Service Quality in the Banking Sector in Ghana

Abstract

In the contemporary business milieu and "era of customer", delivering quality service is a sine qua non in ongoing strategy of most business firms and constitutes integral ingredient for success and survival in present day´s competitive environment. This study investigates the role that service quality plays in the Ghanaian banking sector and its impact on service delivery. A sample of 400 customers encompasses four major indigenous and foreign banks. SERVQUAL dimensions of service quality were used to structure the questionnaire. William L. Boyd, Myron Leonard, and Charles White's Standard Instrument for weighting of rating of service quality attributes was the sampling procedure adopted. Data collected was analyzed using one sample T-test of the mean weighted differences between perception and expectation of customers. This, in an attempt to determine whether there is a significant gap between expectation and perception at 5% level of significance. Empirical findings from this study show that gaps exist between customers' expectations and perceptions of service delivery in all the banks even though the banks performed better on the tangibility dimension. Despite this observation, the banks retained their customers. This study, therefore, concludes that where a gap exists between customer expectation and perception of service delivery, service quality is perceived as low and customer dissatisfaction results. However, dissatisfied customers did not necessarily defect. The study therefore confirms the theory that service quality is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for maintaining strong relationship with customers.

Knowledge of Banking Services among Frontline Personnel and Quality of Service Delivery in the Nigerian Commercial Bank

“…In a study conducted among bank customers in Greece and Bulgaria by Petridou, Charalambos, Niki and Chris (2007), it was established that bank service quality is a leading performance metric that is used to rate a bank. Similarly, Arasli, Mehtap-Smadi and Katircioglu (2005) identified service quality delivery as important in the banking industry while Okoe, Adjei, and Osarenkhoe (2013) established that gaps exist between customers' expectations and perceptions of service delivery in all the banks based on service quality in the Ghanian banking sector.…”

“…Quality of service delivered to customers has been argued to be critical to customers' satisfaction, customer retention and contribute to continued existence of the business organization that provides the service (Okoe, Adjei, & Osarenkhoe, 2013;Grönroos & Ravald, 2011). This is because customers' perpetual demand for improved service quality has kept organizations in the service industry that desire survival in the highly competitive markets on their toes to continue to seek ways to provide high quality services or products.…”

“…This is the reason why many of the organizations in the service industry including banks have adopted quality service delivery as one of their strategic tool for surviving in this highly competitive business environment. However, studies have identified gaps in the quality of service to customers in many industries and specifically the banking industry (Okoe, Adjei, & Osarenkhoe, 2013;Gandhi, 2010).…”

The effect of quality of electronic banking services on agility of a bank

“…In particular, some others have described the changes in customer expectations and different banking systems as too much, and have considered the necessity of flexibility in banks as a key factor for their survival (Wulandari & Subajio, 2015;Okoe et al, 2013). Some authors, too, have pointed to optimizing the quality of banking services, and attending to customer satisfaction (Ghaffari Ashtiani & Asgari Novin, 2013;Saeed et al, 2013) and their expectations (Kariru & Allo, 2014), as well as consequences like profitability (Pakdil & Kurtulmusoglu, 2014: 388-389).…”

Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction among Bank Clients in Rwanda

“…Studies have been undertaken in Pakistan [26]; India [27,28,29,30]; Ghana [31]; Ethiopia [32] and Bangladesh [33]. It is to the studies in developing economics that this paper seeks to contribute.…”