Service Quality in Commercial Banks:An Empirical Study among Rural and Urban Customers

The research paper intends to find out the differences in the service quality rendered by the commercial banks of India as perceived by the rural and urban customers. This paper is an academically oriented field research conducted in May 2006 in the Madurai district of Tamilnadu, India, covering 255 customers consisting of 159 urban and 96 rural customers who are regular bank customers. The study identified that the perception on service quality among the rural and urban customers are lesser than their level of expectation especially in reliability and responsiveness. The significantly influencing perception of the service quality on the overall customer's satisfaction among the customers is Reliability, Assurance and Empathy. The important discriminate perceptions on service quality among the rural and urban customers are the Reliability and Responsiveness. The urban customers are generally expecting more from the commercial banks than the rural customers. Hence, the study shows the need of differentiated service quality strategy among the commercial banks to satisfy the rural and urban customers.