu, 2006). The stock broking industry is passing through a phase of customers market. The customers have more choices in choosing their brokers. The focus on customer retention is important in financial services where deregulation has given more options to customers to select their service providers (Levesque and McDougall, 1996). In stock broking services, customer satisfaction mainly depends on the process of service delivery. This fact highlights the important role of the service quality parameters. Customer satisfaction is quite a complex issue and it is also responsible for customer retention and hence for company’s performance (Gruca and Rego, 2005). There may be possibility that a dis-satisfied customer starts searching for another stock broking firm, resulting in a break in the relationship with earlier firm which he was dis-satisfied. In a service industry like stock broking, the quality of customer services holds primary significance, particularly for sustained business growth. The study has been on service quality and its dimensions in service marketing over the last several decades. Many studies have examined the significant relation between service quality and customer satisfaction (Pantouvakis, 2010). Service quality is a significant factor in increasing customer satisfaction and retention (Dukart, 1998; Leal & Pereira, 2003; Parasuraman, Zeithaml, & Berry, 1985, 1988). Parasuraman et al. (1988) developed SERVQUAL, an instrument which played a pivotal role in measuring conventional service quality. In spite of several studies among services marketing, no study has examined the association between service quality and customer satisfaction in stocking broking services. The present paper aims to study customer management practices in stock broking services. The study also explores the interrelationships between service quality, customer satisfaction, customer retention, and customer loyalty through multiple case studies in the stock broking settings. It argues that service quality lead to customer satisfaction, which in turn affects customer retention and customer loyalty. This perspective could improve managerial understanding of the service quality and customer satisfaction in stock broking services.