The bank switching behaviour of Singapore's graduates

This study developed a model of bank switching which contained six switching incidents. The study also investigated if certain demographic characteristics of Singapore's graduates could be used to distinguish those who have switched banks from their counterparts. The results showed that the types of incident that most often influenced bank switching were ‘inconvenience’, followed by ‘service failures’ and ‘pricing‘. About one-third of those who had switched did so because of a single incident. Banks, if they are to reduce switching by graduate customers, need to ensure that they are convenient, and that they minimise their service failures by providing an appropriate range of services which are delivered in a time-efficient manner and remain price competitive. The demographic characteristics that were subject to testing, namely gender, age, salary and racial group, showed no significant differences.     

Price satisfaction and personnel efficiency as antecedents of overall satisfaction from consumer credit products and positive word of mouth

The paper aims to explore the potential impact of ‘bank personnel efficiency’ and ‘price satisfaction’ on overall customer satisfaction of consumer credit products and positive word of mouth (WOM). Furthermore it aims to provide bank managers with useful insights into the development of high quality relationships with customers. ‘Personnel efficiency’, is related to the human factor of service quality, while ‘price satisfaction’ refers to the customers’ subjective view of the bank's pricing policy. The research involved a review of the available literature on service quality dimensions and their effect on satisfaction and WOM. For the collection of data, a survey was designed and conducted in the greater area of Athens, Greece. The research questionnaire was administered by means of personal interviews to 750 bank customers. Data analysis, using structural equation modelling, suggests that ‘personnel efficiency’ and ‘price satisfaction’ are antecedents of overall ‘customer satisfaction’, which is a prerequisite for positive ‘word of mouth’.     

Developing cross-selling capability in key corporate bank relationships: the case of a Nordic Bank

This research focuses on the challenges in developing the cross-selling capability of a multinational European corporate bank operating in both the business and consumer markets. An extensive qualitative research design was carried out involving 50 interviews with chief financial officers (CFOs) and bank representatives from four European countries, eight workshops, and participant observation. The barriers to cross-selling experienced by the Bank are specifically: a lack of cooperation within organisational levels and units, non-existent information sharing among employees, underdeveloped internal services for cross-selling, resistance to change, and outdated CRM systems are identified as the five major internal challenges that banks have to cope with. Corporate customers however perceive that the five major challenges that inhibit the corporate banks’ ability to provide better services and to properly exploit cross-selling capability are: the lack of cross-asset management, inability to sell cross-asset services, fragmented organisational structure, the lack of sufficient internal marketing and communication, and lack of knowledge sharing. This study identifies ten major challenges—five that deal with the Bank’s internal personnel, and five identified by key corporate customers—that are essential to overcome to better address cross-selling efforts.

     

The interrelationship of stock ownership and customer relationship volume: Case of a Nordic retail bank

Researchers have been increasingly interested in the fact that individuals who own stocks of publicly listed companies may also act as the same companies’ customers, buying their products and services. This article studies the relationship between an individual's stock ownership and his/her customer relationship (purchase/sales) volume. Examining a large sample of customers of a Nordic retail bank, the authors find that the proportion of high-volume customers is significantly greater among stock-owning customers than among non-stock-owning customers. Generally, it is found that there is a positive relationship between a customer's relationship volume and his/her stock ownership.     

How similar are frontline bank employees' perceptions of service quality to their customers? A study of female customers and employees in Turkey

This study investigates to what extent underlying configurations of customer evaluations of service quality as perceived by frontline employees and as reported by customers match. Surveys of two groups of female bank customers (151 students and 83 adults) and 68 female bank employees in Turkey serve as the study setting. The SERVQUAL instrument is used in measuring employees' and customers' perceptions of service quality. The factor congruency technique is employed to determine the extent of similarities and disparities among the groups. Results show that the underlying configurations of service quality perceptions decompose into three factors in the cases of both customer groups and five factors in the case of employees. Overall, customers' and employees' service quality perceptions do not correspond. This discrepancy underscores the need for accurate assessment of customer perceptions of service quality and training of employees to look at service quality from the perspective of customers by using customers' definitions. Avenues for future reasearch are offered.     

Bank image in the UAE: Comparing Islamic and conventional banks

This study investigates how bank customers in the UAE view Islamic banks versus conventional banks and whether this image affects customer loyalties or selection of a bank. We distributed a questionnaire to a convenient sample of UAE bank customers that focused on five areas: bank image, bank products, service quality, cultural aspects and religious factors, in addition to demographic attributes of the sample. The main findings of this study are: first, most UAE bank customers prefer banking with Islamic banks, although they are not satisfied with the quality of products and services; second, customers generally have a positive image of whatever bank they dealt with; third, the regression analysis results indicate that the most important factor in choosing a bank was bank products followed by service quality and then religious factors; fourth, there is a significant difference between how customers perceive UAE Islamic banks versus conventional banks; fifth, there is a significant difference in how customers perceive UAE Islamic banks based on their gender, education and duration of the relationship; and finally, there is a significant difference in how customers perceive UAE conventional banks based on their gender.     

Consumer satisfaction and loyalty derived from the perceived quality of individual banking services: A field study in Eskişehir from Turkey

The research project intends to find out the differences in the quality of the services rendered by the national banks of Turkey as perceived by the bank customers. This paper is an academically held field research conducted in May 2000 in the city of Eski?ehir Turkey, covering 1340 respondents who are regular bank customers, that is, who carry out banking transactions more than once in a month. These banks are all well-known, nation-wide financial institutions publicly or privately owned and are classified under three main groups depending on their ownership style and their size. Respondents are selected systematically from different age groups, income groups, and occupations reflecting both sexes. A questionnaire form included ten close-end multiple-choice questions (excluding demographic questions) is designed for the research purpose     

Determinants of loyalty and recommendation: The role of perceived service quality,emotional satisfaction and image

This study develops and tests a model for the determinants of loyalty and recommendation. The model considers three drivers – perceived service quality, emotional satisfaction and image – that are positively related to each other and positively influence loyalty and recommendation. The model is tested using data from a survey of 222 Tunisian bank service customers. The hypotheses, which were tested using structural equation modelling, are all supported. The results confirm that perceived service quality, emotional satisfaction and image are key drivers of loyalty and recommendation. The research emphasizes the role of emotional satisfaction and image as mediating variables between perceived service quality and loyalty/recommendation. The study also shows that a better understanding of the determinants of behavioural intentions in the banking industry occurs when affective dimensions are considered along with cognitive ones.     

Western US college students: Banking preferences and marketplace performance

Retail banks generate new checking accounts by routinely promoting products and services to college students. Prospecting for new student customers is an ongoing and challenging task. Therefore, it is useful to know why students would switch from a bank currently serving them to a competing bank. With this knowledge, bank marketers can focus on relevant features and benefits when interacting with potential student customers. Retaining students as customers poses another challenge, so it is also important to know how well banks in the marketplace perform on certain attributes. This information enables a bank marketer to place attention on salient characteristics and ones that can differentiate a bank from competitors. This study yielded insights into the college–student market by evaluating reasons for students switching banks and selecting new banks. Students’ perceptions of bank performance in relation to product quality, price and service quality dimensions were also obtained. Aggregating student's opinions of different banks indicated the marketplace performance on these dimensions, thus suggesting areas for differentiation to achieve a competitive advantage.     

Are the determinants of bank loyalty brand specific?

One of the primary concerns of companies is to develop loyal customers, and banks are no exception. Past research attempted to examine the role of satisfaction, perceived quality and image, as drivers of bank brand loyalty. However the characteristics of specific bank brands were not taken into consideration. Using data collected from a sample of 216 retail bank customers, banking with five different banks in Athens Greece, this paper investigates whether similar antecedents could be used to predict brand loyalty in various institutions. The results imply that, depending on the bank, different drivers could influence in a dissimilar manner the formation of loyalty and therefore further research is needed to generalise the suggested models.     

More hedonic versus less hedonic consumption behaviour in advanced internet bank services

Finnish internet banking can be considered as one of the most advanced in the world. This paper presents an exploratory analysis of the consumer characteristics in this sector. In the context of internet bank services the paper compares and contrasts two sets of consumers: those who prefer a more experiential view of consumption (more hedonic consumers) with those who believe in a less experiential view of consumption (less hedonic consumers). It was found that important differences exist between these two groups of consumers. Specifically, more hedonically orientated consumers place greater value on almost every proposed service dimension than the less hedonic consumers. These more hedonic consumers tend to be younger people, however, with lower education and income level and thus they do not appear to be an appealing target market for banks. In contrast, less hedonic consumers are found to be a more lucrative target market, even though they prefer basic services that concentrate on the core function of internet banking. The results have profound implications for internet bank services. Banks should focus on an improved functional operation of the services on the internet and cater more to the customers who find it effective and efficient.     

How does customer motivational orientation affect satisfaction?

This study examines the link between customer motivational orientation and customer satisfaction in the Chinese context. The customer motivational orientation–satisfaction model was tested on 349 Chinese bank customers in Macao, China. Results of structural equation modelling indicated that task-oriented and interaction-oriented customers were not equally responsive to the financial services provided. Specifically, task motivational orientation was directly and indirectly related to customer satisfaction through customer perceived service quality, whereas interaction motivational orientation only linked to customer satisfaction through customer perceived service quality as a mediator. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.     

Customers' perceived value for private and state-controlled Hellenic banks

Under conditions of increasing competition banks try to improve their customers' level of satisfaction in order to create strong preferences and hence increase their customers' loyalty. This paper is based on data drawn from 1,470 questionnaires completed by customers of both private and state-controlled banks in various areas of Attica. It looks at the bank customers' satisfaction but focuses mainly on their perceived value from the banking services received. A first analysis of the data collected shows that state-controlled bank customers are older, with lower education and lower income. Additionally, state-controlled banks show lower proportions of very pleased customers and high proportions of displeased customers. A principal component analysis performed on the data related to perceived value has defined three main factors: professional service, marketing efficiency and effective communication, which have then been used as the basis for comparing the customers' perceived value between the two types of bank. The main findings of this analysis show that state-controlled bank customers enjoy a higher perceived value in the case of marketing efficiency (mainly due to the wider network and the favourable pricing policy) whereas private bank customers enjoy a higher perceived value in the case of professional service and effective communication.     

Service transition strategies in service-dominant settings: Towards all finance solutions in SME markets

Intense competition and extensive customer needs are motivating companies to develop so-called ‘solution’ offerings in service industries. Building on service transition strategy literature, this article outlines the practical activities that broad-based financial service providers take in transitioning towards ‘all finance’ solutions and accentuates the inhibitors that their business customers perceive in this process. The empirical data consists of 40 semi-structured interviews among two service providers and 17 of their small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) customers. The results show that the service transition strategies of service extension and relationship focus are increasingly utilized in the financial industry. However, the integration of various components within a comprehensive bank and insurance offering is still in its early stages, suggesting providers rely mainly on a pure component strategy. SME customers, who seem to have taken the role of independent value creators, fail to perceive the benefits of purchasing comprehensive offerings from a single provider. Thereby, they tend to follow price-based purchase behaviour and negotiate their service offering with many different providers.     

Internet banking in the UK: Why are there not more customers?

Despite the increase in the number of internet users recorded by various agencies, the level of increase of internet usage for banking purposes has not increased at the same rate. One reason for this is continuing consumer fear about security which, despite the media coverage and the technical and verbal reassurances provided by the banks, still preys heavily on consumers' minds. Trying to resolve security fears is perceived to be part of the overall service to customers provided by the internet banking service providers. However, customers are continuing to demand increased levels of service quality. The research described in this paper attempted to identify whether or not specific problem areas exist for UK banks in achieving satisfactory performance on key attributes of service quality, particularly security, as perceived by a sample of UK internet banking customers. Using trade-off analysis to interview 56 internet banking customers, five key service quality attributes were identified and ranked. Cluster analysis was then adopted and revealed two groups of respondents. One group was most concerned about security-related issues while the other group was more interested in the convenience, speed and timeliness of the service. Overall, the internet banks were rated as being good on the five attributes except for the attribute ‘product variety/diverse features’. The question that arises from the findings is whether or not good performance by the internet banks on the service quality decision criteria is sufficient in a highly competitive internet environment, not only to attract new customers, but also to retain existing ones.     

走出银行,创造真正的差别服务

面向优质客户群体 ,进行重点营销 ,提供差别服务 ,是银行求得自身发展的重要战略。银行有必要也有可能将自身及相关商户所能够提供的差别服务整合起来提供给客户。银行实现差别服务的重要前提是争取足够多的合作商户 ,说服他们让利给银行的优质客户。银行对优质客户群体可实行会员制管理。     

Consequences of perceived acceptability of a bank's service failures

This paper presents a study of service failures of a bank and their impact on customer satisfaction and recommendation intention. In contrast to most other studies on this topic, this study uses a large, real-customer sample where the respondents describe a real failure incident, regardless of whether they complained about it. The paper aims to make three contributions: first, based on a literature review, it introduces the construct of ‘acceptability’ of service failures and relates it to the concept of a ‘tolerance zone’ for dissatisfaction. Secondly, it tests its impact on satisfaction and recommendation intention, which is both statistically significant and managerially relevant. Thirdly, the ‘service failure pyramid’ as a managerial tool is proposed and linked to the idea of perceiving every service encounter as a ‘moment of truth’. As a consequence, the use of a ‘perceived acceptability’ measure in customer surveys is suggested.     

A framework for understanding the evolution of relationship quality and the customer relationship development process

This paper attempts to develop and empirically test a conceptual model of relationship quality (RQ) in the financial sector from the perspective of the individual consumer (B2C). Based on a review of RQ research, the paper proposes a model of RQ from the customer perspective using the constructs most often examined in empirical RQ research (customer satisfaction, trust and commitment) and considers the relative importance of these dimensions within the stages of the relationship development process (RDP). A survey of 150 bank customers was undertaken in Egypt and the results tested using structural equation modelling. Respondents were selected on a convenience sampling basis and administered a questionnaire instrument for completion. The findings show that there is a strong relationship between the customer’s perceived relationship development phase and the perceived RQ. An important contribution of this paper lies in the alternative conceptualization of RQ as composed of three dynamic dimensions which are dependent on the RDP phase or stage. A second contribution is methodological and relates to the development of a modified scale to identify the relationship phases of customers. To the best of the researchers’ knowledge, these contributions are unique and have not been made previously to the body of knowledge on service relationship management.     

The importance of service quality in British Muslim’s choice of an Islamic or non-Islamic bank account

Using an extended SERVQUAL model, this study identifies and compares the importance of service quality to Muslim consumers with an Islamic or non-Islamic bank account in a non-Muslim country, Britain. Eight group discussions and a survey of 300 Muslims were conducted. Five dimensions of service quality were identified, i.e. responsiveness, credibility, Islamic tangibles, accessibility and reputation. These differ in structure and content from the original SERVQUAL developed in a western context and the subsequent CARTER model constructed in a Muslim country. In addition, significant differences were found in the importance of items between Islamic bank account and non-Islamic bank account holders. This study is one of the first to identify and compare the importance of service quality between Islamic and non-Islamic bank account holders in a western non-Muslim country. The results advance our understanding of the impact of culture on SERVQUAL. The study provides insight into Muslims’ bank choice and helps bank managers of both Islamic and non-Islamic banks to focus their attention on the service quality dimensions that matter most to Muslim customers.