Influence of Service Quality on Banking Customers ’ Behavioural Intentions

Investigating the influence of service quality variables on multidimensional model of customers’ behavioral intentions should help to measure, control and improve customer perception of service quality by public banks. Hence, this relational impact should be a central concern for public retail bank managers as well as for service management academics and practitioners. Purposive sampling technique is used to select the respondents from two major public banks of Tirchirappalli city of Tamilnadu, India. Univariate analysis is used to analyze the demographic and rational variables. The service quality variables of tangibility, responsiveness and empathy dimensions play an important role in predicting Customer behavioral intention which is identified using multiple regression analysis.


Introduction:
The Indian banking industry is going through turbulent times.With the lowering of entry barriers and blurring product lines of banks and non-banks since the financial sector reforms, banks are functioning increasingly under competitive pressures emanating from within the banking system, from non-banking institutions and from the domestic and international capital markets.In this era of mature and intense competitive pressures, it is imperative those banks maintain a loyal customer base.In order to achieve this and improve their market and profit positions, many retail banks are directing their strategies towards increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty through improved service quality.In the present competitive Indian banking context, characterized by rapid change and increasingly sophisticated customers, it has become very important that banks in India determine the service quality factors which are pertinent to the customers' selection process.With the advent of international banking, the trend towards larger bank holding companies and innovations in the marketplace, the customers have greater and greater difficulty in selecting one institution from another.Therefore the current problem for the banking industry in India is to determine the dimensionality of customer perception of service quality.This is because if service quality dimensions can be identified, service managers should be able to improve the delivery of customer perception of quality during the service process and have greater control over the overall outcome.Moreover, investigating the influence of the dimensions of service quality on customers' behavioral intentions should provide a better understanding of the drivers of customer satisfaction and also help to specify measure, control and improve customer perception of service quality.Hence, to gain and sustain competitive advantages in the fast changing public retail banking industry in India, it is crucial for banks to understand in-depth what customers perceive to be the key dimensions of service quality and what impacts the identified dimensions have on customers' behavioral intentions?The issue of customer retention is an important one for service organizations.Ndubisi (2003) has related superior service with customer perceived mutualism (in customer-firm interaction) which is associated with customer support, which outcomes are increasing market share and/or profits.The study also related poor service with customer perceived commensalism and parasitism which lead customer resistance and in turn erosion of profits and/or market share.It has also been suggested that service quality has a direct effect on organizations' profits, since it is positively associated with customer retention and customer loyalty (Baker & Crompton, 2000;Zeithaml & Bitner, 2000).
Studies have shown that it costs six times more to attract new customers than to retain the existing ones (Rosenberg & Czepiel, 1983).Reports have also shown that the net increase of the present value of profits that results from 5 percent increase in customer retention varies between 25 percent and 95 percent over different industries (Oliver, 1999), Ndubisi (2003) and Zeithaml et al., (1996).
Ndubisi suggested that customers perceive their relationship with the firm in three different lights (i.e.mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism) depending on whether (in the customer's eyes) value was created and delivered or not, and these perceptions will predict the kind of response (either support or resistance) customers give to services providers each having different implications on the firm's profits and/or market share.Zeithaml et al. used SERVQUAL (Service Quality) model and proposed that perceived service quality was related with positive behavioral intentions, which could be viewed as signals of retention or defection.According to the latter model, behavioral intentions are a multi-dimensional concept, consisting of word-of-mouth (WOM), purchase intentions, price sensitivity, and complaining behavior.Fishbein and Ajzen (1975) suggested that behavioral intentions when properly measured could to a large degree predict actual behavior.Since then, number of research has used intention to predict behavior (e.g.Davis 1989;Davis et al., 1989;Mathieson 1991;Taylor & Todd 1995;Venkatesh (2000), while others have seriously questioned intention as a predictor of actual behaviour (Straub etal. 1995;Bentler & Speckart 1979;Songer-Nocks 1976).Nonetheless, Baker and Crompton (2000); Bloemer et al., (1999) applied Zeithaml et al.'s (1996) model and found evidence for its usefulness in predicting elements of customer loyalty.All three studies indicated a need for further research on the relationship between service quality and Customer behavioral intentions in a variety of service sectors.
In view of the practical value of research on customer retention, combined with the limited published research on Indian banking services, the current work aims to evaluate the degree to which service quality dimensions can predict the multi-dimensional model of behavioral intentions, as suggested by Zeithaml et al. (1996) among public banking customers in India.

Research Objective
To understand the Socio-demographic and Rational profile of public retail banking consumers.
Aims to evaluate the degree to which service quality dimensions can predict the multi-dimensional model of behavioral intentions as suggested by Parasuraman et al. (1996) among public banking customers in India.
To identify the important underlying perception of service quality dimensions among public retail banking consumers.

Review of Literature
Service quality: Perceived service quality has been defined as a global judgment or attitude relating to the superiority of a service (Zeithaml and Bitner, 2000).The majority of research on service quality has been built around the SERVQUAL (Parasuraman et al., 1988) methodology.The SERVQUAL model suggests that service quality can be measured by identifying the gaps between customers' expectation and perceptions of the performance of the service.Parasuraman et al. (1988) also suggested that service quality was a many-sided concept consisting of five dimensions: reliability, assurance, tangible, empathy, and responsiveness.Reliability refers to the ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately; assurance refers to the knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey trust and confidence; tangible refers to the appearance of the physical facilities, equipment, personnel and communication materials; empathy refers to the provision of caring, individualized attention to customers; and responsiveness refers to the willingness to help customers and to provide prompt services.The SERVQUAL instrument has been widely used in the marketing literature in a variety of sectors, including leisure related organizations, such as hotels (Ingram and Daskalakis, 1999;Oh, 1999), travel agencies (Luk, 1997), parks andrecreation (McKay andCrompton 1990), tourism attractions / resorts (Bigne et al. 2001), and leisure/sport centers (Howatet al., 1999;Lentell, 2000).The value of the SERVQUAL instrument as an assessment and management tool has been well documented.However, the model has also been criticized on a theoretical and operational level (Buttle, 1995).On the theoretical level it has been criticized as being based on the disconfirmation paradigm, which has been widely adopted in the satisfaction literature (Oliver, 1996) rather than on the attitudinal one.Furthermore, researchers (e.g.Cronin and Taylor, 1992;Teas, 1993) have questioned the validity and reliability of the gap model, suggesting that measuring perceptions alone might provide a better indication of service quality than measuring the difference between expectations and perceptions.Finally, some researchers have suggested that the service quality dimensions are contextual and not universally applicable (Ekinci and Riley, 1999;Williams, 1998).The operational criticism has focused on the difficulties in conceptualizing expectations, the limited number of items within each dimension, the problems related to the double administration of the instrument (customer confusion and boredom), and the limited proportion of variance extracted by the five factors (Buttle, 1995).The issue of service quality dimensions being contextual is an important impetus for adapting and replicating the instrument across several services and offers some future research directions such as testing the model in different environment, services sector, and scenario.
2.1 Behavioral Intentions: According to Zeithaml et al.'s (1996) model, the behavioral consequences of service quality mediate between service quality and the financial gains or losses from the retention or defection.When customers' perceptions of service quality are high, the behavioral intentions are favorable, which strengthens their relationship with the organization.In the other hand, when service quality assessments are low, customers' behavioral intentions are unfavorable and the corresponding relationship with the company deteriorates.Zeithaml et al. (1996) also suggested that behavioral intentions were indicators, which showed whether customers had remained with or had defected from the organization.The conceptualization of behavioral intention is an important part of the model.Zeithaml et al. (1996) suggested that favorable behavioral intentions included elements such as saying positive things and recommending the services to others, paying the price premium to the company and expressing cognitive Loyalty to the organization.Cognitive loyalty has been operationalized as the service that first comes to one's mind when making a purchase decision and the service, which was a customers' first choice among alternatives (Bloemer et al., 1999;Pritchard et al., 1992).
The relationship between service quality dimensions and the multi-dimensional model of behavioral intention has not been adequately investigated in the service quality literature (Baker and Crompton, 2000;Bloemer et al., 1999).Boulding et al. (1993) reported that the overall service quality perception were positively related with willingness to recommend and negatively related with switching and complaining behavior (Kelley et al., 1993).Contradictory results were reported in terms of the relationship between the overall service quality and behavioral intention.Cronin and Taylor (1992) reported non-significant relationship, while Boulding et al. (1993) reported significant and positive ones.Finally, Zeithaml etal. (1996) reported positive relationship between overall service quality and price sensitivity.Research on the relationship between service quality dimension and the multi-dimension model of behavioral intentions as proposed by Zeithaml et al. (1996) is still limited.In a recent study, Bloemer et al. (1999) applied the model and provided evidence that the patterns of relationships were not universal but they were industry-based.For example, in the entertainment industry, WOM was positively affected by responsiveness and tangibles, while in the food service industry it was positively affected by assurance and empathy.Furthermore, behavioral intentions were determined by reliability in the entertainment industry and by assurance and empathy in the food industry.The study by Baker and Crompton (2000) also supported the model.The authors investigated customers' perception in the tourism industry (tourist events).They expanded the model by including the concept of customer satisfaction into the framework.Using structural modeling design, they provided evidence that service quality dimensions (adjusted to the context of tourism events) were directly and positively related with purchase intentions, customer loyalty and willingness to pay more money.

Components of Behavioral-Intentions Battery
On the basis of analysis across four contrasting industries, computer manufacturer, retail chain, automobile insurer and life insurance, Zeithaml, Berry and Parasuraman (1996) proposed a comprehensive, multi-dimensional framework of customer behavioral intentions for use within a service industry.The framework incorporates 13-items across five-dimensions: loyalty to company (loyalty) propensity to switch (switch), willingness to pay more (pay more), external responses to a problem (external responses) and internal responses to a problem (internal responses).
Bloemer, de Ruyter and Wetzels (1999) raised a number of conceptual and empirical criticisms of the Behavioral-Intentions Battery.Their conceptual criticism focused on inter-dimensional overlap (e.g., various expressions of customer complaining behavior or response to a dissatisfactory service encounter are distributed over two factors, "external response to a problem" and "internal response to a problem"; pricing-related loyalty intentions are placed under two factors, "propensity to switch" and "willingness to pay more).Empirically, they claimed that the use of a single-item measure, "internal response to a problem", should be avoided.Furthermore, they argued that the five-factor solution did not appear to provide an unambiguous and consistent factor pattern and that this impacts the reliability of the measure.On the basis of analysis across four service industries: entertainment, fast food, supermarkets and health care, they concluded that service loyalty is a multi-dimensional construct consisting of the following four dimensions: Word-of-mouth, Purchase intentions, Price sensitivity, and Complaining behavior.As suggested by Bloemer, de Ruyter and Wetzels (1999), in order to achieve better reliability measure, the original five dimensions battery of 13 items construct got modified into four dimensions by adding the last 13 th single item from the fifth dimension along with the fourth dimension items of Parasuramans' Multidimensional behavioral intention Model.Hence, the research Model for this study is as depicted in the Figure 1.

Methodology
The study empirically investigates the relationship between service quality dimensions and behavioral intentions from the viewpoint of consumers of banking services in Tiruchirappalli City of Tamilnadu India.Zeithaml et al.'s (1996) theoretical framework of behavioral intentions was used in the measurement of Behavioral intentions and the five dimensions of SERVQUAL (Parasuraman et al., 1988) were used in the measurement of perception of service quality.
A total of 102 usable responses were collected from customers of two public banks located in Tiruchirappalli (bank A-with the widest customer base and largest number of branches, and bank B-with the narrowest customer base and least number of branches) and analysis was done.Customers were approached to complete the questionnaire were Purposive sampling of Non-Probability sampling were used for the study.Although the sample size is relatively small for a consumer research, nonetheless the objective of the current study is to test the 22 items of SERVQUAL construct and its relationship with Zeithaml et al.'s (1996) Multidimensional model of behavioral intentions (13 items battery) was achieved.Customer perceptions of service quality were measured using 22 items taken from SERVQUAL (Parasuraman et al., 1988).They include the following dimensions: (1) Tangibles ( 2) Reliability (3) Responsiveness (4) Assurance and (5) Empathy.A Five point Likert-type scale, ranking from (1) strongly disagree to (5) strongly agree was used for both the behavioral intentions and the service quality scales.

Insert Table 2 Here
The alpha values were calculated to assess the internal consistency reliabilities of the SERVQUAL scales.For SERVQUAL scales, the value of .843indicated adequate reliability (Nunnally, 1978).

Insert Table 3 Here
The alpha values were calculated to assess the internal consistency reliabilities of the BI scales.For behavioral intentions scales, the value of .706indicated adequate reliability (Nunnally, 1978).

Regression Analysis:
The service quality variables are regressed with the different dimensions of Behavioral Intention Battery to analyze their contribution using Stepwise Method in Multiple regression analysis, which are as follows

Insert Table 4 Here
The above equation shows the impact of the variables of service quality aspects such as convenient operating hours-empathy ,modern looking equipments-Tangibility, delivering error free records-Reliability, providing prompt service -Responsiveness, Visually appealing materials-Tangibility ,Employees giving personal attention to customers-Empathy, Performing service right at the first time-Reliability, employees knowledge -Assurance ,bank telling customers when exactly service will be performed -Responsiveness on the Attitudinal Loyalty of retail public banks.On an average if the convenient operating hour service change by 1 unit, there will be 0.359 units increase in the Attitudinal Loyalty when other variables are kept constant.Moreover the result of the t-test confirms that the calculated partial regression coefficient such as (0.359), (.324), (-.206), (.205) and (.251) are highly significant at 1 percent level and 5 percent level.Similarly the multiple R of 0.687 shows there exist a relationship of 68.7 percent between variables of service quality aspects and attitudinal loyalty.The R Square value of 0.472 describe that the variables of service quality explained a variation of 47.2 percent in the attitudinal loyalty.Finally, the result of F-test signifies that the explained variation by the above said variables in the SERVQUAL was highly significant at one percent level.
From the above analysis it is concluded that the variables of service quality namely convenient operating hours of bank, modern looking equipments, delivering error free records and employees giving personal attention were the dominant variables that increase the attitudinal loyalty among customers of public retail banks.

Insert Table 5 Here
The above equation shows the impact of the variables of service quality aspects such as bank provides the service at the time it promise to do so-Reliability and bank physical facilities visually appealing with modern looking building and amenities on the switching propensity of retail public banks.On an average if the bank provides the service at the time it promise to do so change by 1 unit, there will be 0.313 units increase in the switching propensity when other variables are kept constant.Moreover the result of the t-test confirms that the calculated partial regression coefficient such as (0.313) and (.309) are highly significant at 1 percent level and 5 percent level.Similarly the multiple R of 0.386 shows there exist a relationship of 38.6 percent between variables of service quality aspects and switching propensity.The R Square value of 0.149, exhibits that the variables of service quality explained a variation of 14.9 percent in switching propensity.Finally, the result of F-test signifies that the explained variation by the above said variables in the SERVQUAL was highly significant at one percent level.
From the above analysis it is concluded that the variables of service quality namely bank provides the service at the time it promise to do so and bank's physical facilities are visually appealing with modern looking building and amenities were the dominant variables that increase the switching propensity among customers of public retail banks.

Insert Table 6 Here
The above equation shows the impact of the variables of service quality aspects such as bank's physical facilities are visually appealing with modern looking building and amenities -Tangibility ,convenient operating hours-empathy , employees telling customers when exactly service will be performed -Responsiveness and employees knowledge -Assurance on the Pay more sum intention of retail public banks.On an average if the modern looking buildings and amenities change by 1 unit, there will be 0.443 units increase in the pay more sum intention when other variables are kept constant.Moreover the result of the t-test confirms that the calculated partial regression coefficient such as (0.443), (.362), (-.338) and (.313) are highly significant at 1 percent level and 5 percent level.Similarly the multiple R of 0.593 shows there exist a relationship of 59.3 percent between variables of service quality aspects and pay more sum intention.The R Square value of 0.351, exhibits that the variables of service quality explained a variation of 35.1 percent in attitudinal loyalty.Finally, the result of F-test signifies that the explained variation by the above said variables in the SERVQUAL was highly significant at one percent level.
From the above analysis it is concluded that the variables of service quality namely bank's physical facilities are visually appealing with modern looking building /amenities and Employees tell customers exactly when the service will be performed were the dominant variables that increase the Pay more sum intention among customers of public retail banks.

Insert Table 7 Here
The above equation shows the impact of the variables of service quality aspects such as modern looking equipments, employees understand the specific needs of the customers -Empathy, promises to do something -Reliability, employees give personal attention to customers -empathy, employees behavior insist confidence to customersassurance , Frontline employees are neatly appearing -Tangibility on the switching propensity of retail public banks.On an average if the modern looking equipments change by 1 unit, there will be 1.512 units increase in the External and internal response when other variables are kept constant.Moreover the result of the t-test confirms that the calculated partial regression coefficient such as (1.512), (1.008), (.764), (-.784), ( 508) and (.442) are highly significant at 1 percent level and 5 percent level.Similarly the multiple R of 0.609 shows there exist a relationship of 60.9 percent between variables of service quality aspects and External and Internal response.The R Square value of 0.371, exhibits that the variables of service quality explained a variation of 37.1 percent in external and internal response.Finally, the result of F-test signifies that the explained variation by the above said variables in the SERVQUAL was highly significant at one percent level.
From the above analysis it is concluded that the variables of service quality namely Modern looking equipments and employees understands customers specific needs were the dominant variables that increase the external and internal response intention among customers of public retail banks.

Insert Table 8 Here
The above equation shows the impact of the variables of service quality aspects such as convenient operating hours, Modern looking equipments, bank understand the specific needs of customer, banks frontline employees are neat appearing.On an average if the modern looking buildings and amenities change by 1 unit, there will be 0.135 units increase in the overall behavioral intention when other variables are kept constant.Moreover the result of the t-test confirms that the calculated partial regression coefficient such as (0.135), (.288), (.170), (.147) and (.100) are highly significant at 1 percent level and 5 percent level.Similarly the multiple R of 0.665 shows there exist a relationship of 66.5 percent between variables of service quality aspects and overall behavioral Intention.The R Square value of 0.443, exhibits that the variables of service quality explained a variation of 44.3 percent in overall behavioral intention.Finally, the result of F-test signifies that the explained variation by the above said variables in the SERVQUAL was highly significant at one percent level.
From the above analysis it is concluded that the variables of service quality namely Modern looking equipments and employees understands customers specific needs were the dominant variables that increase the overall behavior intention among customers of public retail banks.

Conclusion
It is evaluated that there is a degree of prediction of service quality on the multidimensional model of behavioral intentions developed by Parasuraman, etal, 1996 .Through multiple regression analysis; the impact of service quality variables on each dimension of behavioral intentions is analyzed.Attitudinal loyalty is well predicted by service quality variables like convenient operating hours of bank, modern looking equipments, delivering error free records and employees giving personal attention were the dominant variables that increase the attitudinal loyalty among customers of public retail banks.In Switching propensity dimension ,bank provides the service at the time it promise to do so and bank's physical facilities are visually appealing with modern looking building & amenities were the dominant variables of service quality that increase the switching propensity among customers of public retail banks.In Pay More Sum dimension, service quality variables such as bank's physical facilities are visually appealing with modern looking building /amenities and Employees tell customers exactly when the service will be performed were the dominant variables that increase the Pay more sum intention among customers of public retail banks .In External and Internal response dimension, the variables of service quality namely Modern looking equipments and employees understands customers specific needs were the dominant variables that increase the external and internal response intentions among customers of public retail banks.To highlight the conclusion in a nutshell, the service quality variables of tangibility, responsiveness and empathy dimensions play important role in predicting Customer behavioral intention .Hence, these issues should be a central concern for public retail bank managers as well as service management academics and practitioners.Bank managers are suggested to focus on these specific dominant SERVQUAL variables on customers' behavioral intentions to measure, control and improve customer perception of service quality among Indian public retail banking customers.Additionally, the results of factor analysis showed evidence that the proposed model of SERVQUAL construct (Parasuraman, etal, 1988) does not factor loaded as proposed originally by them as per this study and analysis, since the Indian retail banking customers' cultural setup, demographic setup as observed in the study and their respective service quality preference varies.To gain and sustain competitive advantages in the fast changing banking industry in India, it is crucial for banks to understand in-depth, what customers perceive to be the key dimensions of service quality.
Since the results of this study are based on consumers' perceptions only, future research should investigate the congruence between consumers' and service providers' perceptions.This will help the banking industry to better understand whether both consumers and banks have the same perceptions regarding issues relevant to retention.While this study found that service quality construct proposed by Parasuraman (1988) alone is not effective in predicting behavior intention, future research may attempt to explore the "unexplored" constructs that consumers would value most.For example, are consumers more concerned about the convenience issue such as location of branches, or the use of technology?Or are consumers more focused on how bank staff delivers services?Given the importance of employee competence, future research should also examine the impact of employees' behavior that could affect customer retention.

Table 1 .
Demographic and Rational Profile.

Table 3 .
Reliability Statistics of Behavioral Intentions' construct.

Table 4 .
Contribution of best set of service quality variables towards customers' attitudinal loyalty of public retail banks.

Table 5 .
Contribution of best set of service quality variables towards the customers' switching propensity of public retail banks Dependent Variable: Switching Propensity

Table 6 .
Contribution of best set of service quality variables towards customers' Pay More Sum intention of public retail banks Where, Ŷ is the estimated Pay More Sum.

Table 8 .
Contribution of best set of service quality variables towards customers' Overall Behavior Intention