Customers' perception of service quality, satisfaction and behavioral intention in the commercial banks of Bahrain

الملخص EN

This research aims: to apply the SERVQUAL instrument to evaluate the service quality of commercial banks of Bahrain; the relationship between service quality dimensions and the overall customers' satisfaction and, also, to investigate their behavioral intention.

Design - methodology/approach – The study was based on a questionnaire survey of 195 customers.

After conducting descriptive and factor analysis, regression and correlation were employed to investigate the relationship between (SQ) dimensions, (SAT) and (BI).

Findings – The results indicate that the SERVPERF scale captures more of the variance in service quality than the SERVQUAL scale.

Three – Factor solution was provided by the SERVPERF scale, where reliability, responsiveness and assurance dimensions were highly correlated and thus they were loaded on the first factor.

These three dimensions had the largest influence on the overall service quality.

Positive and significant relationships were found between overall service quality (OSQ) and customers' satisfaction (SAT), and ,also, their behavior intention (BI).

Research limitation/ implication – Only customers of Bahraini commercial banks were questioned, while customers of Islamic banks and other financial institutions were not included.

The SERVQUAL/ SERVPERF models were applied to measure the service quality the banking sector, while other service sectors were not covered.

Practical implication –Based on the study findings, managers can realize customers' perceptions of a bank service quality and the level of their satisfaction.

Consequently, managers design the marketing strategy that concentrates on the preferable dimensions of service quality for enhancing customers' satisfaction, and in turn improve their willingness to recommend the bank's services to others.

Originality/ value – This study investigates the service quality in a small developing country.

SERVPREF is more accurate than SERVQUAL for measuring service quality.

It also provides three – factor solution for dimensionality of service quality.