CUSTOMER SATISFACTION A COMPARISION BETWEEN NEW GENERATION BANKS AND OLD GENERATION BANKS

Dr. Vasanthakumari .P *

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is the social and managerial process by which individuals and groups get what they need and want through creating, offering and exchanging products of value with others. Todays winning companies are focusing on continually satisfying their customers and beyond. Customer satisfaction is the outcome felt by buyers who have experienced a company performance that has fulfilled expectations. Customers are satisfied when their expectations are met and delighted when their expectations are exceeded. It is because of these factors, marketers are always interested in knowing about the satisfaction of their customers towards their offerings. A very widely used method in assessing customer satisfaction is through the assessment of the Service Quality perception of the customers. It is proposed in this study to assess the satisfaction of customers of banks both New Generation Banks and Old Generation Banks through the assessment of service quality perceptions.

OBJECTIVES 1. To study the level of customer satisfaction by comparing the service quality perception about new generation and old generation banks. 2. To study the influence of gender, age, education level and occupation on service quality perception about banks.

* Lecturer (Selection Grade), Dept. of Commerce, N.S.S College, Ottapalam

HYPOTHESES Hypotheses formed for the study are; H01 : There is no significant difference between the service quality perception of customers of new generation banks and old generation banks H02 : There is no significant difference between the service quality perception of customers of banks on the basis of gender H03 : There is no significant difference between the service quality perception of customers of banks on the basis of their age H04 : There is no significant difference between the service quality perception of customers of banks on the basis of their level of education H05 : There is no significant difference between the service quality perception of customers of banks on the basis of their occupation

SAMPLE For conducting the study 15 respondents each from new generation banks and old generation banks were taken.

OPERATIONAL DEFINITION (i) Service Quality Service quality is a form of attitude, which results from a comparison of customers expectations with perceptions of performance.

(ii) New Generation Banks All the commercial banking companies who started operations in India on or after 1991

(iii) Old Generation Banks All the commercial banking companies which existed in India prior to 1991.

TOOLS USED Scaling Technique, t-test and F-test were used for the study

MAJOR FINDINGS The major findings of the study are

The average service quality score of respondents for new generation banks is 99.2 and that for the old generation banks is 103.2. Hence no significant difference were found in the service quality perception of customers towards new generation banks and old generation banks. It is found out from the study that there the average service quality score of male respondents is 99.75 and that for female respondents is 101.85. This revealed that there is no significant difference is found in the service quality perception of customers with respect to their gender It is found out from the study that there is no significant difference in the service quality perception of customers with respect to their age. The average service quality score of respondents with age up to 40 is 98.200 and that for age 40 plus is 103.000 It is found out from the study that there is no significant difference in the service quality perception of customers with respect to their level of education

4 The average service quality score of respondents who have had education upto school level is 105.333, that for respondents who have had education up to college level is 101.727 and that for respondents who have had professional education is 96.167 It is found out from the study that there is no significant difference in the service quality perception of customers with respect to their occupation The average service quality score of respondents who are unemployed is 100.000, self employed is 104.250, professionals is 97.750, salaried non managerial is 100.800 and that for salaried managerial is 100.000

SUGGESTIONS It is found out from the study that the average value of service quality perception of new generation banks is lower than that of old generation banks. It is a surprising finding that even after a host of customer relationship management practices adopted by the new generation banks, which is not a common practice in most of the old generation banks, their service quality scores are lower. Since no significant differences were found in the service quality levels of respondents when analysed age wise, gender wise, education level wise and occupation wise, it is evident that separate promotional schemes may be designed generally for the whole set of customers of the banks. This information will lead to reduction of expenses on account of separate promotional schemes based on different segments of the market. **************