Service quality perspectives and satisfaction in
private banking
Walfried M. Lassar
Associate Professor of Marketing, Department of Marketing and Environment,
College of Business Administration, Florida International University, Miami,
Florida, USA
Chris Manolis
Associate Professor, Department of Marketing and International Business,
School of Business, Quinnipiac College, Hamden, Connecticut, USA
Robert D. Winsor
Associate Professor, Department of Marketing and Business Law, College of
Business Administration, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles,
California, USA
Introduction
As a critical measure of organizational
performance, service quality remains at the
forefront of both the marketing literature
generally, and the services marketing
literature specifically (Jensen and Markland,
1996). Practitioners and academics alike are
keen on accurately measuring service
quality in order to better understand its
essential antecedents and consequences, and,
ultimately, establish methods for improving
quality to achieve competitive advantage and
build customer loyalty (Palmer and Cole,
1995; Zahorik and Rust, 1992). Service quality
is commonly noted as a critical prerequisite
for establishing and sustaining satisfying
relationships with valued customers. In this
way, the association between service quality
and customer satisfaction has emerged as a
topic of significant and strategic concern (e.g.
Bolton and Drew, 1991; Cronin and Taylor,
1992; Taylor and Baker, 1994). In general,
research in this area suggests that service
quality is an important indicator of customer
satisfaction (Spreng and Mackoy, 1996).
Two of the most prevalent and widely
accepted perspectives on service quality
include the SERVQUAL model (Parasuraman
et al., 1988)and the Technical/Functional
Quality framework (GroÈnroos, 1983, 1990).
Individually, each of these perspectives posit
various components or antecedents of service
quality, and represent a substantial
accumulation of marketing research.
Although these two perspectives have been
repeatedly applied and tested individually,
they have not ± to the best of our knowledge ±
been compared or contrasted empirically as
to their ability to predict customer
satisfaction. Accordingly, the primary
purpose of this research is to compare and
contrast the SERVQUAL- and Technical/
Functional Quality-based approaches in a
single, empirical study utilizing customers of
a single service firm in a single service
industry. The goal is to assess the relative
strengths and weaknesses of each model with
regard to their ability to predict customer
satisfaction in the same setting. By
comparing and contrasting these models to
one another, researchers and practitioners
alike will be provided a more comprehensive
understanding of the relative strengths and
weaknesses of each approach. If, for example,
the approaches are found to perform
differently in the same service industry, it
would be beneficial for service managers to
investigate the circumstances as to when and
why the measures differ. Also, managers may
find it necessary to combine the two service
quality approaches and/or devise new and
improved measures of service quality for use
in particular conditions, environments, or
industries.
Research in the area of services marketing
has recently begun to address whether or not
service quality differentially affects
satisfaction depending on particular service
settings or situations (Mittal and Lassar,
1998). Although the idea that different
quality/satisfaction processes operate under
different conditions is fairly well accepted for
tangible goods (e.g. Churchill and
Surprenant, 1982; Patterson, 1993; Tse and
Wilton, 1988), this notion remains largely
untested for services. Accordingly, a further
goal of the current study is to test potential
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[ 181 ]
International Journal of Bank
Marketing
18/4 [
2000
] 181±199
# MCB University Press
[
ISSN 0265-2323
]
Keywords
Service quality,
Customer satisfaction, Banking
Abstract
Examines the effects of service
quality on customer satisfaction
from two distinct methodological
perspectives. Specifically, a study
utilizing a sample of international
private banking customers is
conducted wherein service quality
is operationalized via two distinct
and well-known measures ±
SERVQUAL and Technical/
Functional Quality. These two
service quality measures are
subsequently compared and
contrasted as to their ability to
predict customer satisfaction. To
further assess the validity of these
findings, two moderators of the
service-quality/customer-
satisfaction relationship are
introduced and evaluated. Finally,
this research examines the
potential utility of employing
separate measures for customer
satisfaction from the perspectives
of bothtechnical and functional
aspects of the service delivery
process. Overall, our findings are
of importance to service managers
as they strive to identify efficient
and effective approaches for
improving quality. The paper
explores the theoretical and
practical insights of the findings,
including potential strengths and
limitations of current service
quality models withregard to their
ability to define and explain the
quality/satisfaction relationship.
This article was first
published in
Journal of
Services Marketing
, Vol. 14
No. 3 2000, pp. 244-271.