Using Mystery Shopping to Compare the Service Quality of Banks in Turkey

This article examines the service quality and performance of banks in Turkey. Specifically, by utilizing mystery (secret) shoppers as a benchmarking technique, the study compares the quality of services offered by different types of banks (state, private, and foreign banks) to identify the strong and weak service quality areas. Based on 351 evaluations by university students acting as mystery shoppers, the results indicate that all the banks were offering an acceptable quality of service. Using the overall mean as a benchmark, it seems that the banks are providing fairly good quality of service in most banking areas, except in building rapport and greeting and closing. Comparisons of the service quality by the three types of banks show that state banks offer lower quality service than private banks and foreign banks. Private and foreign banks offer similar quality banking services. The article also discusses the implications of the findings and the limitations of the study.