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Faculty of Management Sciences

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    Assessing customer service quality in banking by an alternative service provider: An African perpective
    (HOEHERE BUNDESLEHRANSTALT UND BUNDESAMT FUER WEIN- UND OBSTBAU, 2015-09) Govender, Jeevarathnam Parthasarathy; Msosa, Steven Kayambazinthu
    Achieving service quality has been the goal of many organisations over the past decade. ln recent times, the postal business across the world has experienced a sharp decline in the volume of mail due to more efficient alternative channels of communication. The dwindling volumes of mail have made it necessary for public postal operators to diversify into financial services as one way of generating more revenue. However, the influx of many players into the financial service industry has raised the standard of service quality as a tool for business growth and sustainability and as a result, there is no room for mediocre perfom1ance. This paper examines customer perceptions of service quality in the Malawian public postal service. A survey comprising a sample of 400 financial services customers was conducted using the SERVPERF model as the measuring instrument. The results show that customer perceptions of the service quality dimensions are satisfactory. There were significant differences between education level and the perceptions of tangibles and reliability and between region and the perception of tangibles. There were no significant differences between gender, age and occupation and the perception of empathy, tangibles, assurance, reliability and responsiveness. Recommendations are proposed on how the public postal operator can improve service quality among its financial services customers. This study can prove useful as a basis for comparison of customer service quality by altemative providers of banking services in other under-developed countries.
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    Service quality at retail banks in Durban
    (2013-06-05) Zungu, Nkululeko PraiseGod; Raap, Peter John; Mason, Roger Bruce
    The aim of this study is to investigate service quality at retail banks, such as Standard Bank, ABSA Bank, First National Bank and Nedbank in Durban. The four objectives of this study are set as: Firstly, to identify the level of satisfaction with customer service received from different retail banks in Durban; Secondly, to identify customers’ expectations in terms of quality services provided by retail banks; Thirdly, to ascertain the perceptions of customers towards the service provided by retail banks in Durban; Fourthly, to measure the gaps between customer expectations and perceptions of service quality, using a modified version of the SERVQUAL model. The instrument used to assess the retail bank customer’s expectation and expectations of service quality, was the SERVQUAL questionnaire, measuring expectations and perceptions according to five quality dimensions. A total of 448 students were surveyed. Quota sampling was used in this study, in order to improve representativeness. Using quota sampling involves selecting the characteristics that are required in the sample and then sampling until enough representatives of each category are achieved. Although this is a form of non-probability sampling, a quota sample can provide a good approximation to a probability sample. It means that distributing questionnaires to a certain group would be stopped after the prescribed quota is reached. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistical techniques. Conclusions and recommendations were thereafter drawn from the literature and the findings of the study. The study shows that retail bank customer expectations of service quality exceeded their perceptions in the five service quality dimensions used in the SERVQUAL questionnaire. This study is also important because it will assist bank managers to convert negative perceptions to positive impressions. Consequently, customers will benefit from the improved, outstanding customer service.