Interrelations between Service Quality Attributes, Customer Satisfaction and Customer Loyalty in the Retail Banking Sector in Bangladesh

Abstract

The main objective of this study is to find the interrelationships between service quality attributes, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in the retail banking sector in Bangladesh. The study sought to identify the most important attributes in bank settings, which may be used to review characteristics of the banks as experienced by customers. In Bangladesh, no study has yet investigated the above mentioned interrelationship. The purpose of this study is to fill this gap. A review of literature was conducted to find out the relationship among service quality, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. The literature review confirms this relationship. A survey was conducted to collect data. The sample size of 100 retail banking customers was drawn from different banks in Bangladesh. The result shows that all the service quality attributes are positively related to customer satisfaction and customer satisfaction is positively related to customer loyalty in the retail banking settings in Bangladesh. Empathy demonstrates the highest positive correlation with customer satisfaction and tangibility shows the least positive correlation with customer satisfaction. This study suggests that SERVQUAL [service quality model] is a suitable instrument for measuring the bank service quality in the Bangladeshi context. Therefore, bank managers can use this instrument to assess the bank service quality in Bangladesh.