Customer Satisfaction: A Comparative Analysis of Public and Private Sector Banks in India

Abstract

Indian banking has undergone tremendous changes over time and the entry of private sector banks has transformed Indian banking both structurally and functionally. In this competitive environment, presence of an effective banking system is essential for the economic activities and industrial progress of a country. Looking at the prevailing competitive environment among banks, it was thought to be imperative to study and compare the performance of public and private sector banks.  Nowadays banks have realized that cost of attracting a new customer is much more than retaining existing customers, so banks are emphasizing more upon customer satisfaction. These days customers demand for top quality services and products served with minimum wait time, so customers prefer techno- savvy banks as well bankers. At this backdrop, the main problem today before the commercial banks, more particularly the public sector banks in India which were earlier operating in a sheltered regime after nationalization, is their long-run survival, tapping quality customers and forging way ahead by retaining their valued customers. The current research paper attempts to make a comparative analysis of level of customer satisfaction towards services provided by public and private sector banks. The study has been conducted in Chandigarh city. This study is based on questionnaire method. A sample of 160 customers has been selected using convenient sampling method. The statistical tests are conducted at 5% and 1% level of significant the main statistical tools are used. This study concluded that private sector banks are more preferred by majority of the customer as they emphasize more upon relationship building with their clients and are better equipped with modern infrastructure as compared to public sector banks.