Introduction

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION Page 1
DECLARATION
I declare that the project report submitted to my college Malwa

College, Bathinda. In partial fulfillment for the degree of Master
of Business Administration on Customer Satisfaction
towards Financial Services.
This is a result of my own work under continuous guidance and kind

co-operation of our college faculty member I have not submitted this
report to any other university for the award of degree.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Perseverance, inspiration and motivation have always played a key role in

the success of any venture. Working on this project was a challenge and
made us a bit filtery in the beginning.
At this level of understanding, it is often difficult to understand a wide

spectrum of knowledge without proper guidance and advice .hence, we
take this opportunity to express our heartfelt gratitude to Mrs. Ratneet
Kaur, for his round oclock enthusiastic support and commentaries which
made this project successful, we are thankful to him for making
impossible look easy for us.
We also extend our sincere gratitude to Mrs. Ratneet Kaur, for his
inspiration, encouragement and for the impetus obtained throughout the
course of our project.
Finally, with all the heartiest thanks, I hope my project report will be a
great success and a good source of learning.

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
Customer satisfaction, a business term, is a measure of

how products and services supplied by a company meet or
surpass customer expectation. It is seen as a key
performance indicator within business and is part of the four
perspectives of a Balanced Scorecard.
In a competitive marketplace where businesses compete for

customers, customer satisfaction is seen as a key
differentiator and increasingly has become a key element of
business strategy.
There is a substantial body of empirical literature that

establishes the benefits of customer satisfaction for firms.

INTRODUCTION
The customer satisfaction is the relationship between the
customer expectations and the products perceived
performance. If the product matches the expectations, the
customer is satisfied, if it exceeds, the customer is highly
satisfied.
Customer satisfaction has become increasingly important, as

more firms look at whether all attempts to improve quality,
price, and service of the product and generate sufficient sales
and profit. Company should examine the Customer expectation
and preferences, how well the firm is meeting those
expectations. For measuring the customer satisfaction,
company should use the tools like suggestion and findings
systems, Survey, customer analysis, Precaution in measuring
customer satisfaction and Ghost shopping.
Investment is a commitment of funds made in the expectation

of some positive return. If the investment is properly
undertaken, the returns will match with the risk the investor
assumes. Investment goals vary from person to person,
business to business. While some want security, others give
more weightage to returns alone.
There are various types of investments such as real estate,

stocks and shares, bonds and debentures, mutual funds, fixed
deposits, insurance, national saving certificate etc. As far as the
returns are high the risk involved is also more. A concept, which
balances the risk and returns, is mutual funds.
After liberalization, privatization and globalization (LPG) policy

enactment, Indian banking industry has undergone tremendous
qualitative changes. International banks are coming to market,
which are competing with local banks irrespective with that
they are private sector banks or public sector banks. Various
banks are available with new offers, schemes, and services with
wide range of products. Customer has range of advantage of
such competitiveness. In the era of globalization customer has

more rights to choose right product according their profile,
opportunities available for their money.
Customer is king in market by Adam Smith suggest that in this

competitive era of service industry customer hold power to
choose the best and having maximum opportunity with Wide
range of product with the variety of services with different
schemes. Does the demographic profile have impact on their
satisfaction level and preference between public sector and
private sector bank?
Present study has focused on such issues.
In the present scenario, successful corporations gain

competitive advantage through increased efficiency, high
quality of service and improved customer relationship.
Customers get information about the organization through
customer advocacy. Creating and maintaining customer loyalty
have become important in current service markets. In financial
service industry, maintaining superior service quality is
considered critical in achieving customer satisfaction, value
creation and growth. The ability to understand the needs of the
consumer with respect to the product or service is vital for
measuring the level of consumer satisfaction.
Every business organization aims to satisfy its customers to a

great extent, as the customer satisfaction lays foundation for
the success of the business. The measurement of customer
satisfaction has become mandatory in any organization. The
quality of the products or the quality of customer service
determines the degree of customer satisfaction. The customer
satisfaction not only means, satisfying the customers but also
customer retention in case of service failure. The organization
should solve the complaints through various service recovery
strategies. It is mandatory to identify the impact of service
failure and customer feedback for the survival, success and
prosperity of an organization. The real victory of an
organization is based on the degree of loyalty of the customers.
The measurement of customer satisfaction is intricate because

most of the customers do not believe in the act of complaining
as they feel it to be a waste of time and effort. Some of the
customers may indulge in negative word-of-mouth, which will
have a severe impact on the turnover of the organization. To
avoid the negative impact on the revenue, every organization
must collect feedback from its own customers. They should
study and analyze the existing system of customer service and
implement continuous improvement strategies by enhancing
the quality of the service.
In the modern competitive world, service process performance

is the most important to achieve competitive advantage.
Tamas Jonas and Janos Kovesi (2010) stated that understanding

the customers voice is a key contributor to success of any
organization that provides services. Customer sovereignty is
the key concept in marketing and it always assumed that the
customer satisfaction is the crucial factor in determining the
long run prosperity of the business. K. Szab says that by the
1990s the technological development becomes able to meet
the users requirements again. For today it is possible to create
standardized (or completely integrated) systems, which are
ready to ensure the data processing on a higher level. In the life
of the banks it means the centralization of knowledge centers
which register customer information.
A. Parasuraman suggests that the broadening the scope of

marketing is to include the delivery of customer service as an
integral component and demonstrates that a judicious blending
of conventional marketing and superior customer service is the
best recipe for sustained market success. A. T. Allred, H. L.
Addams have analyzed service quality from the view of access,
courtesy, communication, credibility, security, empathy,
tangibles, basic service, fairness, fixing mistakes and
guarantees and have concluded that majority of the
respondents have stopped using a financial service provider
because of poor service performance.

V. A. Zeithaml, A. Parasuraman and A. Malhotra, stated that to
deliver superior service quality, managers of companies with
Web presences must first understand how customers perceive
and evaluate online customer service. A. P. Gaudet suggested
that technology satisfaction does drive overall customer
satisfaction and that, in turn, overall customer satisfaction does
drive loyalty. S. Byun revealed that consumers value was a
good predictor of behavioral intention to use the technology
while the value was mainly determined by perceived benefit
rather than perceived risk. J. L. Heskett suggested that while
customer satisfaction and loyalty provide a foundation for high
levels of customer lifetime value, they support a range of
customer behaviours with widely varying values, characterized
by mere loyalty (repeat purchase), commitment (willingness to
refer others to a product or service), apostle-like behaviour
(willingness to convince others to use a product or service), and
ownership (willingness to recommend product or service
improvements).
T. Rungting, says that expectations and perceived service

quality strongly influence customers emotions; emotions have
a strong impact on the perception of service experience and
customer satisfaction; and service experience mediates the
effects of expectations, service quality, and emotions on
customer satisfaction.
Vimi and Mohd (2008) undertook a study of the determinants of

performance in the Indian retail banking industry based on
perception of customer satisfaction and stated that customer
satisfaction is linked with performance of the banks.
Bargal and Sharma analysed the role of service marketing in

banking sector. The identified important service factors in the
banking sector are diversified services, flexible business
transaction hours, accessibility of bank location, installation of
web system, professional training to the employees, customers
complaint system and performance based appraisal system to
enrich their services to their customers. S. D. Young aimed at

the establishment of a quantifiable connection linking customer
loyalty to financial performance. The loyalty index used is a
composite of four factors (use again, recommend to others,
exceeding expectations, and satisfaction). M. A. Cowgill
identified four drivers of client satisfaction financial, learning
and growth of support staff, internal business processes, and
client needs to which sales people in the financial services
industry (financial advisors) might pay attention in order to
have satisfied clients.
The atmosphere in which the financial institutions operate has

altered in recent years. With the increased competition, global
market, growing product portfolio and diminishing margins,
banking customers have also changed in recent years. Modern
customers require flexibility in hours of operation, greater
convenience, customization, transparency, accessibility and
control. Competition and cost to attract the new customers and
the expenses spent for it are heavy. Customer defection rates
are higher than ever because of increased market competition.
With so many different financial institutions to choose from
consumers can now demand better quality services and more
customized products from their banks. Thus, the study of
customer satisfaction towards the quality of service of banking
sector is the need of the hour.
This paper attempts to summarize the results of literature

review on customer satisfaction towards the services of a bank
from five different perspectives namely, service encounters,
waiting time of the customer to get the service, role of
intermediaries, quality of service provided by the bank and
customer complaints towards the bank.
BASICS
Basically, you might look at marketing as the wide range

of activities involved in making sure that you're continuing to
meet the needs of your customers and are getting value in

return. Marketing analysis includes finding out what groups of
potential customers (or markets) exist, what groups of
customers you prefer to serve (target markets), what their
needs are, what products or services you might develop to
meet their needs, how the customers might prefer to use the
products and services, what your competitors are doing, what
pricing you should use and how you should distribute products
and services to your target markets. Various methods of market
research are used to find out information about markets, target
markets and their needs, competitors, etc. Marketing also
includes ongoing promotions, which can include advertising,
public relations, sales and customer service.
According to Yang, Zhilin and Robin Peterson intends to extend

our understanding of service quality and customer satisfaction
within the setting of online securities brokerage services. The
results indicate that primary service quality dimensions leading
to online customer satisfaction, with the exception of ease of
use, are closely related to traditional services while key factors
leading to dissatisfaction are tied to information systems
quality. In addition, major drivers of satisfaction and
dissatisfaction are identified at the sub-dimensional level.
According to S. Gopalakrishnan and Dr. D. Muruganantham,

because of the efforts of the government and organizations,
people have started to think green for consuming product this
will lead to increase customer satisfaction of any product or
service. They have brought green products into their
consideration set. Hence, it is a good sign for the companies to
acknowledge the purchase preferences shift of consumer and
capitalize this to market their products and services.
Prerna Dawar (2013) on her study found factors affecting

satisfaction are staff knowledge, behaviour, online banking-

channel management & support system, amount charges, and
language information.

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION MODEL
The customer satisfaction model from N. Kano is a quality
management and marketing technique that can be used for
measuring client happiness.
Kano's model of customer satisfaction distinguishes six

categories of quality attributes, from which the first three
actually influence customer satisfaction:
1. Basic Factors. (Dissatisfiers. Must have.) - The

minimum requirements which will cause dissatisfaction if
they are not fulfilled, but do not cause customer
satisfaction if they are fulfilled (or are exceeded). The
customer regards these as prerequisites and takes these
for granted. Basic factors establish a market entry
'threshold'.
2. Excitement Factors. (Satisfiers. Attractive.) - The

factors that increase customer satisfaction if delivered but
do not cause dissatisfaction if they are not delivered.
These factors surprise the customer and generate
'delight'. Using these factors, a company can really
distinguish itself from its competitors in a positive way.
3. Performance Factors. The factors that cause satisfaction

if the performance is high, and they cause dissatisfaction
if the performance is low. Here, the attribute performance-
overall satisfaction is linear and symmetric. Typically these
factors are directly connected to customers' explicit needs
and desires and a company should try to be competitive
here.
The additional three attributes which Kano mentions are:
4. Indifferent attributes. The customer does not care

about this feature.
5. Questionable attributes. It is unclear whether this

attribute is expected by the customer.

6. Reverse attributes. The reverse of this product feature
was expected by the customer.
Steps in the customer satisfaction model.

Process
Kano developed a questionnaire to identify the basic,

performance and excitement factors as well as the other
three additional factors.
1 For each product feature a pair of questions is formulated to

which the customer can answer in one of five different
ways.
2 The first question concerns the reaction of the customer if the

product shows that feature (functional question);
3 The second question concerns the reaction of the customer if

the product does NOT show this feature (dysfunctional
question).
4 By combining the answers all attributes can be classified into

the six factors.
Objectives of the Study

1.Primary objective :
To study satisfaction of the customers towards the various
financial services offered by various financial institution
and banks.
2.Secondary Objectives :
1) To find out the awareness of the customers about the
entire range of products/ services provided by the
company.

2) To identify the highest business area among the range
of financial products/ services.
3) To find the factors influencing choice the products /

services.
4) To analyze the satisfaction of customers towards the

quality of services provided, and the charges levied for
services.
5) To find the expectations of customers regarding value

added services.

SERVICE ENCOUNTERS
Customers are lifeblood for any business. And banking industry
is highly service oriented business. When there is service
concern, it always deals with the perceptual decision taking of
the customer. Here in this paper tried out to figure out the
reason for the perception of the people for choosing the
banking service on the basis of cost, convenience, facility and
general factors like modernization of the bank, promptness for
attending customer.
A service encounter is the time taken by the customer to

interact with the service. It includes face-to-face, telephone
communications, automated systems, e-mail and the like. This
is the first stage where the customers judge the quality of
service provided to them. Service encounters are otherwise
called as service escapes which means a physical environment
in which the service is delivered and where the interaction
between the customer and provider takes place. Every
encounter is a chance for the firm to satisfy the customer, to
strengthen the value of its products, and to sell the customer
on the benefits of a long-term relationship.
Gummesson describes service encounter as an interaction

between a companys contact personnel and customers.
Surprenant & Solomon describe it as the time-frame during
which a customer directly interacts with the service provider.
Czepiel considered service encounter as a critical determinant

of the customers satisfaction with the service. In a business-to-
business context the personal contacts are considered
especially important for the relationships with customers. There
is also a need to know all about the individual episodes that
occur between companies in order to understand completely
what happens between them.
Service environment is a silent salesman and it communicates

service quality attributes, creates the service experience and
forms customer expectations.

A. C. Soteriou states that delivering high quality service during
the service encounter is considered as central to competitive
advantage for any service organization. However, controlling
the costs is a major challenge for service managers while
achieving high quality. Because of the intangibility,
inseparability and heterogeneity of services, the service
encounter is critical to customer satisfaction and evaluation.
Fisk say that service encounters or experiences can be

considered as moments of truth. M. J. Bitner states that service
environments, otherwise called as servicescapes relate to the
style and appearance of the physical surroundings and other
experiential elements encountered by customers at service
delivery sites. Customer satisfaction towards service encounter
is transaction-specific. Shankar say that service encounter
satisfaction is related to overall customer satisfaction and
overall satisfaction is driven by satisfaction from a series of
service encounters. It is important, however, to recognize them
as distinct constructs because of the factors influencing them
may be different.
Overall customer satisfaction is relationship specific. Bitner and

Hubbert and Oliver reveal that the cumulative effect of a set of
discrete service encounters or transactions with the service
provider over a period of time influences customer satisfaction.
Designing a service environment is an art that takes
considerable time and effort and can be expensive to execute.
Once designed and built, service environments are not always
easy to change.
Based on a companys reputation one could decide to do

business and start a relationship with that company. The
reputation of a potential new partner reduces the perceived risk
of making the wrong decision and facilitates the change to the
new partner. From this perspective, the reputation of a
company lowers the entrance barriers for potential customers.
The service encounters of a bank include the type of encounter

used (face-to-face, telephone communications, e-mail and the

like), the number of contacts made by the customers with the
bank, the waiting time of the customers to communicate with
the intermediaries, the time taken to communicate and the
time taken by the intermediaries to fix the problem after the
call, the number of times the call is made for the correction of
the problem and the reasons the customers think fit for calling
the intermediaries to call more than once. The level of
satisfaction and dissatisfaction and the reasons for the same
form the basis for the measurement of effectiveness of service
encounters existing in the bank.

MEASURING CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
Organizations are increasingly interested in retaining existing
customers while targeting non-customers; measuring customer
satisfaction provides an indication of how successful the
organization is at providing products and/or services to the
marketplace.
Customer satisfaction is an ambiguous and abstract concept

and the actual manifestation of the state of satisfaction will
vary from person to person and product/service to
product/service. The state of satisfaction depends on a number
of both psychological and physical variables which correlate
with satisfaction behaviors such as return and recommend rate.
The level of satisfaction can also vary depending on other
options the customer may have and other products against
which the customer can compare the organization's products.
Because satisfaction is basically a psychological state, care

should be taken in the effort of quantitative measurement,
although a large quantity of research in this area has recently
been developed.
Work done by Berry, Brodeur between 1990 and 1998[3]

defined ten 'Quality Values' which influence satisfaction
behavior, further expanded by Berry in 2002 and known as the
ten domains of satisfaction. These ten domains of satisfaction
include: Quality, Value, Timeliness, Efficiency, Ease of Access,
Environment, Inter-departmental Teamwork, Front line Service
Behaviors, Commitment to the Customer and Innovation.
These factors are emphasized for continuous improvement and

organizational change measurement and are most often utilized
to develop the architecture for satisfaction measurement as an
integrated model.
Work done by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry between 1985

and 1988 provides the basis for the measurement of customer
satisfaction with a service by using the gap between the
customer's expectation of performance and their perceived
experience of performance. This provides the measurer with a
satisfaction "gap" which is objective and quantitative in nature.

Work done by Cronin and Taylor propose the
"confirmation/disconfirmation" theory of combining the "gap"
described by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry as two different
measures (perception and expectation of performance) into a
single measurement of performance according to expectation.
According to Garbrand, customer satisfaction equals perception
of performance divided by expectation of performance.
The usual measures of customer satisfaction involve a survey

[4] with a set of statements using a Likert Technique or scale.
The customer is asked to evaluate each statement and in term
of their perception and expectation of performance of the
organization being measured.

METHODOLOGIES
The University of Michigan's American Customer Satisfaction
Index (ACSI) is the scientific standard of customer satisfaction.
Academic research has shown that the national ACSI score is a
strong predictor of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth, and
an even stronger predictor of Personal Consumption
Expenditure (PCE) growth. On the microeconomic level,
research has shown that ACSI data predicts stock market
performance, both for market indices and for individually
traded companies. Increasing ACSI scores has been shown to
predict loyalty, word-of-mouth recommendations, and purchase
behavior. The ACSI measures customer satisfaction annually for
more than 200 companies in 43 industries and 10 economic
sectors. In addition to quarterly reports, the ACSI methodology
can be applied to private sector companies and government
agencies in order to improve loyalty and purchase intent. Two
companies have been licensed to apply the methodology of the
ACSI for both the private and public sector: CFI Group, Inc.
applies the methodology of the ACSI offline, and Foresee
Results applies the ACSI to websites and other online initiatives.
The Net Promoter R score is a management tool that can be

used to gauge the loyalty of a firm's customer relationships. It
serves as an alternative to traditional customer satisfaction
research. Companies obtain their Net Promoter Score by asking
customers a single question (usually, "How likely is it that you
would recommend us to a friend or colleague?"). Based on their
responses, customers can be categorized into one of three
groups: Promoters, Passives, and Detractors. In the net
promoter framework, Promoters are viewed as valuable assets
that drive profitable growth because of their repeat/increased
purchases, longevity and referrals, while Detractors are seen as
liabilities that destroy profitable growth because of their
complaints, reduced purchases/defection and negative word-of-
mouth. Companies calculate their Net Promote Score by
subtracting their
% Detractors from their % Promoters.

The Kano model is a theory of product development and
customer satisfaction developed in the 1980's by Professor
Noriaki Kano that classifies customer preferences into five
categories: Attractive, One-Dimensional, Must-Be, Indifferent,
Reverse. The Kano model offers some insight into the product
attributes which are perceived to be important to customers.
Kano also produced a methodology for mapping consumer
responses to questionnaires onto his model.

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION IN 7 STEPS
It's a well known fact that no business can exist without

customers. In the business of Website design, it's important to
work closely with your customers to make sure the site or
system you create for them is as close to their requirements as
you can manage. Because it's critical that you form a close
working relationship with your client, customer service is of
vital importance. What follows are a selection of tips that will
make your clients feel valued, wanted and loved.
1. Encourage Face-to-Face Dealings

This is the most daunting and downright scary part of
interacting with a customer. If you're not used to this sort of
thing it can be a pretty nerve-wracking experience. Rest
assured, though, it does get easier over time. It's important to
meet your customers face to face at least once or even twice
during the course of a project.
My experience has shown that a client finds it easier to relate

to and work with someone they've actually met in person,
rather than a voice on the phone or someone typing into an
email or messenger program. When you do meet them, be
calm, confident and above all, take time to ask them what they
need. I believe that if a potential client spends over half the
meeting doing the talking, you're well on your way to a sale.
2. Respond to Messages Promptly & Keep Your

Clients Informed
This goes without saying really. We all know how annoying it is
to wait days for a response to an email or phone call. It might
not always be practical to deal with all customers' queries
within the space of a few hours, but at least email or call them
back and let them know you've received their message and
you'll contact them about it as soon as possible. Even if you're

not able to solve a problem right away, let the customer know
you're working on it.
3. Be Friendly and Approachable

A fellow SitePointer once told me that you can hear a smile
through the phone. This is very true. It's very important to be
friendly, courteous and to make your clients feel like you're
their friend and you're there to help them out. There will be
times when you want to beat your clients over the head
repeatedly with a blunt object - it happens to all of us. It's vital
that you keep a clear head, respond to your clients' wishes as
best you can, and at all times remain polite and courteous.
4. Have a Clearly-Defined Customer Service

Policy
This may not be too important when you're just starting out,
but a clearly defined customer service policy is going to save
you a lot of time and effort in the long run. If a customer has a
problem, what should they do? If the first option doesn't work,
then what? Should they contact different people for billing and
technical enquiries? If they're not satisfied with any aspect of
your customer service, who should they tell?
There's nothing more annoying for a client than being passed

from person to person, or not knowing who to turn to. Making
sure they know exactly what to do at each stage of their
enquiry should be of utmost importance. So make sure your
customer service policy is present on your site -- and anywhere
else it may be useful.
5. Attention to Detail (also known as 'The Little

Niceties')
Have you ever received a Happy Birthday email or card from a
company you were a client of? Have you ever had a
personalised sign-up confirmation email for a service that you
could tell was typed from scratch? These little niceties can be

time consuming and aren't always cost effective, but remember
to do them.
Even if it's as small as sending a Happy Holidays email to all

your customers, it's something. It shows you care; it shows
there are real people on the other end of that screen or
telephone; and most importantly, it makes the customer feel
welcomed, wanted and valued.

6. Anticipate Your Client's Needs & Go Out Of
Your Way to Help Them Out
Sometimes this is easier said than done! However, achieving
this supreme level of understanding with your clients will do
wonders for your working relationship.
Take this as an example: you're working on the front-end for

your client's exciting new ecommerce Endeavour. You have all
the images, originals and files backed up on your desktop
computer and the site is going really well. During a meeting
with your client he/she happens to mention a hard-copy
brochure their internal marketing people are developing. As if
by magic, a couple of weeks later a CD-ROM arrives on their
doorstep complete with high resolution versions of all the
images you've used on the site. A note accompanies it which
reads:
"Hi, you mentioned a hard-copy brochure you were

working on and I wanted to provide you with large-scale
copies of the graphics I've used on the site. Hopefully you'll
be able to make use of some in your brochure."
Your client is heartily impressed, and remarks to his colleagues
and friends how very helpful and considerate his Web designers
are. Meanwhile, in your office, you lay back in your chair
drinking your 7th cup of coffee that morning, safe in the
knowledge this happy customer will send several referrals your
way.
7. Honour Your Promises

It's possible this is the most important point in this article. The
simple message: when you promise something, deliver. The
most common example here is project delivery dates.
Clients don't like to be disappointed. Sometimes, something

may not get done, or you might miss a deadline through no
fault of your own. Projects can be late, technology can fail and

sub-contractors don't always deliver on time. In this case a
quick apology and assurance it'll be ready ASAP wouldn't go
amiss.

CUSTOMER COMPLAINS
Customers are more knowledgeable, sophisticated, informed
and assertive. They demand higher levels of customer service
and more inclined to switch to a competitor. If a customer
expects a certain level of service, and perceives the service
reviewed to be higher, he is a satisfied client. If he perceives
the same level as before, but expected higher, he is a
disappointed and, accordingly, a dissatisfied client.
L. Makdessian, states that angry customers were also more

likely to complain and engage in third-party action, and were
less likely to spread positive word-of-mouth and repurchase
from the service firm. Gender of the customer and the service
employee played only a minimum role in influencing the
evaluative and behavioral outcomes. M.D. Richards and D.
Hicks state that the response chosen by the retailer, as well as
the time and effort exerted by the consumer can influence
consumer satisfaction / dissatisfaction (S/D) with the complaint
resolution process. Results suggest that consumer S/D with the
complaint resolution process has four critical dimensions.
The two consumer input dimensions are consumer time and

consumer effort expended in an attempt to resolve the
problem. The two outcome dimensions are compensation
received and attributed of the retailers representative. A
service failure in an organization leads to complaint system.
Any complaint from the customers will be taken care under
service recovery system. This recovery system may or may not
meet the expectations of the customers. If they are met, it
results in customer satisfaction which increases the loyalty of
the customers. If the expectations are not met, it will result in
customer dissatisfaction which in turn forms as a service
failure. T. D. Jones says that Service Provider failures lead to
reductions in service company commitment, service provider
commitment, and some loyalty-related outcomes. This effect is
reduced under conditions of high interpersonal commitment.

Personal betrayals lead to reductions in all three targets of
commitment which, in turn leads to reductions in loyalty-related
outcomes. It is also proved that the outcomes of service failures
are not necessarily most evident on loyalty-related outcomes;
reduction in commitment levels after failed encounters is the
likely consequence of these failures.
E. Ph. Simpson analyzed the relationships between three

variables namely, employee satisfaction, customer service
quality, and customer satisfaction in a mid-sized retail bank.
The American Technical Research Programme (TRAP) has found

that a dissatisfied consumer will tell an average of nine to ten
people about their experience and these, in turn, will tell
others, warning them not to purchase products or services from
the business in question. Day and Landon state that the most
common approach is to contact the service provider from whom
they purchased the products and/or services. Day and Ash state
that dissatisfied consumers also switch the brands they buy or
go to other service providers. Consumers may also resort to
taking public action in order to resole their complaints.
Schouten and van Raaij reveal that if dissatisfied consumers are

unable to secure a satisfactory response from the company,
they may use third-party complaint handling agencies to seek
redress. These three parties may include media sponsored
consumer advocates, Governmental consumer protection
departments, and even solicitors. It would appear that the type
of complaint behaviour exhibited by dissatisfied consumers is
dependent on the nature and importance of the product or
service purchased and on the perceived effort required and
likely outcome resulting from such behaviour.
Singh says that consumer complaint behaviour (CCB)

represents a breakdown or weakness in the exchange process,
an understanding of which is essential for rectification of the
problem. An organization that is aware of and understands the
CCB process has a much greater ability to reduce the possible
occurrences of dissatisfaction that are not preventable.

Reducing the number of dissatisfied customers and increasing
the number of satisfied customers will invariably lead to an
increase in sales, brand loyalty and positive word-of-mouth.

Why Tackle Customer Complaints?
Companies find that effectively handling customers with

problems is critical to their reputations as well as their bottom
lines. When customers complain and they are satisfied with the
way their complaint is handled, they are more likely to
purchase another product or service from the same company.
Companies that resolve complaints on the first contact increase
customer satisfaction and product loyalty, improve employee
satisfaction, and reduce costs.
Companies even encourage complaints. Most dissatisfied

customers do not complain. By making it easy for customers to
complain, more customers will come to you with their
problems, giving you greater opportunity to correct your
service delivery or production processes. Customers who get
their problems satisfactorily and quickly solved tell their friends
and neighbors, and they are not easily won over by the
competition.
There is a bottom-line concern for government as well. As noted

above, complaints can be costly. Repeated hand-offs increase
costs and waste precious resources. When complaints are not
promptly resolved, frustrated customers seek redress in
different agencies or at different parts or levels of the same
agency, resulting in duplicate effort and compounding costs.
Just as costs compound when there is a poor complaint system,

trust also erodes as citizens become frustrated with a non-
responsive bureaucracy. Indeed, there has been a cumulative
erosion of public confidence in government. Thirty years ago,
70 percent of Americans trusted the federal government to do
the right thing most of the time. In 1993, only 17 percent of
Americans said that they trusted the government.
There are many factors contributing to this decline in trust and

confidence, particularly the huge volume of regulations that did
not make sense to the public and the high cost of government.
However, we learned from our benchmarking partners that an

effective approach to resolving complaints is invaluable in
winning the trust and loyalty of our customers the public.
There are costs associated with a poor complaint system and

there are benefits associated with a good one. Studies have
shown that handling customer complaints well can be a critical
part of a turnaround strategy. If a complaint is handled well, it
sustains and strengthens customer loyalty and the company's
image as a leader. It also tells the customer that the company
cares and can improve because of their contact. In government
agencies, it promotes public confidence in government
services.
Customer complaints also represent valuable information about

recurrent problems. They can point the way to understanding
the root causes of customer problems and help an organization
target core processes that need improvement. If acted upon to
improve core processes, customer complaints can be a source
of information that can reduce costs as well as improve
services.
Customer Complaints Create Profit

Customer complaints are like medicine. Nobody likes them, but
they make us better. Actually, they are probably more like
preventative medicine because they provide advanced warning
about problems. Financial statements, in contrast, provide a
historical perspective. By the time problems manifest in the
financial statements, forget the medicine. Its time for
emergency surgery.
Studies from the Technical Assistance Research Program*

in Arlington, VA suggest that the root cause of customer
complaints can be traced back to one of three areas: individual
employees, the company, or the customer, with 80% of
complaints traceable to the last two categories. By listening
carefully, we can identify opportunities for training employees,
improving products and services, and educating customers.
Individual Employees
Business is becoming increasingly complex and fast-paced.

Customer service professionals have to know their product or
service, their company information, the technology that
supports it, and how to communicate all of this to savvy,
demanding customers. Even a small gap in knowledge or skill
could cause huge repercussions in terms of lost business.
When I first started my seminar business, I received a few

complaints about my individual skills as a speaker. Some
customers complained that they didnt like my Philadelphia
accent, my hairstyle, the way I moved around the room, or the
pace of my delivery. After I cried for a few hours, I decided to
invest in voice lessons, an image consultant, and a video
camera. These have been some of the best investments I have
ever made. I never want to get in the way of my own success.
Companies should not let their employees lack of knowledge or
skill get in the way of their success.
The Company
More often, the culprit is the actual product or service we

provide. There may be an inherent flaw in the design. There
could be a glitch in the distribution channel that causes
dissatisfaction. Even if everything is perfect, marketing pieces,
advertising campaigns, and salespeople could inflate value and
create customer expectations that are impossible to satisfy.
Recently, I was providing a service that involved a series of

facilitated sessions. I allowed the customer to choose the dates
of our sessions. Even though there were very few sessions,
they occurred over a long period of time and the customer
complained that the project took too long to complete. I made
reparations to the client and decided to restructure the service
and the pricing so that in the future I would control the timing
of sessions. Now sessions always happen over a shorter period
of time and the service has a higher value and is more
profitable. I have fixed the delivery process of my service.

The Customer
As many of us have always suspected, customers actually

cause most of the problems they complain about. Its not our
fault. Its not our employees fault. Its the customers fault.
Yet even here there is profit to be mined. Customer education
and innovation are the possible solutions.
I always send out a preprogram questionnaire to customers in

order to tailor their seminars. If customers have email, I send
the questionnaire via email. Recently, I had a customer who
did not know how to return the email questionnaire to me with
responses filled in. I sent back brief instructions on how to
work the email, which could be classified here as customer
education.
Afterwards, I started wondering if there could be a better,

easier, cleaner way to collect information, in other words,
innovate. From that complaint, I decided to create hidden web
pages on my website, customized to each customer with their
company logo and questionnaire. Customers just click a link
from an email, type their responses into a form on the web
page that appears, and hit a submit button. This approach is
much simpler and more impressive. I do this with all of my
customers now and advertise it in my marketing.

Waiting time
Waiting is frustrating because one has to do many things during
that time. In a business, a customer hates waiting. To try to
overcome this, an organization must properly design the
service to minimize the waiting time which is practically
difficult. The waiting time of the customers at the time of
obtaining service has a major impact on their behaviour.
Every company must implement a waiting line strategy to

satisfy their customers. N. Kallo and T. Koltai studied the
express lines generally used in supermarkets where many
service facilities are located and each has its own separate
waiting line. They have analyzed with the help of two analytical
models, one consisting many service facilities with one
common waiting line and another containing many independent
queuing systems in which there is one service facility with its
own separate queue. They also state that in time-based
competition environment, one of the main objectives of service
managers is reducing customers wait and the number of
waiting customers can have significant effect on customer
decisions. Increasing the capacity by adding more tellers is one
of the strategies used to reduce the wait times in a bank. But,
this can be done only when the customer satisfaction is
balanced with cost considerations.
The bank managers should also consider the redesigning of

queuing system, redesign the process to shorten the time of
each transaction and manage the consumers behavior and
their perceptions of wait. Queue configurations refer to the
number of queues, their locations, their spatial requirement and
their effect on customer behavior. Therefore, when queues
become necessary, the service provider should decide how to
configure the queue.
Sasser provide good examples of both managing the perception

and the expectation of waiting times. For the former, they offer
an example of the well-known hotel group that received
complaints from guests about excessive waiting times for
elevators. After an analysis of how elevator service might be
improved, it was suggested that mirrors be installed near where
guests waited for elevators.
The natural tendency of people to check their personal

appearance substantially reduced complaints, although the
actual wait for the elevators was unchanged. As an illustration
of how expectations can be explicitly managed, they note that
some restaurants follow the practice of promising guests a
waiting time in excess of the expected time. If people are
willing to agree to wait this length of time, they are quite
pleased earlier, thus starting the meal with a more positive
feeling.
A. Rafaeli, G. Barron and K. Haber have found that the way in

which waiting area is structured can produce feelings of
injustice and unfairness in customers. Customers who waited in
parallel lines to multiple servers reported significantly higher
agitation and greater dissatisfaction with the fairness of service
delivery process than did customers who waited in a single
(snake) to access multiple servers, even though both groups of
customers waited an identical amount of time and are involved
in completely fair service process. The information regarding
the relative position in the queue, length of waiting time,
upcoming services and reason for waiting time will be useful for
customers, as it allows them to take decisions about whether
they can afford to take the time to wait now or should come
back later. It also allows them to plan the use of their time
while waiting.
M. K. Hui and D. K. Tse suggested that it may be more positive

to let people know how their place in line is changing than to let
them know how much time remains before they will be served.
They conclude that people prefer to see or sense that the line is
moving rather than to watch the clock.
J. R. Chernow state that the travellers in public transportation

use perceive time spent waiting for a bus or train as passing

one and a half to seven times more slowly than the time spent
traveling in the vehicle.
G. Tom and S. Lucey conclude that customer

satisfaction/dissatisfaction is dependent not only on the
customer identification of the causes as well as the stability
and control of the causes.
M. M. Davis, J. Heineke state that the experience of waiting for

service is often the first direct interaction between customers
and most service delivery processes. In their study of
satisfaction with waiting for service in a fast food environment,
they demonstrate that actual waiting time, perceived waiting
time and the disconfirmation between expected waiting time
and perceived waiting time are all related to satisfaction with
the waiting experience.
They also conclude that for the customers who are concerned
about time, the perception of the time spent waiting is a better
predictor of satisfaction than the actual waiting time. J. Chebat
says that waiting involves both emotions and cognition, in
particular attribution of the cause for waiting. Mood affects
some dimensions of service quality, those related to the
personnel in contact; attribution affects the relational
dimensions of service quality (personnels empathy and
assurance); mood does not affect the attribution process.
Service quality is assessed not only in terms of what consumers
receive at the end of the service delivery process but also in
terms of the process itself.
M. K. Hui, M. V. Thakor and R. Gill confirm from their study that

the nature of the delay, in terms of whether it constitutes a
threat to the successful completion of a task or not, moderates
the impact of service stage on consumers reactions to the
wait.
D.Soman, and R.Zhou proposed that when people are told

ahead of time to evaluate the length of a time period
(prospective judgment), more events occurring during this

period makes the period seem shorter. On the other hand,
when people are asked about the length of the time period only
after having experienced it (retrospective judgments), the more
events, the longer the time period appears.
A. Pruyn and A. Smidts state that waiting appears to influence

satisfaction quite strongly. The adverse effects of waiting can
be soothed more effectively by improving the attractiveness of
the waiting environment than by shortening the objective
waiting time. D.Jillian and R.Jennifer conclude that the
successful management of waiting brings rewards to both the
customer and the service provider.

CUSTOMER LOYALTY
"It takes a lot less money to increase your retention of current
customers than to find new ones-but I know I don't give it as
much effort as I should because it does take a lot of energy and
effort!"
Strategize And Plan For Loyalty!
Do we even have a specific plan for building customer

loyalty?
We bet ourselves haven't given it as much thought as we

should- because to tell the truth we need to give it more effort
also.
If we currently retain 70 percent of our customers and we start

a program to improve that to 80 percent, we'll add an
additional 10 percent to our growth rate.
Particularly because of the high cost of landing new customers

versus the high profitability of a loyal customer base, you might
want to reflect upon your current business strategy.
These four factors will greatly affect your ability to build a loyal
customer base:
1. Products that are highly differentiated from those of the

competition.

2. Higher-end products where price is not the primary buying
factor.
3. Products with a high service component.
4. Multiple products for the same customer.
Market To Your Own Customers!
Giving a lot of thought to your marketing programs aimed at

current customers is one aspect of building customer loyalty.
When you buy a new car, many dealers will within minutes try
to sell you an extended warranty, an alarm system, and maybe
rustproofing. It's often a very easy sale and costs the dealer
almost nothing to make. Are there additional products or
services you can sell your customers?
Three years ago my house was painted, and it's now due for
another coat. Why hasn't the painter called or at least sent a
card? It would be a lot less expensive than getting new
customers through his newspaper ad, and since I was happy
with his work I won't get four competing bids this time. Keep all
the information you can on your customers and don't hesitate
to ask for the next sale.
Use Complaints To Build Business!
When customers aren't happy with your business they usually

won't complain to you - instead, they'll probably complain to
just about everyone else they know - and take their business to
your competition next time. That's why an increasing number of
businesses are making follow-up calls or mailing satisfaction
questionnaires after the sale is made. They find that if they
promptly follow up and resolve a customer's complaint, the
customer might be even more likely to do business than the
average customer who didn't have a complaint.
In many business situations, the customer will have many more

interactions after the sale with technical, service, or customer
support people than they did with the sales people. So if you're

serious about retaining customers or getting referrals, these
interactions are the ones that are really going to matter. They
really should be handled with the same attention and focus that
sales calls get because in a way they are sales calls for repeat
business.

Reach Out To Your Customers!
Contact . . . contact . . . contact with current customers is a

good way to build their loyalty. The more the customer sees
someone from your firm, the more likely you'll get the next
order. Send Christmas cards, see them at trade shows, stop by
to make sure everything's okay.
Send a simple newsletter to your customers-tell them about the

great things that are happening at your firm and include some
useful information for them. Send them copies of any media
clippings about your firm. Invite them to free seminars. The
more they know about you, the more they see you as someone
out to help them, the more they know about your
accomplishments-the more loyal a customer they will be.
Loyal Customers and Loyal Workforces
Building customer loyalty will be a lot easier if you have a loyal

workforce-not at all a given these days. It is especially
important for you to retain those employees who interact with
customers such as sales people, technical support, and
customer-service people. Many companies give a lot of
attention to retaining sales people but little to support people.
I've been fortunate to have the same great people in customer
service for years-and the compliments from customers make it
clear that they really appreciate specific people in our service
function.
The increasing trend today is to send customer-service and

technical-support calls into queue for the next available person.
This builds no personal loyalty and probably less loyalty for the
firm. Before you go this route, be sure this is what your
customers prefer. Otherwise I'd assign a specific support person
to every significant customer.
One last thing-don't tell your customers your 800 line phone
number is for orders only!

ROLE OF INTERMEDIARIES
Every bank should position its intermediaries in such a way to
meet the needs of the customers in a more responsive manner.
This customer-intermediary relationship determines the quality
of service provided which ultimately relates to customer
satisfaction. Each customer should be personally attended;
queries should be answered, as he is the valuable asset to the
bank and future investment. When he is satisfied with the
behaviour of the intermediaries, he will pass a positive word-of-
mouth to his friends and relatives.
S. Toelle states that both employee performance and reliability

have indirect effect on loyalty, mediated by customer value and
satisfaction. S. W. Kelley examined the effect of the level of
organizational socialization achieved by service employees and
customers upon customer perceptions of service quality. They
indicated that employee and customer organizational
socialization are positively related to service quality. Customer
measures of organizational climate, customer orientation,
motivational direction, organizational commitment, and
satisfaction were positively related to service quality. Employee
job satisfaction is directly related to customer perceptions of
service quality. Finally, employee and customer organizational
commitment is positively associated with satisfaction.
Schneider is the first author to develop a framework for the

study of peoples basic overall perceptions about organizations
and he has analyzed the perception of the organizational
climate from the customers viewpoint. The climate is defined
as the added perception of customers about the firm they do
business with. Later on, Parkington & Schneider & Bowen have
shown that when employees in their view have a different
service orientation from the orientation adopted by the
management, the former suffer from low levels of satisfaction,
a strong intention to leave their jobs, high levels of frustration
and the sensation that customers have a poor opinion of the
service quality provided by the firm. In turn, Schneider

suggested that customers, attitudes towards service quality are
strongly related to the employees view about the service
received by customers.
Brown & Swartz state that when a service is provided, the

personal relationship established between employees and
customers will be extremely important for determining the
service quality. Therefore, employees perceptions of the
specific service-climate features strongly relate to the
customers perceptions about several features of that service
climate and attitudes towards service. In turn, the perception of
the quality offered by the organization on the part of the
employee has an impact on the real quality offered. Hence,
according to the sociocognitive theories developed by Bandura,
Shea & Howell say that employees behaviour is affected by the
view of their own capacities and of the perception of their
colleagues.
M. Gabbott quotes several psychological studies which show

that non-verbal behaviour by the service provider affects
service evaluation, because the quality of interaction between
customer and service provider influences customers
perception of service quality.
Al.M.Barnard says that in services, a single employee may

affect service efficiency and consequent customer satisfaction
with the service. Kelly, Skinner say that even customers own
involvement and participation in service delivery affect
customer satisfaction. Every customer should be personally
taken care of in order to maintain an existing customer base, as
he/she is an invaluable asset and an investment in the future of
the business because it costs far less to retain existing
customers than win new ones. The key drivers of customer
loyalty are positive staff attitude, honesty, integrity, and
reliability, proactive advice and delivery of promise, consistent
delivery of superior quality service, simplicity and ease of doing
business, good after-sales service, and a fair and efficient
complaints resolution policy. Customer interfacing personnel

are the front line troops of any organization and therefore need
to be thoroughly trained with good customer relations practice.

QUALITY OF SERVICE
Attaining sustainable competitive advantage is practically
difficult because the services cannot be easily copied and
patented. Perceived service quality is the judgment of the
customers of their overall experience of the service
environment of an organization. The success in delivering
quality service lays on understanding how customers arrive at
this judgment. When an organization fails to study and
understand the process of customers judgment, it will loose a
customer. Exactly, the competitive companies will target the
lost customer. This will threaten the competitive position of the
company in the market.
H. Emari, S. Iranzadeh and S. Bakhshayesh, determined the

dimensions of service quality in the banking industry of Iran
and examined the European perspective (i.e., Gronrooss
model) suggesting that service quality consists of three
dimensions, technical, functional and image. The results from a
banking service sample revealed that the overall service quality
is influenced more by a consumers perception of technical
quality than functional quality. J. R. Salifu stated that both
customers and bankers in small part perceived a positive
correlation between the antecedents of service performance
gaps and service quality dimensions.
M. Hossain, S.Leo, have stated that in order to achieve higher

levels of quality service in retail banking, banks should deliver
higher levels of service quality and in the present context
customers perceptions are highest in the level of infrastructure
facilities of the bank, followed by timing of the bank, and return
on deposit. Owing to the increasing competition in retail
banking, customer service is an important part and bank
managers should be rethinking how to improve customer
satisfaction with respect to service quality. The personnel in the
services sector have to prove that their services are customer-
focused and that continuous process improvement is being
delivered.

C. J. Liang, W. H Wang, aim to test the relationship between
perceived service quality satisfaction and the relationship
intentions that is, whether or not consumers will consider
building long-term relationships with service providers on the
basis of a single instance of perceived service quality. They
suggest that financial products with different product attributes
need different kinds and levels of service and relationship
investment and also suggest that there exists a positive
relationship between service quality satisfaction and perceived
relationship investment. The results of the survey analysis
showed that only one driver the financial driver is significant
to the advisors in keeping their clients satisfied.
The perish ability of service also means that a service cannot

be exactly repeated and it may result in dissatisfaction of the
customers if their expectations are not met. Promsri, Chaiyaset
measured service quality by the banking customers
perceptions of service quality of service providers using five
dimensions of the SERVQUAL (tangibles, reliability,
responsiveness, assurance, and empathy). It was found that the
empathy of service providers, an emotional intelligence factor,
was a significant explanatory variable of customer retention.
However, the relationship was inverse: the lower the empathic
skills of service providers, the more favorable the behavioral
intentions of customers to do business with the bank.
Huang, Chen-Yu has found by administering SERVQUAL model

(Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry), that there are significant
differences in service perceptions between customers and
bankers.
Ch.Boshoff and M.Tait, stress the importance of frontline

employees in service delivery. The internal marketing concept
is based on the belief that a firms internal market/employees
can be motivated to strive for customer-consciousness, market
orientation and sales mindedness through the application of
accepted external approaches and principles. Although
technology still dominates, human resources and how they are

managed is receiving increased attention in gaining
competitive advantage. Factors including individual training
and project involvement, job characteristics, organizational
structure, social support and employees self-efficacy were
expected to influence employees extrarole behaviours.
To gain greater customer experience and satisfaction, right

person should be identified, properly trained, supervised,
motivated and providing conducive work environment with
clear understanding of the rules of the organization. The high
levels of internal service quality (good service between
departments and divisions) lead to higher levels of employee
satisfaction. The happier employees are, the more likely they
are to stay and the better their productivity. These two factors
combine to provide better levels of service to customers,
creating higher levels of satisfaction and higher levels of
loyalty.

CONCLUSION
In the present consumer economy, attracting and crucially
keeping customers for long-term is a key challenge for any
organization. The customer is at the center of all business
activities and particularly, the banks have organized by
positioning the staff to meet the needs of the customers in a
highly customized and responsive manner. The ultimate, in
customer satisfaction, is giving customers exactly what they
want. The customers are the most valuable asset of any
organization.
An organizations success depends on how many customers it

has, how much they buy, and how often they buy. Customers
that are satisfied will increase in number, buy more, and
contact the bank frequently for various reasons. Attraction,
retention and enhancement of the customer relationship are
essential to maintain, delighted and committed customers, who
form the basis for the sustainable competitive position of the
bank. Impact of service encounters, role of intermediaries,
quality of service, waiting time and customer complaints are
considered essential for an organization to find out the gaps in
the perceptions and expectations of the customers. The
organizations should continuously monitor and evaluate the
services offered by them to the customers and they should
keep themselves ahead of their own competitors.
This study can also be extended to tourism and hospitality,

insurance companies, hospitals, transport corporations,
railways, airlines, telecommunications libraries and other
service sectors to assess the degree of quality of service
offered by them. The results obtained from the study will help
the organizations to take necessary actions to improve the
service quality and achieve the customer satisfaction.

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CUSTOMER SATISFACTION Page 1

I declare that the project report submitted to my college Malwa

This is a result of my own work under continuous guidance and kind

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION Page 2

Perseverance, inspiration and motivation have always played a key role in

At this level of understanding, it is often difficult to understand a wide

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION Page 3

Customer satisfaction, a business term, is a measure of

In a competitive marketplace where businesses compete for

There is a substantial body of empirical literature that

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION Page 5

Customer satisfaction has become increasingly important, as

Investment is a commitment of funds made in the expectation

There are various types of investments such as real estate,

After liberalization, privatization and globalization (LPG) policy

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION Page 6

Customer is king in market by Adam Smith suggest that in this

Present study has focused on such issues.

In the present scenario, successful corporations gain

Every business organization aims to satisfy its customers to a

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION Page 7

In the modern competitive world, service process performance

Tamas Jonas and Janos Kovesi (2010) stated that understanding

A. Parasuraman suggests that the broadening the scope of

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION Page 8

T. Rungting, says that expectations and perceived service

Vimi and Mohd (2008) undertook a study of the determinants of

Bargal and Sharma analysed the role of service marketing in

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION Page 9

The atmosphere in which the financial institutions operate has

This paper attempts to summarize the results of literature

Basically, you might look at marketing as the wide range

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION Page 10

According to Yang, Zhilin and Robin Peterson intends to extend

According to S. Gopalakrishnan and Dr. D. Muruganantham,

Prerna Dawar (2013) on her study found factors affecting

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION Page 11

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION Page 12

Kano's model of customer satisfaction distinguishes six

1. Basic Factors. (Dissatisfiers. Must have.) - The

2. Excitement Factors. (Satisfiers. Attractive.) - The

3. Performance Factors. The factors that cause satisfaction

The additional three attributes which Kano mentions are:

4. Indifferent attributes. The customer does not care

5. Questionable attributes. It is unclear whether this

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION Page 13

Steps in the customer satisfaction model.

Kano developed a questionnaire to identify the basic,

1 For each product feature a pair of questions is formulated to

2 The first question concerns the reaction of the customer if the

3 The second question concerns the reaction of the customer if

4 By combining the answers all attributes can be classified into

Objectives of the Study

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION Page 14

3) To find the factors influencing choice the products /

4) To analyze the satisfaction of customers towards the

5) To find the expectations of customers regarding value

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION Page 15

A service encounter is the time taken by the customer to

Gummesson describes service encounter as an interaction

Czepiel considered service encounter as a critical determinant

Service environment is a silent salesman and it communicates

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION Page 16

Fisk say that service encounters or experiences can be