Service Quality in Banks: What are the Factors Behind Performance and Customer Satisfaction?

Abstract

Quality in servicing customers is an important marketing construct for banks, but idiosyncrasies in the definition of service quality and customer satisfaction, as well as in adapting current instruments to measure them in the international banking industry, constitute major constraints to research and practice. This chapter conceptualizes the quality of banking services based on the perception of 11,936 customers of a major Brazilian bank. Five drivers of banking service quality are developed and argued to be a proxy for customer satisfaction: (1) business and financial transactions, (2) customer relationship, (3) information technology, (4) branch, and (5) image. The resultant framework is expected to serve bank executives when making strategic decisions on how to address the clientele.