Customers' perception of banking services' quality: an empirical evidence

The level of service and competence are the key criteria of the banking offer where the longterm content of customer relationship is a critical factor of every bank’s success. Due to the financial crisis, customers have shown increasing disaffection regarding the quality of banking services. This element constitutes a fundamental aspect since the competition between banks will turn from the activities to the defence of the customer base. In this context, the paper investigates two different clusters of Italian banks in order to verify if and to what extent they promote or guarantee a strong relationship with customers. Drawing on available literature, the paper aims to verify customers’ perceptions and experiences relating to banks that have merged into another (larger) bank or still operate on a stand-alone basis. In this sense, the research project tries to investigate which of the bank clusters is considered more as “my bank” by customers and why. The data were collected through different focus groups and during one-to-one interviews. The results highlight important differences in the two clusters of customers. Results are discussed and managerial implications are drawn.