Customer Satisfaction for Financial Services: The Role of Products, Services, and Information Technology

TLDR

The study investigates the drivers of customer satisfaction in financial services to inform managerial decisions. Using a full Bayesian analysis that handles missing data, the authors quantify how product and service attributes influence satisfaction across the customer base. Product offerings emerge as the main driver of satisfaction, while service quality—especially IT‑enabled call centers versus branches—also matters but its impact differs across customer segments, offering actionable insights for the industry.

Abstract

In this paper, we study the drivers of customer satisfaction for financial services. We discuss a full Bayesian analysis based on data collected from customers of a leading financial services company. Our approach allows us to explicitly accommodate missing data and enables quantitative assessment of the impact of the drivers of satisfaction across the customer population. We find that satisfaction with product offerings is a primary driver of overall customer satisfaction. The quality of customer service with respect to financial statements and services provided through different channels of delivery, such as information technology enabled call centers and traditional branch offices, are also important in determining overall satisfaction. However, our analysis indicates that the impact of these service delivery factors may differ substantially across customer segments. In order to facilitate managerial action, we discuss how specific operational quality attributes for designing and delivering financial services can be leveraged to enhance satisfaction with product offerings and service delivery. Our approach and findings have significant implications for managing customer satisfaction in the financial services industry.