Exploring Service Quality in Islamic Banking Industry of Afghanistan: An Analysis of Customer Satisfaction

Service quality is an essential organizational factor that has a positive relationship with customer satisfaction. Thus, in this paper, we measure the service quality of the Islamic banking industry of Afghanistan and customer satisfaction through the modified CARTER model. We collected data in Kabul province from customers of the following banks: Afghanistan International Bank (AIB), Afghan United Bank (AUB), Bank-e-Millie Afghan (BMA), Ghazanfar Bank (GB), and Islamic Bank of Afghanistan (IBA). In nutshell, our study results reveal that in the Islamic banking industry of Afghanistan out of seven dimensions of service quality only four dimensions are significant namely; compliance (COM), reliability, empathy (EMP), responsiveness (RES) while the other three dimensions namely; assurance (ASR), tangibles (TAN), and corporate social responsibility (CSR) are insignificant for the customers of Islamic banking in Afghanistan. Thus, our study suggests that the Islamic banking industry in Afghanistan needs improvement in innovative products and services with their pricing and designing policies. Similarly, the Islamic banking industry of Afghanistan needs to determine a fair profit ratio for bank management, making easy required conditions and terms in the agreement with customers, and taking a fair commission on services. This research will help the Islamic banking industry of Afghanistan to adjust and design truly their operational and managerial policies.