AN ASSESSMENT OF SERVICE QUALITY GAP IN BANKING INDUSTRY

Indian banking sector has become highly competitive in th e Environment of Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation. Banks should not only focus on providing wide range of products to create competitive advantages; but also emphasise on the importance of services, particularly in maintaining service qualit y. The objective of this study is to study the determinants of quality of services and to analyse the difference between customers’ expectations and customers’ perceptions of services rendered by banks. The 22 attributes confined into 5 dimensions of the SERVQUAL instrument are used to measure the service quality of the banks. They are as Tangibility, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance and Empathy. The sample for this study comprises 200 customers from public and private sector banks and convenience sam pling technique is chosen as the basic method to carry out the study. The study reveals that attributes under the three dimensions namely, Responsiveness, Assurance and Empathy are the major short falls of service quality rendered by banks. These are the service attributes a bank is required to pay more attention to maintain their customers satisfied.