THE QUALITY OF BANKING SERVICES - A BASIC PREMISE OF A BANK SUSTAINABILITY

In recent years, organizations are obliged to render more services in addition to their offers. The quality of service has become an aspect of customer satisfaction. It has been proven by some researchers that service quality is related to customer satisfaction. Others used service quality dimensions to evaluate service quality. The main purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between customer satisfaction and service quality in service sectors with respect to the service quality dimensions. Customer satisfaction has been a subject of great interest to organizations and researchers alike. The principal objective of organizations is to maximise profits and to minimise cost. Profit maximisation can be achieved through increase in sales with lesser costs. One of the factors that can help to increase sales is customer satisfaction, because satisfaction leads to customer loyalty (Wilson et al., 2008), recommendation and repeat purchase. Romanian banking system can be characterized as a dynamic business environment in which banks encounter considerable difficulties to increase or at least to maintain market share. Increasing the number of banks led, on the one hand to increased competition, and on the other hand has increased standards that banks must meet to gain a net advantage in this area. Competition between banks is a factor that generates increasing demands from customers, putting pressure on management. People everywhere are now more and more access to information, both quantitatively in terms of sources and in terms of quality, so it is expected that banks working together to meet the needs where when and how they want. Otherwise, customers are willing to make changes, and the bank risks losing its market share for competitors. Considering all of this, the main concern of credit institutions in Romania should be to maintain a portfolio of clients. Long-term cooperation relations between a bank and its customers is the proof of that bank\'s efforts in providing quality services that meet consumer demands.