Service quality and customers' purchase intentions: an empirical study of the Indian banking sector

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to understand the dimensionality of customer-perceived service quality and investigate the influence of service quality on customers' purchase intentions. Design/methodology/approach - A modified SERVQUAL instrument was used to capture customers' perceptions of service quality followed by exploratory factor analysis to study the dimensionality of service quality in retail banking. Multiple regression was used to probe the influence of the dimensions of service quality on purchase intentions. Findings - The results of the study provide strong support for the predictive power of perceived service quality on customers' purchase intentions and shows that reliability is most important for influencing customers' purchase intentions, followed by employee behaviour, tangibles and convenience. Research limitations/implications - Refinement of the scale for measuring service quality in retail banking is possible based on future newer trends in retail banking. Multiple measures of the purchase intentions construct may also be considered in future research. Practical implications - Retail bank managers must realise the importance of reliability as the strongest driver for purchase intentions. Performing the service dependably and accurately is the heart of service marketing excellence. When a company performs a service carelessly, when it makes avoidable mistakes, it shakes customers' confidence in its capabilities and undermines its chances of earning a reputation for service excellence. Originality/value - The study explores the relationship between service quality and purchase intentions by linking both constructs at their dimensional level. This increases the diagnostics of explaining customers' purchase intentions.