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Analysis of Level of Customer Satisfaction in Commercial Banks: A Comparative Study

* Neelam Kumari
*Research scholar, Department of economics, Shri Jagdishprasad Jhabarmal Tibrewala University, Rajasthan Email: neelamkumari.17088@gmail.com
Customer Satisfaction in Commercial Banks


Abstract
The customer is key factor and center of all kinds of business whether it is manufacturing or trading the goods and services. The success of banking sector is completely depends on how much customers are satisfied with the banking services provided by banks. The increased level of dissatisfaction of customers creates the chances of failure of any organization. Thus, instead of focusing on the earning of profit, the major objective of business has become to satisfy the customers and make them delighted with the optimum quality of services. It has become very essential to provide the superior quality of services to the customers as customer is regarded as the king of the market in the era of competitions. The cut throat competition in local and global competitors has made possible to focus on more the quality of goods and services and manufacturers are forced to upgrade the quality of production of goods and services. The capability to access the optimum quality of goods will build strong image, high customer satisfaction and attract new customers. This will also help in retaining the existing customers.
The overall satisfaction of customers of private banks and public banks of Rohtak district in Haryana has been investigated in the present paper. The study is based on primary data that has been collected through structured questionnaire filled by 300 respondents and study concludes that customers of public sector banks are more satisfied than customers of private banks.
Key words: Banking services, Customer expectation, Satisfaction, public and private banks.
I  Introduction
In the era of globalization, the business houses are increasing day by day. It can be said the age of business. Customers are regarded as the king of the market and the center of the business.
A business is unable to operate without the customers. Therefore, the need and taste of customers are kept on the top most priority by the business organizations. The relationship between business and customers are very complicated and delicate because in the dis satisfied situations, customers are easily switched to the competitors. In the same way, the banking Industry are the backbone of the economy and operated with the combinations of different types of customers.
There are many banks like public sector, private sector, foreign banks and cooperative banks etc.
Customers have option to switch any time to other banks in case of dissatisfaction with the services of a particular bank. That’s why it is very difficult and complicated for the banks to retain and satisfy the customers. The special and essential role of banks is to satisfy the need of customers.
Customer satisfaction is the combination of the assumption made by customers and feelings of customers. In the same way, customer satisfaction is regarded as the variations in the service quality of banks assumed by the customers and the feelings of customers after getting the services. Customer satisfaction assists the customers to define their needs directly to the bankers.
Customer satisfaction plays important role because it aids to learn about the threats and opportunities of banks. The banking sector can easily check their strengths and weaknesses and make the assumptions regarding satisfaction level of services as they are providing. Further, it is supported that the better quality of services to the customers can be provided through understanding the need of customers. Consequently, it will help to know the competitive strength of banks. The relationship of customers and service providers can be described as the dealings with the customers in which the customer analyze the services offered by the organizations. In banking sector, the banks should know the need of customers firstly and then offer the variety of schemes and services to the customers and in last it is to check whether customers are satisfied with the service or not. If customers are dis satisfied then banks need to modify their services as per the requirements of customers and offer some other schemes. Banks should clear the doubts of the customers and solve their problems.
There are all organizations such as banking and any other organization, that try to maintain healthy relation and make customers delighted to achieve its objective. For the long time survival, it has become essential to retain and satisfy the customers. The satisfied customers will be the retained customers for all the time. It is very harmful for the banks to avoid the customers by the employees. Banks should always maintain a good relationship with the customer. The problems of customers should be solved immediately, if bank want to retain the customers for long time.
 There may be many reasons for satisfaction and dissatisfaction of customers with their banks. All the reasons were highlighted in the paper. The satisfaction level towards banking services and whether bank is providing quality based service has been investigated in the study. Overall satisfaction level of customers has been measured in the present study.
FACTORS AFFECTING CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
There are many factors or variables which are related to customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction can be determined through some factors. On the other hand, the satisfactory relationship is determined through various factors. The services given by banks can be determined the level of customer satisfaction.
The factors play significant role in satisfying the customers. These are explained as below:
·        Operational factors includes the factors related to the operation of banks such as time taken on open an account, problem solving factors, speed of operations and speed of withdrawals these all affect the customers in many ways.
·        The price factors are related to the pricing policies of banks these all highly affects the customers. Customers generally choose their banks while keeping the price factors in mind. It includes the charges of services, price stability, prices of other services and interest rate etc. these all play vital role in determining customer satisfaction.
·        The situational factors are about the situations of customers and are also taken into consideration by the customers while selecting banks. These are as follows: physical facilities, bank location, facility for parking and employees knowledge. All these factors determine the level of customer satisfaction.
·        The technological factors are the factors which are related to the technical services of banks such as IT based service, computerization of bank, innovative services and online portal of banks. These all are very essential in growth and development of banks and in enhancing its customers. Banks have to retain and enhance the customer for long time survival and it can be only done through the providing better services.
·        Promotional factors are necessary to increase the value of services and to promote the new services of banks. These consists advertisement of bank, bank customer meet and online portal of banks etc. these plays different role in enhancing the productivity of banks. The customer satisfaction can be possible through promoting the services by using optimum tools and methods to attract the customers.
·        The factors regarding the awareness of modern value added services are taken for determining customer satisfaction like giving knowledge of services, offering modern services, intimating about new services answering queries. The availability of all these services enhances the interest of customers for connecting the banks for long time.
The services provided by banks are the fundamental aspects of satisfying the customers. A customer can be only satisfied and felt delighted through getting proper and accurate services. The efficient employees, availability of persons at each counter and the proper sitting arrangement are the major area and basic need of each and every customer that must be satisfied.
II REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Clark (2001) has opined that the long-term customer retention in focused markets has been required the organization for going the fundamental satisfaction for creating the loyalty to protect against the severe competition. The author has contended that the identification and satisfaction of customer needs will lead to increase the customer retention.
Hansemark and Albinsson (2004) explained that the satisfaction has been regarded as complete customer attitude for the service provider and an emotional feeling to create the difference between the expectations of customers and the perception of customers in context to fulfill the need and desire of the customers.
Gopal krishnan (2005)opined that in the modern world, banks will have to find out the needs of the customers and have to try to make them available at reasonable price without error.  Interaction with the customers at regular intervals for finding the requirements of customers and make them available will provide better opportunity in making the organizations to survive in competitive world.
Gudep and Elango (2006)concentrated with the service quality and customer satisfaction amongst the private, foreign and public banks in India. A proper-structured questionnaire was used to gather the opinions of respondents across the three banking sectors in which the survey mechanism included various dimensions pertaining to the quality of customer services in terms of convenient working hours, banking personnel, web-based services, error-free value-added services and efficient grievance redressal mechanism.
Panelia (2008) Study attempted for measuring and comparing the service quality and customer satisfaction among private, public and foreign bank. The study has been included the huge amount of past literature to evaluate the service quality.  The results have been presented that service quality has been considered as the fundamental activity of customer satisfaction.
Mengi and Pooja (2009)explained that the Customer service has become the significant part of all components of banking and it has defined the structure of all banking sectors. The service sector such as banks, the variety of factors and level of income revolves in the limits of customer.
Tooraj Sadeghi (2010) developed the evaluation methods for analyzing the customer satisfaction estimation that was generally focused on the quality of methods and generalizations such as Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) and Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and also had provided methods including the variables for some dimension such as convenient, access, accurate, secure, useful, image of bank and designing a web site.
Shamsher Singh (2011) made an attempt to study on the Analysis of Customer Satisfaction of Information and Communication Technology mediums in Banking Sector. The author has examined the adoption and effect of ATM, internet banking and tele-banking services on customer satisfaction and retention by top Indian banks.
Dash et. al (2012) A Study on the Relationship between Customer Satisfaction and Service Attributes Offered by Public Sector and Private Sector Banks in India. The primary target of the study has been taken as collected the data from the customers for understanding the behavior of employees and level of customers perceive the value of service offered by the banks.
Snehalkumar (2013) made an attempt to explore the factors that have been affected the customer satisfaction in Banks and have been analyzed the impact on the level of customer satisfaction. Banks included the private sector bank and public sector bank they have to consider the some factors such as increase the items of reliability, responsiveness and assurance.
Kaura and Vilakshan (2014)made an attempt to identify the relation between service quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty of customers by taking the two public sector banks in Sikar district of Rajasthan. Findings have been indicated that service quality was showing the proper impact on the level of customer satisfaction and customer loyalty, and customer satisfaction were shown the stronger effect on loyalty.  
Singh (2015) reported that customer satisfaction towards the service delivery of top banks in India. It has been explored that the enhancement of service quality will depend on customer relationship and human touch or interaction. Banks have participated in the study included State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Punjab National Bank.

III OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The main objectives are:
·        To understand the concept of customer satisfaction in banking and various factors that affects the level of customer satisfaction for banking services.
·        To compare the satisfaction level of the customers of private banks and public sector banks in Rohtak district of Haryana.
IV RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The study is based on Descriptive Research. The present study was based on a survey to be conducted in Rohtak district of Haryana. Primary as well as secondary data will be used for the study.  For the present study, responses were collected from customers of three major banks of public sector and private sector. These banks are: SBI, PNB, BOB, ICICI, HDFC and Axis banks. These banks are the major banks in the retail banking industry of India and rank among the largest and strongly profitable public and private banks in India along with the strong and significant retail presence. A total of 300 customers have been contacted (150 from customers of private banks and 150 from public sector banks). Descriptive statistic has been used.
Hypothesis
H1: Public banks customers are not more satisfied than private banks.
V DATA ANALYSIS
The analysis has been done regarding customer satisfaction as follows:
Do you feel satisfied with the documents formalities of banks?




Table 1.1
View
Public sector banks
  (Frequency)
Private sector banks
 (frequency)
Highly satisfied
20
15
Satisfied
45
55
Average
35
45
Dissatisfied
30
30
Highly dissatisfied
20
5
Total
150
150
Source: Primary survey
Figure: 1.1
Source: Primary survey


Interpretations: the chart shows that 55 respondents in private sector banks and 45 respondents in public sector banks were highly satisfied with the documents formalities of banks. There were 20 respondents in public banks and 5 respondents in private banks who rated highly dissatisfied. 35 of respondents in public banks and 45 in private banks were rating average. The respondents highly satisfied with the banks documents formalities were 20 in public sector banks and 15 in private sector banks.





Are you satisfied with the rate of interest on loan charged by your bank?
Table 1.2
View
Public sector banks
  (Frequency)
Private sector banks
 (frequency)
Highly satisfied
20
25
Satisfied
20
25
Average
35
40
Dissatisfied
40
30
Highly dissatisfied
35
30
Total
150
150
      Source: Primary survey
Figure:1.2
Source: Primary survey


Interpretations: the present chart depicts the level of satisfaction with the rate of interest on loan charged by banks. Here it has been shown that most of the respondents 40 were dissatisfied in public sector banks. There were 40 respondents in private banks who rated average. Out of 300 respondents, the 20 were highly satisfied in public banks and 25 in private sector banks. There were 35 respondents in public banks and 30 in private banks rated highly dissatisfied with the interest rate charged by banks.


Do you feel convenient to reach the bank?
Table: 1.3
View
Public sector banks
  (Frequency)
Private sector banks
 (frequency)
Highly satisfied
45
30
Satisfied
55
65
Average
40
45
Dissatisfied
10
8
Highly dissatisfied
0
2
Total
150
150
      Source: Primary survey
Figure:1.3
Source: Primary survey


Interpretations: the chart shows that there were no respondents who opted for highly dissatisfied in public banks and only 2 respondents were opted for the category of highly dissatisfied in private banks. This means no respondents were feeling inconvenient to reach the bank. There were 45 respondents in public banks and 30 in private banks were rating for highly dissatisfied. The highest response were 55 in public banks and 65 in private banks, these respondents were rating for satisfied. Similarly, the most of the respondents were opted for average as 40 & 45 in public and private banks respectively. The dis satisfied respondents were 10 in public banks and 8 in private banks.


Do you feel free with the employees of your bank?
Table: 1.4
View
Public sector banks
  (Frequency)
Private sector banks
 (frequency)
Highly satisfied
40
45
Satisfied
70
75
Average
35
25
Dissatisfied
15
5
Highly dissatisfied
0
0
Total
150
150
        Source: Primary survey
 Figure: 1.4
Source: Primary survey


   Interpretations: this part is the significant part of questionnaire. Graph shows that there were not any respondents in both the banks who were rating for highly dissatisfied. The highest number of respondents were 70 in public sector banks and 75 in private banks were rating satisfied. The highly satisfied respondents were 40 in public banks and 45 in private banks means feeling free with the employees of their banks. The respondents rated average were 35 & 25 in public and private banks respectively this shows that the employees do not speak clearly as the desire of customers.




Do you satisfied with modern equipment and technology used by your bank?
Table: 1.5
View
Public sector banks
  (Frequency)
Private sector banks
 (frequency)
Highly satisfied
55
35
Satisfied
35
50
Average
20
25
Dissatisfied
25
20
Highly dissatisfied
15
20
Total
150
150
        Source: Primary survey
   Figure: 1.5
Source: Primary survey
Interpretations: the chart depicts the level of satisfaction about the modern equipment and technology used by banks. 55 of the respondents were highly satisfied in public banks and 35 respondents in private banks. The respondents were 35 in public bank and 50 in private banks rating for satisfied category. The respondents belonged to average satisfaction were 20 & 25 in public and private banks respectively. The respondents who were dissatisfied with the equipment and technology of banks were 25 in public and 20 in private banks. 15 of the respondents of public and 20 in private banks rated for highly dissatisfied.

Do you feel satisfied with time taken for the operations by your bank?
   Table: 1.6
View
Public sector banks
  (Frequency)
Private sector banks
 (frequency)
Highly satisfied
35
15
Satisfied
45
65
Average
35
55
Dissatisfied
30
10
Highly dissatisfied
5
5
Total
150
150

Source: Primary survey
Figure: 1.6
Source: Primary survey
Interpretations: the chart indicates the satisfaction level of customers for the time taken by banks for operations. The greatest numbers of respondents for rating the satisfied category were 45 and 65 in public and private banks respectively. 5 of the respondents were rated for highly dissatisfied in both the banks. The 30 respondents of public banks and 10 of private banks were dissatisfied means time taken for the operation by banks is more. The respondents opted for average was 35 and 55 in public and private banks respectively. The highly satisfied respondents were 35 in public and 15 in private banks.
Do you satisfied with tangible assets of your banks?
Table: 1.7
View
Public sector banks
  (Frequency)
Private sector banks
 (frequency)
Highly satisfied
55
35
Satisfied
55
15
Average
26
36
Dissatisfied
10
8
Highly dissatisfied
4
6
Total
150
150
      Source: Primary survey
  Figure: 1.7
Source: Primary survey


Interpretations: the present graph is shown in a bar diagram regarding how the respondents rated for the tangible assets of banks. The highest numbers of respondents were rating for the highly satisfied and satisfied category these were 55 respondents for each in public sector banks. The respondents were opted for average, dissatisfied and highly dissatisfied were 26, 10 and 4 respectively in public banks. In private banks, the highest number 36 of respondents were rating for the average. 35 and 15 of respondents were rated for highly satisfied and satisfied in private banks. The some were dissatisfied and highly dissatisfied with the tangible assets of private banks these were 8 and 6 respondents.


Does your bank always take interest in solving your problems?
Table: 1.8
View
Public sector banks
  (Frequency)
Private sector banks
 (frequency)
Highly satisfied
25
15
Satisfied
55
55
Average
30
40
Dissatisfied
30
25
Highly dissatisfied
10
15
Total
150
150
      Source: Primary survey

Figure: 1.8
Source: Primary survey


Interpretations: the above graph is showing how respondents rated for the interest of banks in solving the customer’s problems. 55 of the respondents of both public and private banks admitted that their banks take interest in solving the problem. 25 and 15 of the respondents were highly satisfied in both public and private banks respectively. The respondents opted for average was 30 in public bank and 40 in private bank. 30 respondents of public and 25 of private banks were dissatisfied.  The highly dissatisfied respondents were 10 in public banks and 15 in private banks.



Are you satisfied with services of bank?
 Table: 1.9
Options
Public sector banks
  (Frequency)
Private sector banks
 (frequency)
Satisfied
145
140
Dissatisfied
5
10
Total
150
150
     Source: Primary survey
      Figure: 1.9
Source: primary survey


Interpretations: the satisfaction of customers regarding banking services has been shown in the above chart. In public banks, 145 respondents were satisfied and non-satisfied were only 5. 140 respondents were satisfied in private banks and the dis satisfied respondents were 10.


What are the reasons for dissatisfaction with bank?
Table: 1.10
Reasons
Public sector banks
  (Frequency)
Private sector banks
 (frequency)
Service cost
45
75
Less modern equipment
25
25
No data security
45
40
Error in transaction
35
10
Total
150
150
      Source: primary survey
Figure: 1.10
Source: primary survey


Interpretations: the chart depicts the reasons for dissatisfaction with banks. In public banks, the service cost was reason for dissatisfaction by 45 respondents, 25 respondents selected the option of less modern equipment, the data security for 45 respondents and error in transaction was selected by 35 respondents as reason for dissatisfaction. 75 respondents selected service cost, 25 opted for less modern equipment, 40 said no data security and 10 rated error in transaction as reason for dissatisfaction in private banks.


The satisfaction level towards banking services
Table: 1.11
Reasons
Public sector banks
  (Frequency)
Private sector banks
 (frequency)
Overall satisfied
100
90
Satisfied with reliability
20
30
Satisfied with accountability
10
20
Satisfied with responsiveness
20
10
Total
150
150
           Source: primary survey
Figure: 1.12
Source: primary survey


Interpretations: the satisfaction level towards banking services has been shown in the above graph. In public banks, the respondents who were overall satisfied were 100, 20 were satisfied with reliability, 10 were satisfied with accountability and 20 were satisfied with responsiveness. 90 respondents were overall satisfied with banking services of private banks. 30 were opted for satisfaction with reliability, 20 selected for satisfaction with accountability and 10 were satisfied with responsiveness.
H1: Public banks customers are not more satisfied than private banks. This has been not accepted because according to the results of the study, it has been shown that public banks customers are more satisfied in various dimensions than private banks. Although customers of private banks were satisfied on few dimensions but this was very less than the ratio of satisfaction of public banks.
VI Conclusions
The study has shown that there is a direct relation between service quality and customer satisfaction. Good quality service leads to the higher satisfaction with service. The providing poor service to customers will surely lead to decrease in customer satisfaction level. By examining the level of customer satisfaction of banks in Rohtak, it has been observed that the customers of public sector banks were more satisfied than customers of private banks. The results of this study confirm that customer satisfaction is essential for long term survival and growth of banking sector. Therefore special attention should be given to increase the quality of services. The service providers must change in their strategy to make customers more loyal and satisfied.
References
Clark, L. (2001). Customers' Perspectives on Relationship Marketing in Financial Service Industry. The Icfaian Journal of Management Research, 7(9), 68-79.
Dash, S. & Sharma, J.P. (2012). A Study on the Relationship between Customer  Satisfaction and Service Attributes Offered by Public Sector and Private Sector Banks in India. Journal of Money, Investment and Banking, (24), 3-86. 
Gudep, V. K., & Elango, R. (2006). A comparative study on the service quality and customer satisfaction among private, public and foreign banks. The ICFAI Journal of Marketing Management, 5(3), 6-17.
African Journal of Business & Management, 1, 1-16. 
Kaura, L., & Vilakshan, P. (2014). Customer satisfaction in Indian commercial banks through total quality management approach. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 21 (12), 1315-1341.
Mengi, P. (2009). Customer satisfaction with service quality: An empirical study of public and private sector banks. The IUP Journal of Management Research, 8(9), 7-17.
S.Gopalakrishnan. (2005). Customer Service Grievance Redressal Mechanism, Professional Banker, (9), 22-28.
Singh, K. (2015). The impact of service delivery quality on customer satisfaction in Indian banks. International Journal of Financial Services Management, 6 (1), 60-78.
SnehlKumar, J. (2013). A Study of Customer Satisfaction & Service Quality Gaps in Selected Private, Public & Foreign Banks. SIES Journal of Management, 7 (2), 62-73.
Technology Channels in Banking Sector. Asia-Pacific Business Review, 3, 84-97. 
International Journal of Indian Culture and Business Management, 2(1), 23-30. 

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