Consumer demographics and expected service quality

A sound banking system is a vital pre requisite for financial system stability and economic growth of the country. The competition between banks has also increased tremendously. Sri Lankan financial system of the country mainly depends on banking system because it represents a share of 70.8% of the total financial system of the economy (Central Bank Report, 2010). The rapidly changing and highly competitive environment which banks are forced to operate within are pushing them to rethink about their attitude towards customer satisfaction and optimisation of service quality.

This study is aimed at identifying the significance of the consumer demographics on the overall evaluation of expected service quality and in terms of each service quality dimensions by the consumers in the retail commercial banking industry (private and public banks) of Sri Lanka. A sample of 150 consumers was selected through stratified random sampling technique. The retail consumers who maintain savings, fixed deposit and current accounts and have been dealing with those banks more than two years were considered. Survey method used to gather primary data and was developed on SERVQUAL model of service quality. Hypotheses were tested using ANOVA and findings showed that except age other demographic factors are not discriminators of expected quality. Expected service quality in terms of each dimension varies depending on the age of the consumer.