Customers’ perception on service quality towards satisfaction: An application of SERVPERF in state sector bank in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Amid intense competition and the dynamic business environment, surviving in the market has become a key challenge for many service organizations. Service quality has become one the key tools for surviving and gaining competitive advantage in banking industry, since its offering comprised mainly with intangible elements. Thus service quality has taken considerable interest in marketing literature. This study endeavored to apply 22 item SERVPERF Scale to measure consumers’ perceived service quality in state banks and its impact on customer satisfaction in Sri Lanka. Multi-stage sampling procedure was used to obtain 150 respondents from three state sector banks in Ratnapura district. The primary data were collected through an interviewer administered questionnaire. The results revealed that consumers have higher level of positive perception of SERVPERF dimensions. All dimensions contributed significantly -i.e. ‘reliability’, ‘assurance’, ‘empathy’, ‘tangibles’ and ‘responsiveness’- towards the service quality in state banks in Sri Lanka. Further it revealed that there is a strong positive linear relationship between overall service quality and customer satisfaction in state banks in Sri Lanka. The study confirmed that the scale SERVPERF is applicable for measuring the service quality of the banking sector in Sri Lanka.