Customer perception on service quality in Indian commercial banks: an empirical study

A well-developed commercial banking system is a sine qua non for the economic development of a nation. The volume of their transactions highlights the economic strides made by the country. The Indian baking sector has undergone a metamorphosis particularly after the 1991 banking sector reforms. The economic reforms of 1991 had unleashed fierce competition among banks. The increasing competition is not only among the nationalized and traditional private sector banks but from the foreign banks and new generation banks which resulted in considering customer satisfaction as one of the important strategies of the banks. Due to this intensive competitive situation, it is necessary for all the banks to maintain improved service quality to the customers by providing technologically developed innovative instant service to satisfy them as they are often evaluating and comparing the entire services put forward in the competitive market.

Banking system has now transformed itself into a vibrant financial service sector with many innovative and technology driven services at their end. Customer delight is the need of the hour. The banks now compete with one another to offer value-added services to customers to expand their customer bases. Any lack in the services or in the quality may cause dissatisfaction among them and may lead to switch over to the competitors thereby causing unpleasant condition to the organization. It is therefore, necessary for banks to continuously assess and reassess how customers perceive the services, what are the new and emerging customer expectations and how they can be satisfied on an ongoing basis. The present study attempts to analyze the customers” preference for the quality of services of the private and public sector banks.