Managing Service Quality in Commercial Banks: A Gender Focus‪.‬

Introduction The Indian banking system was heavily dominated by nationalized commercial banks until the globalization. The financial regulation and credit controls imposed by the Government created a system in which competition was very less. A more competitive banking environment has gradually been achieved through the deregulation measures and permission granted to many private and foreign banks into the Indian banking industry. These changes have also caused a compression of profits and a re-orientation of banking strategy towards quality service provision. (Noulas and Glaveli, 2002). The introduction of new private sector banks and foreign banks has decreased margins and revenues to banks. All commercial banks in the market try to sell mere products (Cross-selling), adopt new dynamic marketing strategies, to develop new innovative products and to place greater emphasis on both the tangible and intangible aspects of their service (Petridon and Glaveli, 2003). As a result of this heightened competition, bank service quality has become an increasingly important factor in determining market shares and profitability in the banking sector (Anderson et al., 1994; Spathis et al., 2002). Perceived service quality results from a comparison of consumer's expectation with their perceptions of the service actually delivered by the supplier (Kangis and Voukelatos, 1997). Groonross defined service quality as a mixture of three elements the quality of the consumption process itself; the quality of the outcomes of the process; and image of the provider of the service.