Service Quality Perceptions of Customers in Banks and Insurance Companies

ABSTRACT Customer service is a business priority today and is a key to future growth and success. The customers‟ perceptions about service quality greatly influence their loyalty towards an organization and ultimately the success of an organization depends on the satisfied customers. The present study is based on primary data gathered with the help of questionnaire comprising of two sections. The first section contained background questions and second section contained 21 statements about the customers‟ perception of service quality in banks and insurance companies operating in India. Primary data based on 469 respondents (customers) from six banks (four private/multinational-16 branches and two government-13 branches) and four insurance companies (two private/multinational-7 branches and two government-7 branches) was analyzed to assess customers‟ perception of service quality in banks and insurance companies in India. Further, the data was subjected to correlation and factor analysis. Correlations were used to assess the relationships of service quality variables in banks and insurance companies, and standard deviations were calculated to understand the variations in data collected through responses. Factor analysis was basically used to reduce the data for further analysis. All the 21 variables were almost significantly correlated. Factor analysis brought out 4 factors in all namely „reliability‟, „empathy‟, „tangibles‟, „responsiveness and assurance‟. These factors were further subjected to statistical tools like inter-factor correlations, ANOVA, means, and grand means.