Service Quality in Bank Sector

Service quality in the banking sector: the impact of technology on service delivery

Mathew Joseph Associate Professor of Marketing, School of Business, Georgia College & State University, Georgia, USA Cindy McClure Graduate in Marketing, School of Business, Swinburne University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Beatriz Joseph Lecturer in Marketing, School of Business, Georgia College & State University, Georgia, USA

Keywords

Banking, New technology, Service quality, Customer satisfaction, Australia

Introduction

Over the past 15 years technology has increasingly been employed in the delivery of services. The adoption of technology into service industries is becoming a strong trend as service providers are now being urged by industry bodies to invest in technology (Australian Coalition of Services Industries Annual Review, 1997a; 1997b) as a way of securing their future in the electronic age. The role of technology in service organisations as discussed by Kelley (1989) has been predominantly employed to reduce costs and eliminate uncertainties. In the service sector, technology has been used to standardise services by reducing the employee/customer interface (Quinn, 1996). The majority of consumers are now more than ever preferring to opt for a technology-based service delivery over that of the employee (Voice + The European Magazine for Applications of Computer Telephony, 1997). This emerging trend raises some important issues about the impact that technology will have on service quality and customer satisfaction levels. To what extent can the employee/customer interface be removed from the front line and still maintain or improve the levels of customer satisfaction? Dabholkar (1996) suggests that little is known about consumer preference for self-service options, particularly those that are technological based. Furthermore Cowels and Crosby (1990) have researched tolerance levels of consumers' preferences for using technology instead of the human touch. The...