The financial industry and more specifically Retail banking is a very competitive industry. The profit margins are shrinking with the entrance of newcompetitors into the market place. During the last two to three years various foreign banks have opened offices in South Africa, cherry picking the high net worth customers fromthe traditional high street banks. The product range between these banks is the same, maybe at times presented in a different wrapping. The one differential factor between the various banks is service and the quality thereof. The researcher, being a banker, decided to investigate how to improve the quality of service which is the main problemof this study. The secondary problems or subproblems are: * How to solve service breakdown? * How to retain customers after a service breakdown? The researcher first did a literature survey focusing on the key drives of this research namely: * Improving quality service. * Problem resolution. * Customer retention. An empirical investigation was also undertaken focusing on the personal market segment and the high net worth individuals. The demarcation of the survey was restricted to a specific area on the South Coast of KwaZulu Natal, and in particular the retail market and three specific branches on the South Coast, namely: * Scottburgh; * Margate, and * Port Shepstone. The main finding of the empirical survey indicates an average service rating of 8.38, which is in excess of the financial institution’s national service objective of 8.22 for 2001. This indicates that in most areas the service quality of this financial institution is good. The results fromthe literature survey as well as the empirical investigation indicated that service quality can only be achieved through a collective effort from all role players within the bank. The resolution of service breakdown needs to be controlled and managed to rectify breakdowns effectively within specific time limits that are acceptable to the individual customer. The barriers to retain customerswill become less effective should the financial institution not be able to restore or improve service quality for their customers.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nmmu/vital:10846 |
| Date | January 2001 |
| Creators | Meyer, I T |
| Publisher | Port Elizabeth Technikon, Faculty of Management, Business Administration |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Masters, MTech |
| Format | 96 leaves, pdf |
| Rights | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University |
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