Customer Satisfaction and the Role of Demographic Characteristics in Online Banking

Introduction

In the increasingly competitive and changing world of online services, customer satisfaction management has emerged as a strategic imperative for most companies. It is extremely important that online service providers know how to improve customer satisfaction. Since, it was shown that managers who aim at merely satisfying rather than completely satisfying customers run the risk of undermining customer retention (Mittal and Kamakura, 2001). Moreover, it is costly to recruit new customers and between 65% and 85% of existing customers who defect to a competitor confesses to being either satisfied or very satified with the product or service they left (Reichheld and Schefter, 2000). Drawing on that, some authors have frequently emphasized the need to examine ways to increase customers satisfaction levels and the internet consumer acquisition decision (Parasuraman et al., 2005; Al-Hawari & Ward, 2006; Herington and Weaven, 2009). Obviously, understanding these antecedents can help online service provider to gain competitive advantages by implementing specific strategies to increase customer satisfaction. Given that higher levels of customer satisfaction reduces customers’ perceptions of the potential benefits of alternative suppliers and enhances repurchase intentions with the present supplier (Ribbink et 2004; Petnji et al., 2011).

Moreover, previous research also evidenced that customer satisfaction is crucial in realizing desired outcomes such as customer loyalty and customer retention which in turn enhance business profitability (Oliver, 2010, Kotler & Armstrong, 2010). However, online service providers are particularly alarmed about achieving customer satisafction to make their business tactics successful. They tend to search for resources and capacities on which to based their competitive strategies while taking into account their customers´satisafaction and needs (Martinez-Ruiz, 2012).

Furthermore, the concepts of service quality and customer perceived value are fundamental to successful business because they are crucial to costumers’ decisions making. Particularly in the context where online service consumers are becoming more and more knowledgeable and are willing to share their experiences through social media (Petnji et al., 2012) and online compettitors are only a mouse click away (Marimon et al., 2012), Yet, Day, (2002) argued that the theoretical relationship between value and other key marketing constructs such as consumer satisfaction are not fully understood. This is perhaps because related research on the issue in the field remains largely speculative. Therefore, the question that then arises for online service provider is the extent to which satisafction depends on antecedents such as customer online service quality and perceived value particularly while considering the moderating/mediating effects of customer perceived value

In addition, it was reported that early internet users were primarily middle-aged or younger and had less purchasing power than those who were older (e.g Bigne et al., 2005 and Zhou et al., 2007). Moreover, early researchers such as Donthu and Garcia (1999) showed either no significant age difference among online shoppers or that online shoppers were older than traditional store shoppers. Likewise, Zhou et al., (2007) review of litterature on online shopping acceptance and argued that the age gap between online and non-online consumers is diminishing, but the effect of age and education on consumers’ intention to purchase online remains unclear. Thus, it was also apparent the necessity to ascertain or not that some demographic characteristics such as gender, age, education and income are factors that may influences customer satisafaction and perception of service offer in online banking. Against this backgrounds, the main objectives of this study were two folds: