Revisiting Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty as a Sustainable Approach for Indian Consumer Banking

Abstract

One of the greatest problems faced by the marketers is the erosion of customer base. This is the result of not only the dissatisfaction inflicted by the marketers which prompts the customers to shift their patronage, but also the new competitive environment that makes customer flight much easier since the options are wide open. So the challenge is not to produce satisfied customers, but it lies in producing loyal customers. Thus, customization of services is rapidly becoming a norm than a competitive advantage for complete satisfaction and a loyal customer base. Researches indicate the necessity of elaborations about the relationship between customer satisfaction and loyalty. Hence the paper examines the relationship between satisfaction and loyalty. The empirical study reveals that ICICI and HDFC among private while PNB and SBI among public sector are the major banks emerging from the study. The level of satisfaction among ICICI consumers is highest followed by SBI. In addition to this, the theory empirically validated here, indicates a strong and positive association exists between satisfaction and loyalty, thereby implying that satisfaction is also an antecedent of loyalty in case of banking sector, where frequency and intensity of banker-customer interactions is high as compared to any other service.

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction, Customer Loyalty, Customer Centric, Customerisation

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