Consumer Perceptions and Expectations of Service Quality: Assessment through SERVQUAL Dimensions

Service quality is very important to attract and retain customers in today's competitive business environment. Using the SERVQUAL model this research evaluates customers' expectations against their perceptions of the service quality in a private financial institute at Dhaka city of Bangladesh. To measure respondent's satisfaction level with the provided service quality of financial institutes. Fifty (50) clients were interviewed where the sample was selected non-randomly. The results showed that respondents' expectations and perception level markedly varied with the service provided by a financial institution. However, SERVQUAL tangible dimension indicated a small gap between expectation and perception level. The study concluded that level of customers' expectations on the service quality from any private financial service providers was higher than they perceived earlier. Customer services of private financial institutes should improve further through high quality services to achieve their optimum level of businesses.