ASSESSMENT OF SERVICE QUALITY AND CUSTOMER SATISFACTION: THE CASE OF OROMIA INTERNATIONAL BANK S.C

Abstract

This research aims to measure service quality and customer satisfaction at Oromia International Bank S.C. Service quality is considered very important because it leads to higher customer satisfaction, profitability, reduced cost, customer loyalty and retention. To this end the study aimed to assess the service quality and customer satisfaction of Oromia International Bank (OIB). In addition to the open ended questions, a self-administered questionnaire was developed based on a SERVQUAL model that identified the influence of five dimensions (i.e. tangibility, responsibility, reliability, assurance and empathy). Since the objective of the study is to assess the quality service and customer satisfaction of Oromia International Bank (OIB) SC, to conduct the study the researcher used a descriptive type of research design which helps to describe the characteristics service quality dimensions and samples of 144 customers are selected from twelve branches of the bank that are found in Addis Ababa by using simple random sampling. For the purpose of analyzing the data SPSS version 20 is used. And the results revealed that the overall service quality perceived by customers was not satisfactory; except Empathy Dimension meaning expectations exceeded perceptions and except Empathy Dimension, all the dimensions showed higher expectations than perceptions of services. The study also finds that reliability dimension is a very important dimension to the customer of the bank thus the bank need to focus on it. This study suggests that SERVQUAL is a most widely used instrument for measuring service quality; hence the management of Oromia International S.C should consider this instrument as a tool to assess and help improve their service quality and customer satisfaction.