Determining the relative importance of critical factors in delivering service quality of banks

Abstract

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to determine the critical factors to accessing the level of service quality of banks by re-examining the SERVQUAL model, originally pioneered by Parasuraman. Further, the technique of dominance analysis is used to measure the relative importance of each critical factor in closing up overall service quality gap of banks. Design/methodology/approach -The sample consists of 308 bank customers from different parts of Malaysia. The data were collected by using a structured questionnaire, which consists of three parts. Part 1 deals with consumers' usage of banking channels and their banking behavior. Part 2 contains 26 statements related to service quality dimensions based on past literatures. Finally, Part 3 contains the questions related to the socio-demographic profiles of respondents. Findings -The modified SERVQUAL model consists of four critical factors (dimensions) as detected by factor analysis. They are: tangibility, reliability, competence and convenience. The results reveal that there are significant differences between the respondents' expectation and their perceptions. Among the four dimensions tested, tangibility has the smallest gap whereas convenience has the largest gap. The application of dominance analysis indicates that competence and convenience together can help to reduce the SERVQUAL gap as much as 76 per cent. The banking sector needs to become more competent by being more responsive and fulfilling the assurance of the customers and providing the banking facilities more conveniently. Originality/value -The paper shows that hardly any work has been conducted which applies the dominance analysis approach in SERVQUAL dimensions to determine the relative importance of the critical factors in closing the overall service quality gap. Measuring the relative importance of service quality dimensions consistently will provide insights to the banks as to what areas need to be emphasized in order to retain their customers and attract new ones. It provides the guidelines for the banks to develop proper strategies and react faster to the changes of customers' banking behavior.

Behavioural issues in maintenance of university buildings

“…In fact, many writers have argued for a sample size of 400 for any population if inferential statistics are required. Research involving all bank users or customers in Malaysia (which undoubtedly far exceeds the total university building users in Malaysia) drew valid conclusions based on 308 samples (Kumar, Kee and Manshor, 2009). A questionnaire survey approach was used to collect primary data.…”

“…The questionnaire was modifi ed after Arditi and Nawakorawit (1999), Chanter and Swallow (2007) , Kumar, Kee and Manshor (2009) and a series of discussions was held with those concerned with the university building management. The questionnaires were predominantly (more than 95 per cent) administered in class, before the day ' s lectures commenced.…”

“…Although these determinants are suitable for classical and general service consumers, they can be adapted for building users. Many researchers in the different industries or sectors have modifi ed Parasuraman ' s SERVQUAL model (Kumar, Kee and Manshor, 2009). …”

Functional Service Quality Satisfaction of Islamic and Conventional Credit Card Users in Malaysia

“…In addition, various methods are developed and introduced to measure customer satisfaction from service quality perspectives, including the Bankserv, Servperf and Servqual models. More studies employ Servqual or modified Servqual to measure banking service quality compared to other measurement tools (Newman & Cowling 1996;Othman & Owen 2001;Han & Baek 2004;Arasli et al 2005a;Muslim & Zaidi 2008;Wong et al 2008;Kanning & Bergmann 2009;Kumar et al 2009;Ladhari 2009;Osman et al 2009;Sadek et al 2010). However, criticisms of the Servqual (Blanchard & Galloway 1994;Gounaris 2005) resulted in the creation of alternative models such as Servperf (Cronin & Taylor 1992;Angur et al 1999;Abdullah et al 2004), Bankserv (Avkiran 1994) and other models (Levesque & McDougall 1996;Stafford 1996;Johnston 1997;Bahia & Nantes 2000;Lassar et al 2000;Aldlaigan & Buttle 2002;Cui et al 2003;Malhotra et al 2005;Mukherjee & Nath 2005;Petridou et al 2007;Guo et al 2008).…”

Is Service Quality a Correlate of Customer Satisfaction? Evidence from Nigerian Airports

“…Several conceptual models have been developed by different researchers for measuring service quality (Gronroos, 1984;Parasuraman, Zeithami, & Berry, 1988;Kumar, Kee, & Manshor, 2009;Parasuraman, Zeithami, & Berry, 1985;Haywood-Farmer, 1988;Brogowicz, Delene, & Lyth, 1990;Cronin & Taylor, 1992;Rust & Oliver, 1994;Brady & Cronin, 2001). The essence of conceptual models in service quality is to enable management identify quality problems and thus help in planning for quality improvement program, which can bring improvement in efficiency, profitability and overall performance (Seth & Deshmukh, 2005).…”