PERCEIVED SERVICE QUALITY AND CUSTOMER SATISFACTION IN PUBLIC SECTOR BANKS: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY

Abstract

The impact of on-going process of economic reforms in India has been experienced by almost all the sectors of Indian economy and banking sector is no exception to this. The entry of private sector banks in India during the last two decades, following financial sector reforms coupled with liberalization and globalization of the economy, has been posing enormous challenges to the public sector banks in retaining their customers. Thus, public sector banks in India, under the changed regime characterized by highly competitive market and consumer sovereignty, are expected to reorient their policies in favour of customers, so that they can satisfy their customers by making persistent effort in making qualitative improvement of their services. Infact, service quality offers a way of achieving success among competing services. The paper makes a modest attempt not only to assess the customer perception regarding various service quality dimensions but also to analyse the influence of perceived service quality on satisfaction of customers in the branches of public sector banks operating in Silchar town of Assam. The perception of bank customers on select dimensions of service quality has been analyzed using different statistical tools. The study concludes that all the dimensions of service quality significantly influence the satisfaction of bank customers except empathy dimension.