CUSTOMERS’ AWARENESS OF THE CUSTOMER SERVICES PROVIDED BY PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTOR BANKS IN THANJAVUR DISTRICT - AN ANALYSIS

Abstract

The primary objective of this study is to assess customers' awareness of customer services provided by public and private sector banks in Thanjavur district. Descriptive and exploratory research methods were used to fulfil the research objective. Further, the multi-stage random sampling technique was used to identify the sample banks and sample respondents. In the study area, there are 8 public sector banks with 161 branches and 7 private sector banks with 83 branches in rural and urban areas. A total of 8 public and 7 private sector banks were treated as the population of the study. Further, due to time constraints, the researcher selected 30 branches for sample branches, i.e., each two branches from sample public and private sector banks (one from rural and another from urban). The simple random sampling technique was used to select the sample branches. The sample bank officials did not give the list of customers due to policy issues. Thus, the population of the study was considered unknown. Therefore, using simple random sampling techniques, every 10 customers from sample branches were determined as sample respondents. Hence, a total of 300 customers were used as sample customers. The result of the study reveals that irrespective of public and private sector banks, most of the sample customers have had accounts in the banks for 6 to 10 years, and they have accounts with banks for savings and loans. The sample customers' level of awareness of various customer services provided by public and private sector banks revealed that irrespective of the banks, the majority of the sample customers have a medium and low level of awareness. Further, the relationship between sample customer level of awareness about various customer services provided by banks shows that irrespective of banks, the customers' age, education, and occupation played a dominant role in their level of awareness. 

Keywords: Customer Services, Customer Awareness, Public and Private Sector Banks.