IMPACT OF SERVICE QUALITY DETERMINANTS ON CUSTOMER SATISFACTION IN THE SRI LANKAN RETAIL BANKING SECTOR

This paper attempts to identify the degrees of impact of human related factors and non-human related factors of perceived service quality on Customer Satisfaction. ‘Satisfaction’ is a person’s feelings of pleasure or disappointment, resulting from comparing a product’s perceived performance (or outcome), in relation to his/her experience (Kotler 1997). Today the banks offer similar type of products and services, but the differentiator is how they offer it and how the customers perceive it. A survey questionnaire and 230 retail customers were used from two local private commercial banks in the study. The findings revealed that human related factors of perceived service quality have a greater impact on customer satisfaction (.509** positive correlation) than that of non-human related factors (.295** positive correlation), in retail banking. Further, multiple regression analysis revealed high Beta values: ‘providing service at the promised time (0.348)’, ‘employee willingness to help ( 0.339)’ and ‘employee understanding the customers’ specific needs ( 0.319)’, establishing them as most sensitive factors on customer satisfaction in retail banking. Keywords: Service Quality, Human related factors, non-human related factors, Satisfaction, Retail Banking For full paper: fmscresearch@sjp.ac.l