CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
The role of customers in services is
always emphasized in the marketing literature, especially in the recent
development of a new perspective, namely service-dominant logic. Service
convenience is acknowledged to be increasingly important to
customers:yet extant convenience literature offers little explicit
discussion of this topic. Consumer convenience in buying and using
services isnot well understood.
Convenience is the ability to reduce
consumers non-monetary costs (i.e. time, energy and effort)
whenpurchasing or using goods and services (Chang & Polonsky, 2012).
Colwell et al (2008) note that, in homogeneous markets, whereservice
offerings are similar and therefore not key competitive differentiators,
providing greater convenience June enable acompetitive advantage.
Previous researchers have proposed certain important relationships
linked to service convenience: forexample, service convenience can
directly affect customer satisfaction and lead to customer loyalty. The
goal of improving serviceencounters is to increase positive consumer
outcomes, where satisfaction is one such outcome. Chang and Polonsky
(2012) in theirresearch of service convenience have found that only
benefit and post-benefit convenience are associated with improved
behavioralintentions and that satisfaction partially mediates the
relationship for those two types of convenience.
Chen et al (2011) have found that
customers perception of home delivery service elements are classified
into one-dimensionaland must-be attributes by Kano model, while this
study contributes to the creation of attractive elements that
significantly affect thecustomer satisfaction and owing an enormous
potential to further differentiate competitors. Customer satisfaction is
positivelycorrelated with different types of service convenience.
Service quality has been found to directly affect behavioral intentions
(Croninet al., 2000; Gremler & Brown, 1996) and has also been shown
to indirectly influence behavioral intentions through value
andsatisfaction. Several authors have found that consumer satisfaction
mediates the relationship between service quality and
behavioralintentions (i.e. Anderson and Sullivan, 1993; Athanassopoulos,
2000; Cronin et al., 2000). Therefore, understanding therelationships
between service convenience that affect customer satisfaction and
behavioral responses (intention to switch and wordof mouth) is the main
concern of this study.The goal of this research is to helpmanagers and
researchers understand behavioral responses to service convenience from
the customers’ perspective. Not only does this research effort differ
from prior research on the subject, but also it extends the relevant
literature in two important dimensions.
1.2 Statement of Problem
Although studies on the services
Convenience based on customer perceptions have been
extensivelyinvestigated, no recent researches have been performed to
investigate the impacts of the dimensions of services Convenience on
customer satisfaction in the integrated model (Kheng et al., 2010).
Furthermore, improving servicedelivery in the banking business is
expected to affect the quality of service and customer satisfaction. On
theother hand, the client will use a variety of dimensions / attributes
that are important to customers to identify thequality of service
through the customer satisfaction. These service dimensions/attributes
play a significant rolewithin service measurement, since they serve as
indicators of services Convenience and customer’s satisfaction (Craneand
Clark, 1988). As described before, services Convenience was found to
influence the customer satisfaction. This study attempts to investigate
the impact of service dimensions/attributes on perceive services
Convenience and customer satisfaction.
1.3 Purpose of the Study
The main purpose of this study was to
investigate the Influence of Service Convenience on Customer
Satisfaction on Banking Industry. The specific objectives are as the
follows:
- To examine the Decision Convenience and Customer Satisfaction on Banking Industry.
- To examine the Access Convenienceand Customer Satisfaction on Banking Industry.
- To examine the Transaction Convenienceand Customer Satisfaction on Banking Industry.
1.4 Research Questions
The following research questions have been formulated and will be answered at the completion of this work.
1. To what extent does Decision Convenience affect Customer Satisfaction on Banking Industry?
2. To what extent does Access Convenience affect Customer Satisfaction on Banking Industry?
3. To what extent does Transaction Convenience affect Customer Satisfaction on Banking Industry?
1.5 Research Hypotheses
An attempt to make our final answers not to look like mere assumption the hypotheses of this study will be stated as follows:
Ho1: There is no significant relationship between Decision convenience and WOM in Banking Industry.
Ho2: There is no significant relationship between Decision Convenience and Sales Growth in Banking Industry.
Ho3: There is no significant relationship between Access Convenience and WOM in Banking Industry.
Ho4: There is no significant relationship between Access Convenience and Sales Growth in Banking Industry.
Ho5: There is no significant relationship between Transaction Convenience and WOM in Banking Industry.
Ho6: There is no significant relationship between Transaction Convenience and Sales Growth in Banking Industry.
1.6 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORKS OF SERVICES CONVENIENCE ON CUSTOMER SATISFACTION ON BANKING INDUSTRY.
Source: Conceptualized from literature, 2016
1.7 Significance of the Study
This research identifies the important
quality dimensions to Nigerian Bank to enable the bank to develop
strategiesand improve the quality of service delivery. This will improve
the competitive position of the Bank in thebanking industry and ensure
the survival of the bank, especially in an era of intense competition.
Throughmeasuring the level of customer satisfaction; Nigerian Bank can
develop a customer-centric approach to deal withcustomer service, avoid
the tendency of existing customers, and switch to a competing bank.
Furthermore, theresearch will serve as a guide for Nigerian Bank to
develop policies that will improve overall service delivery,particularly
in areas where the gap between expectation and perception so wide to
improve customer satisfaction. Nigeria Bank would provide comparative
advantages to become the most preferred bank in the banking sector.
Inaccordance with good services, banks and companies alike can benchmark
Nigeria Bank policies and strategies forimproving the quality of their
programmer which leads to an overall increase in the banking sector and
Junetranslate to other sectors of the economy.
1.7 Scope of Study
The general scope of this study covers
Service Convenience and Customer Satisfaction. The geographical scope is
Rivers State of Nigeria. The study will be limited to selected banks
in Rivers State.
1.9 Definition of Terms
Customer Satisfaction: The degree of satisfaction provided by the goods or services of a company as measured by the number of repeat customers.
WOM: is defined as consumer to consumer communication about goods and services.
Sales growth: The increase in sales over a specific period of time, often but not necessarily annually.
Access Convenience: “consumers’ perceived time and effort expenditures to initiate service delivery.”
Transaction Convenience: “consumers’ perceived time and effort expenditures to effect atransaction.”