Service Quality for Retail Banking in the UK - Barclays, PLC Dissertation

Service Quality for Retail Banking in the UK - Barclays, PLC - Dissertation Example Responsiveness is a measure of the willingness to help customers and provide them with prompt service. Assurance measures the competence, courtesy, credibility and security of the service provided, while the empathy is about the caring and individualised service that the bank provides to its customers. This would help the bank in realising whether its customers are satisfied on all grounds and whether there are any gaps in their satisfaction level. We would follow the same standard set by the previously referred authors. A questionnaire survey method will be adopted to measure the service quality of the bank. The study is based on primary data from customers of Barclays and secondary data based on previous studies and shows the different dimensions of retail banking and issues related to service quality and customer satisfaction in case of UK banks. Although Barclays retail bank is considered as an example here, the thesis is to draw a general conclusion on retail banking and the service quality that would be appropriate for customer satisfaction. Several studies and published papers on banking and customer satisfaction and the associated service quality attributes are discussed here. Any research study should not only trace the existing parameters for the variables involved but also provide some future perspective of reference. Within this context, the levels of customer satisfaction could be found out from primary data in which customers are directly required to complete surveys and provide responses on what changes they expect in the future and what kind of services they have encountered in the banks. Their suggestions and recommendations from questionnaires form the basis for... This study is an assessment of how much this change has been implemented or is successful within the branches. The corporate strategy of Barclays has also been analyzed and showed how the bank strategy could or should change from an emphasis on sales to an emphasis on customer service. The attitudes and behaviors of customer service officials have also changed towards customers suggesting that changing of corporate strategy tend to have a direct impact on employee behavior and company functions and performance as well. In conclusion, there are several issues that have been highlighted through this study and shows that after an appraisal and interview and survey of customer attitudes and expectations. Some individuals, however, expressed their problems as seen in the qualitative dimension or analysis of the study and suggested that the bank should be more concerned with individualized attention and improve its services by being prompt and efficient. Improving certain online banking features and international banking features were also considered important for overall improvement of the bank’s functions. This study has shown that although Barclays has been largely known for poor customer services and focuses more on sales rather than customer services, it’s recent change of approach with greater emphasis on improving customer services than improving sales figures seem to have worked for positive results as customers seem to be more satisfied with the services offered by the banks.