THE INFLUENCE OF SERVICE CONVENIENCE ON CUSTOMER SATISFACTION ON BANKING INDUSTRY
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
The role of customers in services is always emphasized in the marketing literature, especially in the recent development of a new perspective, namely service-dominant logic. Service convenience is acknowledged to be increasingly important to customers:yet extant convenience literature offers little explicit discussion of this topic. Consumer convenience in buying and using services isnot well understood.
Convenience is the ability to reduce consumers non-monetary costs (i.e. time, energy and effort) whenpurchasing or using goods and services (Chang & Polonsky, 2012). Colwell et al (2008) note that, in homogeneous markets, whereservice offerings are similar and therefore not key competitive differentiators, providing greater convenience June enable acompetitive advantage. Previous researchers have proposed certain important relationships linked to service convenience: forexample, service convenience can directly affect customer satisfaction and lead to customer loyalty. The goal of improving serviceencounters is to increase positive consumer outcomes, where satisfaction is one such outcome. Chang and Polonsky (2012) in theirresearch of service convenience have found that only benefit and post-benefit convenience are associated with improved behavioralintentions and that satisfaction partially mediates the relationship for those two types of convenience.
Chen et al (2011) have found that customers perception of home delivery service elements are classified into one-dimensionaland must-be attributes by Kano model, while this study contributes to the creation of attractive elements that significantly affect thecustomer satisfaction and owing an enormous potential to further differentiate competitors. Customer satisfaction is positivelycorrelated with different types of service convenience. Service quality has been found to directly affect behavioral intentions (Croninet al., 2000; Gremler & Brown, 1996) and has also been shown to indirectly influence behavioral intentions through value andsatisfaction. Several authors have found that consumer satisfaction mediates the relationship between service quality and behavioralintentions (i.e. Anderson and Sullivan, 1993; Athanassopoulos, 2000; Cronin et al., 2000). Therefore, understanding therelationships between service convenience that affect customer satisfaction and behavioral responses (intention to switch and wordof mouth) is the main concern of this study.The goal of this research is to helpmanagers and researchers understand behavioral responses to service convenience from the customers’ perspective. Not only does this research effort differ from prior research on the subject, but also it extends the relevant literature in two important dimensions.
1.2 Statement of Problem
Although studies on the services Convenience based on customer perceptions have been extensivelyinvestigated, no recent researches have been performed to investigate the impacts of the dimensions of services Convenience on customer satisfaction in the integrated model (Kheng et al., 2010). Furthermore, improving servicedelivery in the banking business is expected to affect the quality of service and customer satisfaction. On theother hand, the client will use a variety of dimensions / attributes that are important to customers to identify thequality of service through the customer satisfaction. These service dimensions/attributes play a significant rolewithin service measurement, since they serve as indicators of services Convenience and customer’s satisfaction (Craneand Clark, 1988). As described before, services Convenience was found to influence the customer satisfaction. This study attempts to investigate the impact of service dimensions/attributes on perceive services Convenience and customer satisfaction.
1.3 Purpose of the Study
The main purpose of this study was to investigate the Influence of Service Convenience on Customer Satisfaction on Banking Industry. The specific objectives are as the follows:
To examine the Decision Convenience and Customer Satisfaction on Banking Industry. To examine the Access Convenienceand Customer Satisfaction on Banking Industry. To examine the Transaction Convenienceand Customer Satisfaction on Banking Industry.
1.4 Research Questions
The following research questions have been formulated and will be answered at the completion of this work.
1. To what extent does Decision Convenience affect Customer Satisfaction on Banking Industry?
2. To what extent does Access Convenience affect Customer Satisfaction on Banking Industry?
3. To what extent does Transaction Convenience affect Customer Satisfaction on Banking Industry?
1.5 Research Hypotheses
An attempt to make our final answers not to look like mere assumption the hypotheses of this study will be stated as follows:
Ho1: There is no significant relationship between Decision convenience and WOM in Banking Industry.
Ho2: There is no significant relationship between Decision Convenience and Sales Growth in Banking Industry.
Ho3: There is no significant relationship between Access Convenience and WOM in Banking Industry.
Ho4: There is no significant relationship between Access Convenience and Sales Growth in Banking Industry.
Ho5: There is no significant relationship between Transaction Convenience and WOM in Banking Industry.
Ho6: There is no significant relationship between Transaction Convenience and Sales Growth in Banking Industry.
1.6 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORKS OF SERVICES CONVENIENCE ON CUSTOMER SATISFACTION ON BANKING INDUSTRY.
Source: Conceptualized from literature, 2016
1.7 Significance of the Study
This research identifies the important quality dimensions to Nigerian Bank to enable the bank to develop strategiesand improve the quality of service delivery. This will improve the competitive position of the Bank in thebanking industry and ensure the survival of the bank, especially in an era of intense competition. Throughmeasuring the level of customer satisfaction; Nigerian Bank can develop a customer-centric approach to deal withcustomer service, avoid the tendency of existing customers, and switch to a competing bank. Furthermore, theresearch will serve as a guide for Nigerian Bank to develop policies that will improve overall service delivery,particularly in areas where the gap between expectation and perception so wide to improve customer satisfaction. Nigeria Bank would provide comparative advantages to become the most preferred bank in the banking sector. Inaccordance with good services, banks and companies alike can benchmark Nigeria Bank policies and strategies forimproving the quality of their programmer which leads to an overall increase in the banking sector and Junetranslate to other sectors of the economy.
1.7 Scope of Study
The general scope of this study covers Service Convenience and Customer Satisfaction. The geographical scope is Rivers State of Nigeria. The study will be limited to selected banks in Rivers State.
1.9 Definition of Terms
Customer Satisfaction: The degree of satisfaction provided by the goods or services of a company as measured by the number of repeat customers.
WOM: is defined as consumer to consumer communication about goods and services.
Sales growth: The increase in sales over a specific period of time, often but not necessarily annually.
Access Convenience: “consumers’ perceived time and effort expenditures to initiate service delivery.”
Transaction Convenience: “consumers’ perceived time and effort expenditures to effect atransaction.”
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
2.1 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
The main purpose of this study was to investigate the Influence of Service Convenience on Customer Satisfaction on Banking Industry. The specific objectives are as the follows:
1. To examine the Decision Convenience and Customer Satisfaction on Banking Industry.
2. To examine the Access Convenience and Customer Satisfaction on Banking Industry.
3. To examine the Transaction Convenience and Customer Satisfaction on Banking Industry.
Findings from the study reveals that majority of the respondents are of the opinion that there is a significant relationship between decision convenience and WOM in the banking industry.
Another finding from the study reveals that decision convenience improves sales in the banking industry.
2.2 CONCLUSION
Customer satisfaction is a critical business requirement. Customer value is an asset to the organization. While, quality service is essential in today’s competitive market. The objective of this study was to find out customer satisfaction on service quality with respect to service quality dimensions. From the findings, the research objectives were achieved by identifying the determinants of service quality as reliability, accessibility, responsiveness tangibles and empathy. By analyzing the impact of service quality on Customer satisfaction of private sector banks in Bangladesh, it is observed that out of five service quality dimensions, Tangible is having a high Mean score and the bank should concentrate on Responsiveness as it has the least mean score. The study also established that the combination of tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy together have significant effect on customer satisfaction. Therefore, service quality has positive effect on customer satisfaction. These two variables should work hand in hand to ensure success and survival of the private sector banks. The study accomplished that quality service is an important factor to satisfied customer satisfaction. In the world of global economy, banking sector needs has become more diverse and exotic than ever before. So, Banks should focus in service quality to satisfy their customers in every dimension of service quality.
2.3 RECOMMENDATIONS
In this section, a list of recommendations has been presented based on the findings of the survey conducted on customers of private sector bank of Bangladesh. In relation to the findings, the study came up with following recommendations:
⦁ Since bank is a service oriented organization, hence providing continuous training to the employees on issues like courtesy, etiquette and communication skills while dealing with customers is of immense importance.
⦁ Since bank is a customer oriented organization, hiring potential human resource is a must. And for this reason, the bank should hire self-motivated, enthusiastic employees who will like to deal with customer and will try to solve customer complaints and other issues in an effective manner. Only then the bank can render superior customer services and enjoy the benefit in the long run
⦁ The bank can set itself as a market leader in customer service by going beyond the conventional way of dealing with customers, such as, having customized working hour for every client, delivering and accepting payment as per the convenience of the customer in times of difficulty of the customer, which hardly other competitors provide. This will help the bank to retain the existing customer very well.
⦁ In order to retain the existing customers and to improve service quality, the bank should continuously maintain error-free transactions, since bank accounts and figures are very sensitive for each and every customer.
⦁ The management needs to improve quality services so as to satisfy customer’s needs. The bank needs to pay much attention on the customer complaints in order satisfy the customer’s expectation. Individual attention should be given to customers in order to better understand their needs and better satisfy them.
⦁ The management of the bank should regularly run research activities in order to keep a regular track of customer satisfaction level. Regular research should also be conducted to find out customer expectations about various service aspects. As customer expectations and satisfaction are not static figures, regular research at sufficient intervals should be conducted.
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