The key determinants of Internet banking service quality: a content analysis

TLDR

Internet banking service quality faces various issues that impact user experience. The study aims to provide recommendations to enhance Internet banking service quality and customer satisfaction. The authors performed a content analysis of customer anecdotes about critical incidents in Internet banking. The analysis uncovered 17 dimensions of Internet banking service quality—10 in customer service, 6 in online systems, and 1 in product variety—showing no major differences between Internet‑only and traditional banks, with reliability, responsiveness, access, and accuracy most frequently cited.

Abstract

Focuses on the issues associated with Internet banking service quality. Customer anecdotes of critical incidents in Internet banking were content‐analyzed. Identified a total of 17 dimensions of Internet banking service quality, which can be classified into three broad categories – customer service quality, banking service product quality, and online systems quality. The derived dimensions include: for customer service quality, ten dimensions such as reliability, responsiveness, competence, courtesy, credibility, access, communication, understanding the customer, collaboration, and continuous improvement; for online systems quality, six dimensions such as content, accuracy, ease of use, timeliness, aesthetics, and security; and for banking service product quality, one dimension of product variety/diverse features. Also revealed that, in terms of frequency of references to the 17 dimensions, no substantial differences exist between Internet‐only banks and traditional banks offering Internet banking service. The most frequently mentioned dimensions, as the main sources of satisfaction or dissatisfaction, were reliability, responsiveness, access, and accuracy. Some suggestions and recommendations were provided to improve the Internet banking service quality and, in turn, customer satisfaction.