A Report on

Measuring Service Quality of

Sonali Bank Limited in Bangladesh
 Submission Details

Course Title: Business Research

Course Code: B-409

Submitted To:

Dr. Hasina Sheykh

Professor

Department of Banking and Insurance

University of Dhaka

Submitted By:

Section: B

Group: 01

Tamanna Tasnim (ID No: 21-009)

Nabila Ahmad (ID No: 21-013)

Antor Shaha (ID No: 21-055)

Fahimur Rahman (ID No: 21-093)

Md.Najmul Hasan (ID No: 21-097)

Habiba Ferduse (ID No: 21-119)

Date of Submission: 8 November 2018

 Measuring Service Quality of
Sonali Bank Limited in Bangladesh
 Letter of Transmittal
08 November 2018
Dr. Hasina Sheykh
Professor
Department of Banking and Insurance
University of Dhaka
Subject: Submission of report on “Measuring Service Quality of Sonali Bank Limited in
Bangladesh”

Dear Madam

It is a great learning opportunity for us to submit the report on ―Measuring Service Quality of
Sonali Bank Limited in Bangladesh‖ to you. We have prepared the report according to our
course materials and your provided guidelines. To complete the course we have prepared this
report and we have tried our level best to make the report authentic and meaningful. Working
on this report has provided us with the scope of implementing our acquired theoretical
knowledge in research of service quality of a bank in near-real contexts which will definitely
help us in keeping concrete knowledge on this context.

It shall be a profound gratification for us if this report serves its purpose. Thanking you.

Nabila Ahmad
ID: 21- 013
Section: B
On behalf of Group 01 (Vanquishers)
4th Year 2st Semester, 21st Batch
Department of Banking and Insurance
University of Dhaka
 Acknowledgement

Report is an excellent tool for learning and exploration. No classroom routine can substitute
which is possible while working in real situation. Application of theoretical knowledge to
practical situation is the purpose of report. We acquired vast knowledge of Business Research
from the course Business Research (B-409). It’s the basis of the report that we have prepared.

We would like to thank Dr. Hasina Sheykh Madam who was always there to help and guide
us when we needed help. Her perspective criticism kept us working to make this project more
authentic and realistic. We are thankful to her for encouragement and valuable support.
Working under her was an extremely knowledgeable and enriching experience for us. We are
especially thankful to her for all the value addition and enhancement done to us.
 Abstract
Service quality measurement of a commercial bank is not confined with just providing good
financial services; it also takes account quality of tangible equipment, responsiveness and
empathy of the employees, reliability and assurance from the provided services. This report
―Measuring Service Quality of Sonali Bank Limited in Bangladesh‖ is all about measuring
the service quality of the bank from the above mentioned aspects. The main purpose of this
measurement is to reveal the actual service quality of a bank that may differ from the
theoretically established expectations. The data for the measurement has been collected by
personal interview and then calculated for gap between expected and perceived service. The
analysis of the report depicts that the offered service quality of Sonali Bank does not matches
with the quality expected by its customers. Customers of Sonali Bank believe that an
excellent bank must offer responsive employee, modernized instruments, assurance of safety,
empathy etc. that Sonali Bank up to some extent is failing to provide.

6
 Key Words

Assurance; Customer; Dimension; Empathy; Expected; Factor; Gap; Perceived; Quality;

Questionnaire; Reliability; Respondent; Responsive; Score; Sonali Bank; SERVQUAL;
Tangible.

7
Contents
1.0 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 9
1.1 Research Objectives .................................................................................................................... 10
1.2 Limitations................................................................................................................................... 10
2.0 Literature Review ............................................................................................................................ 11
3.0 Research Methodology ................................................................................................................... 14
3.0 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 15
3.1 Research Design .......................................................................................................................... 15
3.2 Data Collection ............................................................................................................................ 15
3.3 Data Analysis ............................................................................................................................... 15
3.4 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 15
4.0 Data Analysis and Findings .............................................................................................................. 16
4.0 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 17
4.1 Theoretical Framework ............................................................................................................... 17
4.2 Data Analysis ............................................................................................................................... 17
4.3 Findings ....................................................................................................................................... 27
4.4 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 29
5.0 Recommendations and Conclusion ................................................................................................. 30
5.0 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 31
5.1 Recommendations ...................................................................................................................... 31
5.2 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 32
Reference .............................................................................................................................................. 33
Appendix ............................................................................................................................................... 35

Table of Figures
Figure 2: Gap score of each factor Source: made by authors ............................................................... 18
Figure 1: Average expectation and perception of each criterion Source: made by authors ................ 18
Figure 3: Factors of Tangibles Source: made by authors ...................................................................... 19
Figure 4: expectation and the perception regarding Tangibles Source: made by authors .................. 20
Figure 6: expectation and the perception regarding Reliability Source: made by authors ................. 21
Figure 5: Factors of reliability Source: made by authors ..................................................................... 21
Figure 7: Factors of responsiveness Source: made by authors............................................................. 22
Figure 8: expectation and the perception regarding Responsiveness Source: made by authors ........ 23
Figure 10: expectation and the perception regarding Assurance Source: made by authors ............... 24
Figure 9: Factors of assurance Source: made by authors ..................................................................... 24
Figure 11: Factors of Empathy Source: made by authors ..................................................................... 25
Figure 12: expectation and the perception regarding Empathy Source: made by authors ................. 26

8
1.0 Introduction

9
The report has been conducted to measure the service quality provided by Sonali Bank
Limited in Bangladesh. Service quality measurement of Sonali Bank is important for all its
stakeholders. This report will show how excellent Sonali bank is in providing services; from
the view point of its customers.

The whole report is divided into five broad sections. The first section is introduction of the
report where the broad and specific objectives are described. The second section is literature
review of other published reports related to our selected topic. The third section is research
methodology where the methods used in research design, data collection and data analysis
has been described. The fourth section is the major portion of this report, the data analysis
and findings. The data acquired has been analyzed from the perspective of five dimensions of
SERVQUAL method and then the major findings were presented accordingly. The last
section of the report is recommendations and conclusion part where the relevant
recommendations of the report have been presented with a concise conclusion.

1.1 Research Objectives

Broad Objective

The purpose of this report is to investigate the Service Quality of a bank which always affects
Customer Satisfaction. How much a bank’s services differ from the customer’s expected
service will be determined with this research.

Specific Objectives

1. Apply popularly used service quality measurement tool SERVQUAL in a real scenario.
2. Analyze sample customers’ response regarding perceived and expected service quality
from a commercial bank. For this report, the selected bank is Sonali Bank Limited, a state
owned commercial bank.
3. Evaluate and interpret Gap scores to find out the service quality standard of Sonali Bank.

1.2 Limitations
We have only computed the SERVQUAL score of Sonali Bank Limited so there is no scope
for comparison with another similar state-owned commercial bank’s SERVQUAL score.
Again there is no standard score to evaluate the positive or negative deviation.

10
2.0 Literature Review

11
The assigned topic of this report is measuring service quality of Sonali Bank Limited using
SERVQUAL questionnaire to get gap score and afterward determine the bank’s quality of
services offered.

Service quality is the in general measurement of service perceived by the customers in

service marketing literature. Perceived service quality is the outcome of comparing
customers’ earlier expectations about the service with their perceptions after getting real
experience of service performance.

Dimensions

SERVQUAL is a quantitative research instrument for measuring consumers’ perception of

Service Quality with five dimensions (Parasuraman et al., 1988) –

 Tangibles – Physical facilities, appearance of personnel and equipment. It includes all the
physical evidence of the service like the facilities, appearance of personnel, tools or
equipment used to provide the service, physical representations of the services and even
other customers.

 Reliability – Ability to perform the promised service accurately and dependably.

Reliability depends on handling customers' services problems and performing services
right the first time and provide services at the promised time and maintaining error-free
record.

 Responsiveness – Willingness to help customers and provide prompt service.

Responsiveness involves timeliness of service, understanding needs and wants of the
customers, individual attention given by the staff, attention to problems and safety in
transaction.

 Assurance - Ability of the organization’s employees to inspire trust and confidence about
the organization exercising their knowledge and manner. Assurance involves the polite
and friendly staff, provision of financial advice, interior comfort, eases of access to
account information and experienced management team.

 Empathy - Personalized attention rendered to customer. It involves giving customers

convenient operating hours, giving personal attention, best interest in to hear and
understand customer’s specific needs.

12
Service quality is an influential way to predict customer satisfaction about banking services.
An organization’s concentration over customers’ expectations can add value in greater
satisfaction. Satisfied customers of the bank will turn into loyal customer, and retaining them
would be constructive as it will result in higher profit, widespread market share and escalate
customer base.

Literature Gap

Many researchers, students and analysts have made several reports regarding the topic
measuring service quality of banks and analyzed gap scores determining banking services’
advancement. But none have prepared any report on service quality of Sonali Bank Limited
using SERVQUAL method. This report has been prepared to compare deviations between
expected and real experience; and ultimately suggesting enhance better quality in service
offered.

13
3.0 Research Methodology

14
3.0 Introduction
The methodology of the report gives a scenario of how the research has been designed, how
the data have been collected and how the analysis of these data has been conducted.

3.1 Research Design

This is an exploratory formal study in which the method followed in data collection is the
communication studies depending on primary data. Primary data are collected through
structured questionnaire provided by course instructor to determine the gap between expected
and value perception. The survey is conducted under actual field conditions as a cross-
sectional study carried out on a sample size of 30 to capture their characteristics designed as
statistical method. It is an ex post facto design as the respondents delivered their opinion
without any prejudice and the purpose is assessing the summation of primary data resulting in
a decision.

3.2 Data Collection

The report analysis is based on primary data. Data are collected through interview from 30
randomly selected customers of Sonali Bank Limited. A structured questionnaire was used to
collect data through the interview. A seven-point Likert scale is used to find out customers’
opinions, ranging as 1=Strongly Disagree, 2=Disagree, 3=More or Less Disagree,
4=Undecided, 5=More or Less Agree, 6=Agree, 7=Strongly Agree, with two categories of
questions regarding customers’ expectations and perceptions about services offered by the
bank. The survey was conducted by the all group members.

3.3 Data Analysis

The data analysis is done by collecting expectation and perception score of each sub-factors
from the 30 respondent under the five dimensions and calculating average gap between those
scores and finally taking the average unweighted SERVQUAL score. The gap Score
calculation has been done using Microsoft Excel software. Then the average scores gained
from five dimensions and the final SERVQUAL score has been analyzed and interpreted.

3.4 Conclusion
From the above discussion we get a clear view of the structure of the report. In the next
section we will see implication of these methodologies.

15
4.0 Data Analysis and Findings

16
4.0 Introduction
This section broadly discuses the analysis of data that has been collected through personal
interview with 30 randomly selected customers of Sonali Bank Limited.

4.1 Theoretical Framework

Tangibles
Reliability
Service Customer
Responsiveness
Quality Satisfaction
Assurance
Empathy

4.2 Data Analysis

The data analysis of this report mainly focuses on five major factors which are used to
evaluate the overall expectation and the perception of the respondent regarding Sonali Bank.
These factors are given below.

1. Tangibles
2. Reliability
3. Responsiveness
4. Assurance
5. Empathy

Each of these factors has several sub-factors which have been explained later on the section.
First, we have collected the expectation score and the perception score for each of the sub-
factor then we have averaged all the score. The average score of the sub factors has been
considered as the score of that particular factor. We have calculated the gap score by
calculating the difference between the expectation and the perception of the respondents. As a
summary of the overall data analysis, we have shown the average expectation score and the
average perception score for each of the criterion on the chart, followed by their nominal gap
score.

17
 AVERAGE EXPECTATION AND PERCEPTION OF
EACH CRITERION
Average Expectation Average Perception

6.14
6.03
5.95

5.89

5.79

4.25
3.98

3.81
3.73

3.65
TANGIBLES RESPONSIVENESS EMPATHY RELIABILITY ASSURANCE

Figure 2: Average expectation and perception of each criterion

Source: made by authors

Gap
-2.30 -2.20 -2.10 -2.00 -1.90 -1.80 -1.70

Assurance

Reliability

Empathy

Responsiveness

Tangibles

gap

Figure 1: Gap score of each factor

Source: made by authors
Both the graphs clearly showing that the customer has expected a lot of assurance and
responsiveness from the bank. However, the bank has not been able to meet any of the
expectation as all the gap scores are in negative figures and none of them are smaller than (-
1.89). Moreover, the bank has failed by a huge margin in case of tangibles and the empathy
as the gap score of these two factors are bigger than (-2.23). The following section will
elaborately discuss and depict the analysis factor by factor.

1. Tangibles
Tangibles mainly refer to the outlook or the outer appurtenance of Sonali Bank Branches.
Sonali bank is a service provider and it provides the service through its branches. Therefore,

18
the decoration of the place, where the service is provided to the customers, is significantly
vital for the bank. The decoration of the branch has an immense impact on the satisfaction of
the customer (Newman, 2001). If the overall environment is comfortable for the customer
then they would not mind waiting a bit longer than expected. As we know, in case of
providing service, customer waiting time can be a major catalyst of causing customer
dissatisfaction. Consequently, the banks of Bangladesh are contemplating on ensuring that
the overall environment of the branches is highly conformable for the customers who come to
the branches to obtain banking services. There are numerous factors which contribute to the
decoration of the branches. However, our survey has only focused on the modern looking
facilities used by the bank, visually appealing physical facilities of the bank, neat appearance
of the employee at the reception and the materials associated with the service. According to
our survey, people are influenced highly by the presence of the modern looking equipment in
the branches, followed by the neat appearance of the employee at the reception. Surprisingly,
none of the expectation is met by the Sonali Bank. However, the survey also shows that
people perceive that Sonali Bank lacking, the most, at using visually appealing service
materials and visually appealing facilities.

FACTORS OF TANGIBLES
Modern looking equipement Visually appealing facilities
Neat appearance of the employee at the reception Visually appeling service materials
6.10

6.03
5.87

5.80

4.00
3.77

3.70

3.43

EXPECTATION PERCIVED

Figure 3: Factors of Tangibles

Source: made by authors

Now we are going to consider the tangibles as a factor and the individual score of the
tangibles will be the average of the four scores assigned to each of the factors of the
tangibles. The following chart will show the difference between the expectation and the
perception of the 30 respondents of our survey.

19
 EXPECTATION AND THE PERCEPTION REGARDING
TANGIBLES
Expectation Perception

6
scores

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

Respondents

Figure 4: expectation and the perception regarding Tangibles

Source: made by authors
As the graph is clearly stating that the gap has rarely been small between expectation and the
perception of the respondents. To be more precise, we found only 8 respondents whose gap
score was below -1. The average gap between the expectation and the perception was found
to be (-2.23) which is a significant deviation, as we are only using a 7-degree Likert scale.
2. Reliability
Trust is a major issue in the banking sector. The reason behind is that if a bank cannot gain
sufficient trust from the customer then they will certainly never collect sufficient deposit
(Kunst and Lemmink, 1997). At the extreme point, the lack of trust will create panic among
the customers which can trigger a bank run. A sudden bank run can create a liquidity crisis, if
not a solvency crisis. Alike the tangibles, the reliability can be measured against numerous
factors yet we will focus only on the five factors which are maintaining promise, rapid
response in problem-solving, appropriateness of rendering service, the timing of providing
services and error-free record of the bank. The survey implicates that the respondents value
the error-free record the most as a sign of reliability. On the other hand, the consumer
perceives that Sonali Bank is a very poor performer in case of rendering banking services
appropriately.

20
 FACTORS OF RELIABILITY
Maintaining promise Rapid response in problem solving
Appropriateness of rendering service Timing of providing services
Error free record of the bank

6.03
5.90

5.83

5.73
5.43

4.13
4.07

3.79
3.53

3.50
EXPECTATION PERCIVED

Figure 6: Factors of reliability

Source: made by authors

E X P EC TAT IO N A N D T H E P E R C E P T I O N R EG A R D IN G
R E L I A B I L IT Y
Expectation Perception

7
6
5
Scores

4
3
2
1
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

Respondents

Figure 5: expectation and the perception regarding Reliability

Source: made by authors

For the next analysis on the reliability of Sonali Bank, we are going to take the average of the
score of the five factors and consider that average as the overall score of reliability. The
following graph will show the score given by the 30 respondents on the reliability of the
bank.

21
The graph is unequivocally stating that the perception has hardly met the expectation which
the respondent kept from the bank.Among the 30 respondents, 12 has a gap score below -1.5
and only one person has a gap score of 0. The average gap between the expectation and the
perception was found to be -1.98 which is less than the gap scores of tangibles. Therefore, we
can say that Sonali Bank has done a better job in being reliable.

3. Responsiveness
The word responsiveness clearly shows that this factor is all about the promptness of the bank
in rendering services and responding to consumers demand. We judge the responsiveness of
the Sonali Bank based on four specific factors. These factors are the timing of rendering
service, rendering service promptly, willingness to help the customer and finally, responding
to the customer demand or request. According to the survey, the respondents have focused on
each of the factors as a crucial indicator of responsiveness. As a result, we can see that the
respondents have expected almost similar score for all of the four factors which means that
they want all of these four factors to be on the top priority list of the bank. In reality, the
respondent has shown some sign of contentment in case of rendering service. However, they
have perceived that Sonali Bank is not enough responsive to the request of the customers, as
a result, this factor got the lowest perception score. The following graph will depict this
scenario more lucidly.

FACTORS OF RESPONSIVENESS
Timing of rendering service Rendering service promptly
Willingness to help customer Responding to the customer demand or request
6.07

6.07

6.00

6.00

4.50
3.97

3.83

3.60

EXPECTATION PERCIVED

Figure 7: Factors of responsiveness

Source: made by authors

22
Now, if we look at the next chart, we will see the average score of responsiveness given by
each of the 30 respondents. The blue region shows the average score of expectation of each
respondent while the orange region shows the perceived score given by the respondents.

E X P E C TAT I O N A N D T H E P E R C E P T I O N R E G A R D I N G
RESPONSIVENESS
Expectation Perception

8
6
Scores

4
2
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

Respondents

Figure 8: expectation and the perception regarding Responsiveness

Source: made by authors

The chart shows the immense gap between expectation and perception. According to our
analysis, 19 people had a gap score higher than (-1.5). The average expectation score
regarding responsiveness was 6.03 while the perceived score was only 3.96. This left a huge
room for a gap score of (-2.06).

4. Assurance
At first sight, assurance might seem like a mirror reflection of reliability, but actually, there
are some differences among these two terms. Firstly, reliability only encompasses all the
activities related to service rendering (Scribd, 2018). On the other hand, the assurance is more
focused on the safety of the deposit and building to ensure that Sonali Bank has all the
actions under control. To judge the extent of assurance of Sonali Bank, four significant
factors were selected. These factors are banks’ ability to fill up confidence inside the
customers, the safety of transaction, being courteous with customers, ensure proper
accountability to the customer. According to our survey, all the factors of assurance are
almost equally important to the customer as they have expected better performance in each of
the criteria. However, the real-world scenario is not that rosy. The following chart clearly
shows that Sonali Bank is lagging behind when it comes to filling up confidence among the
customers and the other stakeholders. The gap scores of the factor fill up confidence is inside
the customer is calculated as (-2.07) which is the largest among all other factors of assurance.

23
 FACTORS OF ASSURANCE
Fill up confidence inside the customers Safety of transaction
Being courteous with customers Ensure proper accountability

6.23

6.20
6.10
6.03

4.47
4.40

4.17
3.97
EXPECTATION PERCIVED

Figure 10: Factors of assurance

Source: made by authors

E X P EC TAT IO N A N D T H E P E R C E P T I O N R EG A R D IN G
ASSURANCE
Expectation Perception

8
7
6
5
Score

4
3
2
1
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

Respondents

Figure 9: expectation and the perception regarding Assurance

Source: made by authors

Next, the next chart will depict the average score of assurance by averaging the score of each
factor of the assurance given by each of the 30 respondents. The blue region shows the
average score of expectation of each respondent while the orange region shows the perceived
score given by the respondents.

Like all the other graph shown previously in this report, this graph will also show a negative
gap. But the difference between the other entire graph and this graph is that this graph has the
least amount of gap score compare to any other factor. According to our analysis, the average
gap score for assurance was -1.89. The overall expectation score regarding assurance was (-
24
6.14) and the perceived score was 4.25. Therefore, we can say that Sonali Bank has failed to
increase the confidence of the customers but still, customer has faith in Sonali Bank for safe
transaction point. The theory of too big to fail might have an impact influence in this
scenario.

5. Empathy
Empathy refers to the ability to see the overall scenario from the point of view of the other
parties involved. In our research, we will judge the empathy of the bank as the ability to see
the overall scenario from the point of view of the customer (Eliot, 2016). We will judge the
empathy of the Sonali Bank based on the factors such as providing attention to the individual
customer, selecting convenient operating hour, understand the needs of customers. According
to our survey, the customer expects that the bank will understand their individual needs and
they will consider that bank highly empathic. Our survey has revealed the fact that the
customers want that their bank can understand their specific needs and respond to them
accordingly. On the perception side, the respondents expressed that the bank is not
endeavoring enough on the giving individual customer enough attention as they require or
desire. The following graph will depict this situation more lucidly.

FACTORS OF EMPATHY
Providing attention to individual customer Selecting convenient operating hour
Providing personal attention to employee Understand the needs of customers
Abiltiy of employees to understand customers specific needs
6.27
5.87
5.83

5.80

5.70

3.83
3.73

3.70

3.63
3.33

EXPECTATION PERCIVED

Figure 11: Factors of Empathy

Source: made by authors

Furthermore, we will illustrate the response we have accumulated from the 30 generous
respondents regarding the empathy of Sonali Bank. In the following graph, we will depict the
expectation and the perception of the respondents by using numbers ranging 1 to 7.

25
 E X P E C TAT I O N A N D T H E P E R C E P T I O N R E G A R D I N G
E M PAT H Y
Expectation Perception

8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

Figure 12: expectation and the perception regarding Empathy

Source: made by authors

As the graph clearly shows there is a huge gap between the expectation and the perception of
each respondent. As a result, the gap score of empathy was the highest among all the five
factors. According to our analysis, only 6 people had a gap score below (-1.5). Subsequently,
the average gap scores of empathies stood at (-2.25).

From this overall analysis, we can conclude that the Sonali Bank lacks a lot in every sector.
Yet, it lacks most of the empathy which means that Sonali Bank failed to provide desired
attention to the individual customer. They also failed drastically in the tangibles factor which
means that the place, at which the bank renders the banking service, is not very attractive or
convenient for the customers. Sonali Bank had the least gap score in assurance which means
that the customer has faith on Sonali Bank which might be due to the fact that the vast
majority of the people believe that government will never let the Sonali Bank fail as it has
become too big to fail.

26
Average Unweighted SERVQUAL Score

Dimensions Average Expectation Average Perception Gap

Tangibles 5.95 3.73 -2.23
Responsiveness 6.03 3.98 -2.06
Empathy 5.89 3.65 -2.25
Reliability 5.79 3.81 -1.98
Assurance 6.14 4.25 -1.89
Total Gap Score -10.40
Average SERVQUAL Score (Total Gap Score/5) -2.08
Table 1: Average Unweighted SERVQUAL Score
Source: made by author

Average unweighted SERVQUAL score is the average of the result of all the factors -
tangibles, responsiveness, empathy, reliability and assurance. Here, the unweighted average
method has been followed rather than weighted average as importance of a particular factor
cannot be determined accurately. Again, weighted average method is more complex and may
not show real scenario if weight allocation goes wrong.

The negative scores indicated the existence of a service quality gap, whereby the customers
are not having their expectations met by the actual service performance. The results show that
almost all of the statements (questions in the questionnaire) in these survey customers
indicate that the quality of service fell down especially regarding empathy, scoring (-2.25).
The wider gap shows more dissatisfaction with service quality performance. Therefore, more
attention by managers is required to improve on this area of service.

The task of Sonali Bank under such circumstances is to identify key reasons for the negative
gap, develop and implement new strategy that would minimize the gap between expectations
of customers and provided service of Sonali Bank.

4.3 Findings
Overall Findings
 Negative gap scores in each dimension reflect poor service quality of the Bank.
 The respondents expected a lot of assurance from the bank and they expected the least
reliability from the bank. Apparently, they perceived that the bank has provided a lot of
assurance compared to the other factors. However, they perceived that the bank showed
the least amount of empathy to the customers.

27
 The gap score was recorded at the highest for the factor empathy, followed by the gap
score of tangibles and the lowest gap score was recorded for the factor assurance. The
following table will show it—

Dimension Factor Score

Empathy -2.25
Tangibles -2.23
Responsiveness -2.06
Reliability -1.98
Assurance -1.89

Findings regarding Tangibles

 People expected the presence of the modern looking equipment in the branches, followed
by the neat appearance of the employee at the reception. They perceived that Sonali Bank
lacks the most at using visually appealing service materials and visually appealing
facilities.
 Only 8 respondents had a gap score below -1. The average gap between the expectation
and the perception was found to be -2.23.

Findings regarding Reliability

 The respondents value the error-free record the most as a sign of reliability. On the other
hand, the consumer perception that Sonali Bank is a very poor performer in case of
rendering banking services appropriately.
 Among the 30 respondents, 12 has a gap score below -1.5 and only one person has a gap
score of 0. The average gap between expectation and perception was found to be -1.98

Findings regarding Responsiveness

 The respondents have expected almost similar score for all of the four factors and they
have shown some sign of contentment in case of rendering service.
 They have perceived that Sonali Bank is not enough responsive to the request of the
customers as this factor got the lowest perception score.

28
 19 people had a gap score higher than -1.5. The average expectation score regarding
responsiveness was 6.03 while the perceived score was only 3.96. This left a huge room
for a gap score of -2.06

Findings regarding Assurance

 All the factors of assurance are almost equally important to the customer as they have
expected better performance in each of the criteria. Sonali Bank is lagging behind to fill
up confidence among the customers and the other stakeholders.
 Analysis ofthe average gap score for assurance was -1.89. The overall expectation score
regarding assurance was -6.14 and the perceived score was 4.25

Findings regarding Empathy

 The customers want that their bank can understand their specific needs and respond to
them accordingly. On the perception side, the respondents think that the bank is not
endeavoring enough on the giving individual customer enough attention as they require or
desire.
 Only 6 people had a gap score below -1.5. Subsequently, the average gap scores of
empathies stood at -2.25. The average expectation score was 5.89 and the perceived score
was 3.64

4.4 Conclusion
This section has revealed the analysis and the major findings of this report. The next section
presents recommendations regarding the above analysis, findings and the objective of the
report. The last one is a short conclusion of the whole report.

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5.0 Recommendations and Conclusion

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5.0 Introduction
This section of the report is representing some recommendations that Sonali Bank may adopt
to improve its service quality for better customer satisfaction. Lastly the conclusion has been
drawn.

5.1 Recommendations
1. Sonali Bank needs to increase the confidence level of customer. The recent culpable
scandals have reduced this confidence by a substantial margin. To regain this confidence,
the bank has to ensure transparency and accountability in every aspect of the
organization. This will increase the reliability of the Sonali Bank.
2. The bank should concentrate more on the need of individual customers. This can be
initiated by collecting feedback from the customer and identify the drawback with a view
to resolve them.
3. Sonali Bank should re-enforce their overall operation and decoration by introducing new
modern tech in most of their branches. This will be costly initially but in long run, it will
be beneficial.
4. The bank has a lot of dark track record in the past, but the bank must ensure these
unfortunate incidents do not reoccur in the future. Tight monitoring and frequent audit of
operation can asset the bank in preventing such malice events.
5. The bank should increase their responsiveness by taking the aid of modern technology
such as internet banking, mobile banking, mobile applications etc.
6. The bank should also use modern technology to collect feedback from the consumers so
that they can control their operation more accurately and be more responsive to individual
customer demand. In long run, it can also enhance the empathy of the bank.

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5.2 Conclusion
The perceived quality of a given service is the outcome of an evaluation process in which
customer compare their prior expectations of the service with that they have actually
received. This study has conducted a survey on service quality of Sonali Bank limited in
Bangladesh. The survey was done by identifying five dimensions that represent the
evaluative criteria which customers use to assess service quality. It is important for the bank
to define the service quality standards that are measurable and transparent. The study has
showed negative average SERVQUAL score in all the dimensions. The gap score was
recorded at the highest for the factor empathy (-2.25), followed by the gap score of tangibles
(-2.23) and the lowest gap score was recorded for the factor assurance (-1.89). These gap
scores identified many areas that require improvement.

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Reference

33
1. Eliot, G. (2016). The mill on the Floss. New York: Open Road Integrated Media.
2. Kunst, P. and Lemmink, J. (1997). Managing service quality. London: Paul Chapman
Pub.
3. Newman, K. (2001). Interrogating SERVQUAL: a critical assessment of service quality
measurement in a high street retail bank. International Journal of Bank Marketing, 19(3),
pp.126-139.
4. Scribd. (2018). Article on Service Gap of Prime &Sonali Bank | Correlation And
Dependence | Customer Satisfaction. [online] Available at:
https://www.scribd.com/doc/53377544/Article-on-Service-Gap-of-Prime-Sonali-Bank
[Accessed 7 Nov. 2018].

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Appendix

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