Chapter one Introduction

1.1 Introduction:
Service quality is an approach to manage business processes in order to ensure full satisfaction of the customers which will help to increase competitiveness and effectiveness of the industry. Service firms in the developing country like other organizations now realizing the significance of customer oriented philosophies and turning to quality management approaches to facilitate managing their businesses. SERVQUAL as an effective approach to measure the quality of provided services and also analysis the gaps between customer expectations and perceptions of the service organization. This paper has been highlighted important service quality gaps associated with external customer services in the baking services of the Bangladesh especially in PCBs. Another aim of this paper is to point out how management of service improvement can become more logical and integrated with respect to the prioritized service quality dimensions and their affections on increasing or decreasing service quality gaps.

1.2 Background of the study:

Service is an important characteristic in the satisfaction of a client across just about every field, including information systems (De Lone and McLean, 2003; Hoffman and Bateson, 2005). Services are distinguished from products, such as software, in that they relate to performance and process rather than more concrete traits that can be tested, counted, and measured. Consumption and creation of services are inseparable, making the client an active participant in delivery and quality control difficult. Service can vary even under constant product conditions, as service personnel and perspectives change. The volatility and less tangible features of service make it difficult to establish ways to measure quality levels, especially given that quality of service is based on the expectations and perceptions of the service consumer.

1.3 Origin of the Report:

The report is also the analysis of the effective media of communication with customers; the report includes small scale of information available in the organization because of information availability, confidentiality, and not for public dissemination. The SERVQUAL model is used as main concept to assess service quality and customer satisfaction. This means that customer satisfaction could be measured using the various

service quality dimensions. This is because it is important to be aware of how customers perceive service quality in grocery stores and the factors that affect these perceptions.

1.4 Rationale of the study:

As Organization is the service-oriented institution, it has to take a consideration about the attributes of the services rendered by it. Otherwise, in the competitive market it cannot retain its position. Service provided organizations success is recognized as the dominant factor of the loyalty of the customer/client towards the brand or organization. It has commonly known that customer satisfaction has related to customer loyalty, which in turn related to profitability. Therefore, the first thing the service institutions have to do is to keep knowledge about the satisfaction level of the customers on the products and services. Naturally, the customer satisfactions of banks are measured through the provided products or services, effectiveness of management, interest rate in different divisions etc. But there are very few study prepared in Different Private sectors, considering this sector as a service provided sector. This study reveals the satisfaction level of the customers perceived from the services furnished by the banks. By this study, the banks can get the idea about the features to be added to the present service or to be discarded from it. Secondly, this study measuring the satisfaction level based on SERVQUAL model customers expectation as well as the gap between the expectation and perception also analyzed. Customer satisfaction is the only one capital of service organization like bank. Therefore, it is very rationale to study this report because Different Private Sector can use this to improve their customer satisfaction.

1.5 Objectives of the Study:

The objective of this study is to assess the influence of service quality on customer satisfaction. In accordance with this objective, the empirical survey encompasses the following objectives: Describe service quality dimensions in retailing business that perhaps influence customer satisfaction Assessing servqual dimensions that contribute to customer satisfaction. Assessing the dominant service quality dimensions that influence customer satisfaction in the retail sector. To know the Developing a marketing strategy

To know the Real-life marketing To know the customer perceptions of the bank regarding the service quality. To understand the gap between customer perceptions and expectations. To recommend actions necessary to improve in the customer services.

1.6 Scope of the Study:

SERVQUAL has two components to it: Customer Expectations Customer Perceptions Customer Expectations are those that the customer expects as should be and can be type of services. Service offered varies with providers and the amount of variation that customers can tolerate is known as Tolerance. The gap between what is thought to be adequate service and desired service is known as Zone of Tolerance. The more important the SERVQUAL dimension, the higher is the desired service level and narrower the zone of tolerance. For the less important SERVQUAL dimension, the desired level of service is much lower and the zone of tolerance is broader too. What the researcher presumes here is that retailers do study customer expectations and then design service offerings. Therefore, the first component customer expectations are not researched in this current study. The present study concentrates on Customer perceptions of the following SERVQUAL dimensions, price and product quality. Tangibles Reliability Responsiveness Assurance Empathy The study is also confined to three retailing formats. Format I: Department Stores with broad variety, deep assortments, high service, low to high prices, located as regional malls with an average of more than 30,000 SKUs. Format II: Specialty Stores with narrow variety, very deep assortment, high service, high prices, located as standalone malls with an average of 15000 SKUs.

Format III: This format is confined to the food products, pulses and other grocery items. It also has its offerings vegetables, fruits, and bakery items. The researcher selected a retailer operating successfully in all the three formats to assess the influence of SERVQUAL dimensions on Customer Satisfaction and Repurchase Intention. Also covered under this study was the assessment of the impact of Customer Satisfaction and Repurchase Intention on positive word of mouth communication. The organization selected was Pantaloons retail. Further, the researcher selected competitors to Pantaloons in each format to carry out a comparative study. Pantaloons and Competitor brands of retailers chosen under each format are Format I: Big Bazar, Vishal Mega Mart and Wah Magna Format II: Pantaloons, Brand Factory, Central, Shoppers Stop, Life Style Format III: Food Bazar, Spencers, Reliance Fresh, More, Magna (Retail outlets in italicized are Pantaloons outlets, and others are competitors) The researcher found that Pantaloons had its highest number of outlets in all the three formats operational in the South Indian city of Hyderabad. For carrying out a study of SERVQUAL in Retailing for Pantaloons , it is obvious that Hyderabad is the right choice to conduct the survey for determining the influences of SERVQUAL dimensions on Customer Satisfaction and Repurchase Intention, and the influence of Customer Satisfaction and Repurchase Intention on Positive word of mouth.

1.7 Methodology:
Methodology of the study is an essential part of the study. It is designed in a way so that it correspondent to achieve the objectives of the study. It includes designing samples, sources of data, collection procedure of data, analysis techniques data, etc. It was an exploratory study. So the methodology of this study the Dissertation has used was observation and sometimes discussion with the executives of the bank. Besides the Dissertation have talked with various clients of the Organization. For more clarification the Dissertation have discussed with top management of the Organization. Beside the Thesis Paper, Dissertation has taken help from various papers made by Different Organization in Bangladesh.

1.7.1 Data Collection Procedure:

The Dissertation gathered data from the customers and bankers. When customers came for service to this Bank, the Dissertation provided questionnaire to those customers who were interested in participating in the survey. As well as Dissertation asked questionnaire to the bankers, when customer were free.

1.7.2 Data Analysis Procedure:

After collecting the data, it was analyzed by Microsoft Word & Excel. Then the findings were made. Based on the findings, the present situation was explained and recommendation was made.

1.7.3 Data Collection:

This internee is prepared on the basis of mixed methodology. Both the primary and secondary data have been used in this internee. So the report was based on both the secondary and primary data.

1.8 Sources of Data:

Primary Sources A structured questionnaire was constructed taking into account SERVQUAL dimensions such as Tangibles, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance, Empathy, other dimensions like Price, Product Quality and Customers perceptions of outlets to assess Customer Satisfaction, Repurchase Intention and Positive word of Mouth. The method employed was personal interviews conducted for the respondents. The research instrument is attached in Annexure I for itemized statements and scales. Secondary Sources Information has been gathered from various journals like Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Retailing, Vikalpa, Management Review, and Journal of Marketing Research. Secondary information has also been gathered from Business magazines like 4Ps, The Retailer, Business India and Business Today. The researcher has also referred to various websites that have previous research studies and empirical investigations. Research

carried out by Ernst and Young, and by Morgan Stanley along with Pantaloons annual reports forms the basis of secondary data.

1.9 Limitations of the study:

Customer expectations and Customer Perceptions are subjective and are in a state of constant flux and change. The findings therefore can be generalized to a given period, a pre-defined market, and economic scenarios. A longitudinal study could probably overcome or alleviate this limitation. The study also is confined to the Indian scenario and with Hyderabad as the focal point. Geo-demographic could have a great deal of influence on the customer expectations and perceptions. It is also not amiss to mention here that the zone of tolerance could vary from one customer to another. This variation has not been assessed in the current study. The study also confines itself to three defined formats and does not cover various other formats that exist in the retail sector. There are many limitations; the Dissertation tries to mention some of them as below; Convenience sampling created sampling error. The sample size was small. The main constraint of the study was insufficiency of information, which is highly required for the study. It was unable to provide some formatted documents and data for the study. Since the bank personnel were very busy, they have no ability to give me enough time to complete the report. The clients were very busy. So, they were unable to give me much time for interview. Such a study was carried out by me for the second time. So, inexperience is one of the main factors that constituted the limitation of the study. The employees couldnt maintain their schedule / time due to their business, as well as busyness.