SATISFACTION OF CUSTOMERS IN USING CUSTOMER SERVICES PROVIDED BY PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTOR BANKS IN THANJAVUR DISTRICT – A COMPARATIVE STUDY

Abstract

The primary objective of this study is to assess customers' satisfaction in using customer services provided by public and private sector banks in Thanjavur district. The explorative research method was used. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected and used to assess customer satisfaction. Related information was collected and tested to test the hypothesis. The multi-stage sampling technique was used to select the sample public and private sector banks and sample customers. There are 8 public sector banks with 161 branches and 7 private sector banks with 83 branches functioning in rural and urban areas of Thanjavur district. From this, only 30 branches i.e., every two branches from sample public and private sector banks (one from rural and another from urban), were determined as sample branches. The simple random sampling technique was used to select the branches of banks. Bank officials did not provide a list of customers due to the banks' policy. 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, 160 customers from sample public sector banks and 140 customers from sample private sector banks were used as sample customers. The analysis result reveals that irrespective of the banks' the majority of the sample customers have a moderate and low level of satisfaction with the various customer services provided by public and private sector banks. However, most of the public sector banks' sample customers are highly satisfied with the service cost charged by banks. At the same time, most of the private sector banks' sample customers are dissatisfied with the service cost charged by banks. Further, the result reveals that the customers' satisfaction level is based on bank officials' approaches and service costs charged by banks.

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction, Public Sector Banks, Private Sector Banks, Thanjavur District.