INTRODUCTION:

Banking sector in India were working under a close environment for almost four decades. The Narsimhan committee was constituted to devise strategies to increase the operational effectiveness of banks operating in India. Narsimhan Committee recommended the opening of banking sector in India to increase competitiveness. Banking has also become more competitive in respect of the location of points of sale, that is, the branch network. The end result is that market power is getting shifted from banks to their customers. The freedom of choice which bank customers did not have earlier because of standardised products and regimented interest rates has been given to the customers as a result of the changes taking place (Subramanian and Velayudham, 1997).

In other words, financial liberalisation has led to intense competitive pressures and retail banks are consequently directing their strategies towards increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty through improved service quality. However, much of the research on service quality has been in the developed countries (Bank ,1996), even though services are among the fastest growing sectors in emerging countries (Jayakar ,1995). In other developing countries, as banking becomes more and more globally integrated. In fact, there exists a significant gap in the service marketing literature on how consumers evaluate service quality in contexts and cultures very different from the developed countries, even though research has begun to explore this area (Khan, 2003).

The result was the development of the SERVQUAL instrument, based on the gap model. The central idea in this model is that service quality is a function of the difference scores or gaps between expectations and perceptions. An important advantage of the SERVQUAL instrument is that it has been proven valid and reliable across a large range of service contexts. However, while the SERVQUAL instrument has been widely used, it has been subjected to certain criticisms as well. The contention that service quality consists of five basic dimensions (Parasuraman et al., 1988) is according to some researchers questionable and they have suggested that SERVQUAL’s dimensions are contextual and not universally applicable (Grayna and Gyana, 1999). Instead, the number and composition of the service quality dimensions are probably dependant on the service setting (Lovelock and Wirtz, 2007). It has been suggested that for some services the SERVQUAL instrument needs considerable adaptation (Lam, 1995) and that items used to measure service quality should reflect the specific service setting under investigation, and that it is necessary in this regard to modify some of the items and add or delete items as required (Mathur, 1999). Moreover, research suggests that culture may play a fundamental role in determining how consumers perceive what constitutes service quality.

In a nutshell, there are still issues and varying opinions about the dimensionality of service quality and the universality of the five dimensions, (Rust and Oliver, 1994). These are of interest to and significant for users of SERVQUAL and for all those who wish to understand better the concept of service quality. Hence there is still a need for fundamental research into the dimensionality of service quality bearing in mind the contextual circumstances, the specific industry and the specific service setting. In the above backdrop the researcher has used the SERVQUAL scale to measure the quality of services being provided by banks

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:

In order to analyse the impact of selected service quality dimensions, 20 customers availing consumer loan facility from five public sector namely (i)State of Bank of India, (ii) Oriental Bank of Commerce, (iii) Bank of India, (iv) Central Bank and (v) Allahabad Bank in Raipur city were selected as sampled respondents. The opinion of the respondents was collected with the help of questionnaire. The questionnaire was divided into two parts. Part 1 consisted of demographic profile and part 2 consisted of questions related to impact of service quality dimensions on customer satisfaction.

The customers of the bank were asked to rate their satisfaction on five dimensions of service quality, namely, tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy and used these as the basis for service quality measurement instrument, SERVQUAL given by Parasuraman et al., 1988; Zeithaml et al., 1991.

Data Analysis and Interpretation

Table-1

Particulars	SBI %	CBI %	AB %	OBC %	BOI %
The bank has up to date equipment to provide better service	26.85	27.24	23.66	23.55	25.63
Physical facilities of the bank are excellent	24.16	23.30	22.94	25.94	22.02
The bank encourages employees to be neat and clean	25.50	25.09	27.96	26.62	30.69
Highly informative communication material is provided to all customers	23.49	24.37	25.45	23.89	21.66

Interpretation:

It was found from Table -1 that customers of central bank of India were more satisfied with the up to date equipments used by their bank and the customers of Oriental Bank of Commerce were least satisfied with the up to date equipment used by their bank. It was found that consumers of Oriental Bank of Commerce are more satisfied with Physical facility of the bank in comparison to other selected bank. It was further found that consumers of Bank of India are less satisfied in comparison to consumers of other selected bank with the Physical facility of the bank. It was found that consumers of Allahabad Bank are more satisfied with Appearance of bank Employees in comparison to consumers of other selected bank. It was further found out that consumers of Central Bank of India are less satisfied with appearance of bank employees in comparison to other selected bank. It was found that consumers of State Bank of Indore are more satisfied with informative material provided by their bank in comparison to other selected bank. The consumers of Bank of India are less satisfied with informative materials provided by their bank in comparison to other selected banks

Table-2

Particulars	SBI %	CBI %	AB %	OBC %	BOI %
The bank employees are very sincere in solving problems of customers	27.05	26.43	26.85	26.69	22.92
Employees usually provide the services to customers at promised time	22.42	24.52	23.49	24.20	25.69
Records provided by the Bank is always clear and without mistakes	26.69	25.48	27.52	26.69	25.35
Accurate information for all services is provided to customers from the beginning	23.84	23.57	22.15	22.42	26.04

It was found from Table-2 that consumers of SBI are more satisfied with sincerity of their bank employees in solving their problems in comparison to consumers of other Banks. It was found that consumers of Bank of India are less satisfied with sincerity of their bank employees in solving their problems. It was found that consumers of Bank of India are more satisfied with their bank for providing services at promised time in comparison to consumers of other selected Banks whereas consumers of State Bank are least satisfied with their bank for providing services at promised time in comparison to consumers of other selected bank. It was found that consumers of Allahabad Bank are more satisfied with their bank for providing clear and error free records in comparison to consumers of other selected Banks whereas consumers of State Bank of India, Oriental Bank of commerce are less satisfied with their financial institutions for providing clear and error free records in comparison to consumers of other selected Banks. It was found that Consumers of Bank of India are more satisfied with the employees of their bank for providing them accurate information in comparison to other banks, whereas consumers of Allahabad Bank are less satisfied with their bank providing them accurate information in comparison to other banks

Table -3

Particulars	SBI %	CBI %	AB %	OBC %	BOI %
Employees are prompt in providing the services	50.77	46.10	48.57	46.21	50.00
Employees are trained to help the customers	49.23	53.90	51.43	53.79	50.00

Table-4

Particulars	SBI %	CBI %	AB %	OBC %	BOI %
Employees are highly trustworthy	26.27	25.87	24.28	27.70	26.93
Transacting with the bank is very secure	27.53	25.87	25.88	25.68	24.77
Employees of the bank are highly courteous	23.42	23.03	22.68	21.62	25.08
Bank employees are knowledgeable in handling queries	22.78	25.24	27.16	25.00	23.22

Table -5

Particulars	SBI %	CBI %	AB %	OBC %	BOI %
Bank has very convenient operating hours	37.93	35.94	36.12	35.56	35.37
Employees provide personal attention to customers	31.90	34.56	29.52	32.22	30.13
Employees understand the specific need of the customers	30.17	29.49	34.36	32.22	34.50

It was found from Table 3 that consumers of Bank of India are more satisfied with promptness of their bank’s employees in providing them services in comparison to consumers of other banks. Further consumers of oriental bank of commerce are less satisfied with promptness of their bank’s employees in providing them services in comparison to consumers of other banks.

It was found that consumers of Central Bank of India feel that employees of their bank are more trained to provide them services in comparison to other bank employees, further more it was found out that consumers of State Bank of India feel that employees of bank are less trained to provide them services in comparison to others.

It was found that consumers of Bank of India are more satisfied with trustworthiness of the employees of their selected Bank in comparison to consumers of other selected Banks. Further it was found from Table-4 that consumers of Allahabad Bank are least satisfied with trustworthiness of the employees of their selected Bank in comparison to consumers of other selected Banks. It was found that consumers of State Bank of India are more satisfied with security in making transaction with their selected Bank in comparison to consumers of other selected Banks. Further it was found that consumers of Oriental Bank of Commerce are less satisfied with security in making transaction with their selected Bank in comparison to consumers of other selected Banks. It was found that consumers of Bank of India are more satisfied with courteousness of the employees of their Bank in comparison to consumers of other selected Bank. It was found that consumers of Allahabad Bank are less satisfied with courteousness of the employees of their Bank in comparison to consumers of other selected Bank. It was found that consumers of Allahabad Bank are more satisfied with knowledge of the employees of their Bank in handling quarries in comparison to consumers of other selected Bank. It was found that consumers of State Bank of India are less satisfied with knowledge of the employees of their Bank in handling quarries in comparison to consumers of other selected Bank.

Interpretation: it was found that of State Bank of India are more satisfied with convenient working hours of their bank in comparison to consumers of other selected bank. Further it was found that consumers of Oriental Bank of Commerce are less satisfied with convenient working hours of their bank in comparison to consumers of other selected bank. It was found that of Central Bank of India are more satisfied with Personal Attention of their bank in comparison to consumers of other selected bank. Further it was found that consumers of Allahabad Bank are less satisfied with personal attention of their bank in comparison to consumers of other selected bank. It was found that of Bank of India are more satisfied with understanding of needs of their bank in comparison to consumers of other selected bank. Further it was found that consumers of Central Bank of India are less satisfied with understanding of their needs of their bank in comparison to consumers of other selected Banks.

In order to test whether there is any variation in the opinion of Consumer regarding the factors responsible availing consumer satisfaction a particular banks following hypothesis was tested. In order to test variation ANOVA was used.

Null Hypothesis: There is Variation in the opinion of consumers regarding the reasons responsible for consumer satisfaction of a particular bank.

Alternative Hypothesis: There is no Variation in the opinion of consumers regarding the reasons responsible for consumer satisfaction of a particular bank.

The calculated value has been summarized in table. It was found that there is highly significant variation in the opinion of bankers regarding the reasons responsible for satisfaction of customers at 5% level of significance as calculated value of F (5,17) = 3.19 was more than table value of F (5,17) 1.94.

Source of Variation	Sum of Squares	Degree of Freedom	Mean Square	Value of F
Between Samlpes	863.67	9	193.68	3.19
Within Samples	3099.01	16	193.68	6.45
Total		24

Table: one-way ANNOVA Table to measure variation in the opinion of consumers regarding factors responsible for consumer satisfaction of a particular bank

CONCLUSION:

Banking services are operating in a very competitive sector. Feature like product innovation and differentiation are nonexistent in this sector. A proper understanding of elements responsible for generating satisfaction of customers should be developed so that service bundle can be designed and redesigned properly. A customer differentiates financial services on the basis of few tangible elements and the quality of manpower involved. Financial institutions operating in Public Sector must make investments in improving the branch ambience and facilities so that visible differentiation can be created. Further training must be given to employees to be more responsive, assuring and empathetic towards customers.

REFERENCES:

1. Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. A. and Berry, L. L. (1994), “Alternative Scales For Measuring Service Quality: A Comparative Assessment Based On Psychometric And Diagnostic Criteria”, Journal of Retailing, Volume 70, No. 3, pp. 201-230.

2. Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. A., and Berry, L. L. (1988), “SERVQUAL: A Multiple-Item Scale For Measuring Consumer Perceptions Of Service Quality”, Journal Of Retailing, Spring, Volume 64, Number 1, pp. 12-40.

3. Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. A., and Berry, L. L. (1991), “Refinement And Reassessment Of The SERVQUAL Scale”, Journal Of Retailing, Winter, Volume 67, Number 4, pp. 420-450.

4. Lovelock, C. and Wirtz, J. (2007), Services Marketing, Prentice-Hall International, Inc.

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6. Subramanian, K. and Velayudham, T. K. (1997), Banking Reforms In India: Managing Change, Tata Mc-Graw Hill Publishing Co. Ltd., New Delhi.

7. Bank, John, 1996, The Essence of Total Quality Management, New Delhi, Prentice Hall of India Pvt. Ltd. , PP. 35-36.

8. Jayakar, Roshni, 1995. “Quality as Service”, Business Today, Jan. 7-21, PP. 264-269.

9. Khan, M.Y., 2003, Financial Services, Tata Mc Graw Hill, New Delhi, 2^nd Edition, PP 1.4-1.7

10. Grayna,D.S. and Gyana, F.M., 1999, “Quality in Banking Starts with Four Assessment”, Quality Progress, August, PP. 27-34.

11. Lam, S.S.K., 1995. “Measuring Service Quality: An Empirical Analysis in Hong Kong”, International Journal of Management, Vol. 12, No. 2, June, PP. 182-188.

12. Mathur, P.H., 1999. “TQM in Banking”, Indian Management, May, Vol. 38, No. 5, PP. 44-47.

Received on 21.09.2011 Accepted on 28.10.2011

Asian J. Management 2(4): Oct.-Dec., 2011 page 169-172