SYSTRA‐SQ: a new measure of bank service quality

We describe the development of a new scale designed to measure service quality perceptions of retail bank customers. Empirical studies were performed in two waves. First, qualitative research was undertaken in the form of seven focus groups and 39 one‐to‐one interviews. These produced 963 text items that described customers’ service quality perceptions. These were categorised against the technical and functional service quality schema proposed by Gronroos. Then, a three‐phase, four‐sample, quantitative study was undertaken to derive a quantitative measure of technical and functional service quality. We have developed and validated a new 21‐item scale comprising four dimensions: service system quality, behavioural service quality, service transactional accuracy, and machine service quality. We found that customers evaluate SQ at two levels: organisational and transactional. The parsimony, reliability and validity of the scale suggest this is a measure of high utility to the banking industry.

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