LITERATURE REVIEW

Previous studies have identified the benefits that customer satisfaction

delivers to an organization. The longer a customer stays with an organization
the more utility the customer generates (Reichheld and Sasser, 1990).
In businesses where the underlying products have become commodity-like,
quality of service depends heavily on the quality of its personnel. This is
well documented in a study by Leeds (1992), who documented that
approximately 40 percent of customers switched banks because of what they
considered to be poor service.

Leeds further argued that nearly three-quarters of the banking customers

mentioned teller courtesy as a prime consideration in choosing a bank. The
study also showed that increased use of service quality/sales and
professional behaviors (such as formal greetings) improved customer
satisfaction and reduced customer attrition.

Reichheld (1996) suggests that unsatisfied customers may choose not to

defect, because they do not expect to receive better service elsewhere.
Additionally, satisfied customers may look for other providers because they
believe they might receive better service elsewhere. However, keeping
customers is also dependent on a number of other factors.
Fornell (1992), in his study of Swedish consumers, notes that although
customer satisfaction and quality appear to be important for all firms,
satisfaction is more important for loyalty in industries such as banks,
insurance, mail order, and automobiles. Ioanna (2002) further proposed that
service quality is an imperative element impacting customers’ satisfaction
level in the banking industry.

To compete successfully in today’s competitive marketplace, banks must

focus on understanding the needs, attitudes, satisfactions and behavioral
patterns of the market
(Kaynak and Kucukemiroglu, 1992). Consumers evaluate a number of
criteria when choosing a bank.

Kucukemiroglu's (1992) study of the Hong Kong banking market discovered

that customers choose their banks because of convenience, long association,
recommendations of friends and relatives, and accessibility to credit.
 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
.

(a) Designing of Questionnaire

To understand the savings preference, bank preference,
services taken, time period since becoming customer, and to identify the
information sources influencing bank selection, a questionnaire
(ANNEXURE I) was designed and the respondents were asked to mark their
preferences on a ranking scale.
The questionnaire also contains 19 factors that affect
the customer satisfaction. These factors are divided into 5 major groups
 Initial Experience
 Service Delivery Experience
 Service Experience
 Relationship Experience
 Grievance Handling

Also the customers were asked to rate their overall satisfaction on a 5 point
scale ranging from Highly Satisfied

(1) to not at all Satisfied (5).

These factors are as follows-

(A) Initial Experience-

1. Level of product Knowledge with bank staff

2. Quality of response to customer queries on product/service
3. Understanding of customer’s needs and unique perspective
4. Availability and quality of brochures, sales material
5. Presentation, Communication and Mannerism of staff
(B) Service Delivery Experience-

1. Timeliness of service delivery

2. Sharing of status while work-in-progress
3. Quality and sophistication of delivery
4. Behavior and mannerism of delivery staff
5. Level of congruence between time taken to deliver the services and
stipulated time

(C) Service Experience-

1. Level of service quality vis-à-vis expectation

2. Level of need fulfillment vis-à-vis expected

(D) Relationship Experience-

1. Frequency and quality of contact

2. Knowledge of company products and customer opportunities

3. Conduct and Communication of relationship person

(E) Grievance Handling-

1. Timeliness of complaint resolution

2. Quality of complaint resolution
3. Level of iterations till the complaint was resolved
4. Knowledge and empathy of the customer servicing staff

(F) Overall Satisfaction- The overall satisfaction of customers.

(b) Duration of Study- The survey is conducted for a period of one month
starting from September 2010 to October 2010.

(c) Sample Selection- The survey is conducted on 120 persons.

 Data Collection and Analysis

The report is based on primary data only. Primary data was collected
through the above designed Questionnaire using telephone calls, e-mails and
also personally interviewing the respondents. The data is analyzed using the
correlation analysis, chi-square test and analysis of variance. The profile of
the investors is given below