BANK SERVICE DELIVERY AND CUSTOMERS’ SATISFACTION IN NIGERIAN BANKS

 INTRODUCTION

Service delivery is simply concerned with the provision of quality services to clients or customers. Bank service delivery can simply be defined as the delivery or provision of quality services to customers. Banks ability to render a more quality service to their customers would definitely be evident in their customer base as every customer would want a quality service. Obviously, one of the factors that separate competitors (banks) from the other (other banks) in the Nigerian banking industry is their level and quality of services delivery. This is because service delivery determines the level of customers’ satisfaction and consequently, the customer base of any bank. The patronage by customers on the service delivered by a given Bank, no doubt is dependent on the level of the satisfaction they so derive from it. Satisfaction in relation to bank service delivery is the customers’ evaluation of the service in terms of whether that service met their needs and expectations (Babatunde and kemi, 2011).  Happy and satisfied customers behave in a positive manner.

The effect of service delivery by banks and the satisfaction derivable by the customers are becoming perceptible. Given that the contemporary customers are more informed than ever before, Leboeuf (1988) posited that meeting their expectation as regards satisfaction is increasingly becoming more difficult.

According to Woldie (2000), bank customers in Nigeria have been found to be dissatisfied with the quality, of services provided by banks. This calls for the need to actually investigate how customers behave or get satisfied with regards to the services of commercial banks in Nigeria.

No doubt that information from current technologies in banking operations has improved efficiency and effectiveness of their operations so that more transactions can be processed faster and most conveniently.  However, this development in the Nigerian banking industry seems not to have achieved the very essence and goal of satisfying the myriad of customers (Babatunde 2011). Long queues  are still seen in the banking halls, bank customers still handled too much cash, and hardly the people talk about the electronic banking service delivery that are presumed to enhance customers satisfaction in Nigeria banking industry. Against this backdrop, this study examines Bank services delivery and customer satisfaction in Nigeria as a tool in increasing the customer base of banks.