Customer satisfaction and universal banks: an empirical study

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to determine the factors that have an impact on customer satisfaction as regards the working of select Indian universal banks. Design/methodology/approach – The study was conducted using the survey method. Data were collected through a well‐structured questionnaire from a sample of 456 respondents. Findings – The major findings of the study show that customer satisfaction is influenced by seven factors: employee responsiveness, appearance of tangibles, social responsibility, services innovation, positive word‐of‐mouth, competence, and reliability. The results of multiple regression showed that three variables: social responsibility, positive word‐of‐mouth, and reliability, are statistically significant in the model at 5 percent significance level that have an impact on the overall satisfaction of the customer. Research limitations/implications – The study suffers from a regional bias since it covers only Punjab and Chandigarh. The results do not have general applications to different banks in the same sector and the same banks in different cities of India. Increased sample size and multi‐city sampling can be considered for future research for better generalization of the findings. Results would be more appropriate if the sample size could be large. These limitations offer an opportunity for further research. Originality/value – The study is quite useful for understanding and comprehending the changes in customer banking behaviour, so to enable the policy makers to develop appropriate and adaptive strategies. The paper provides determinants of customer satisfaction. With an effective customer satisfaction research program, banks will be able to encash business, i.e. gain opportunities by putting themselves at a competitive advantage.