A Comparative Study of Service Quality of Conventional and Interactive Banking

Financial sector reforms set in motion in India in 1991 have greatly changed the face of Indian banking industry. The banking industry has moved gradually from a regulated environment to a deregulated market economy. Therefore, quality of the services provided by the banks becomes very important. In this study for data collection, the SERVQUAL instrument developed by Parsuraman, Zenithal and Berry (1988) has been used. Structured questionnaires were used for consumers and unstructured questionnaires for industry experts. The researcher selected100 samples (50 each from conventional and interactive banks). The researcher used judgmental and convenience sampling technique. Factor analysis has been done on the various factors asked in the questionnaire. There were a set of 22 questions for which the importance level on a scale of 1–7 amongst all banks and the performance level their own bank (on a scale of 1–7) had been asked.

The results of the study reveal that among the factors affecting selection of the banks, people give top most priority to reliability. In case of interactive banks, human element came at the second position, responsiveness at the third position, accessibility at the fourth position, and tangibility in the fifth position respectively. Reliability is the most important factor, which customers give importance while deciding the bank whose facilities they should be avail. The next most important factor is accessibility to the bank, followed by human element at the third position; systemization and responsiveness are at the fourth and fifth positions respectively.