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Customer Satisfaction Study for National Australia Bank

Paper Type: Free Assignment Study Level: University / Undergraduate
Wordcount: 3653 words Published: 19th Jun 2020

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Introduction

Any business needs to conduct some research in order to be able to fully satisfy the customer in their services. Chrzan and Kemery (2012) confirm customer satisfaction evaluation is the most useful tool to identify how to improve products and services. This is quite relevant in the banking industry as it is a mature market with limited growth opportunities. Future growth opportunities will arise out of acquiring market share from competitors. Lewis (1994) logic was that repeat purchase and cross-sell opportunities are dependent on customer satisfaction with the company offering.

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Satisfaction is related to the fulfillment of implicit and explicit customer needs by the totality of attributes of services or products (Tontini et al 2013). Assignment investigates tasks required by business managers in NAB to inform decision making on customer satisfaction. In this article we investigate the significance of gap analysis and the business managers in National Australian Bank (NAB) to inform decision making on customer satisfaction.

Objectives of the Research

The main objective of the research is to create a customer satisfaction study of customers of the National Australia Bank so that we have a reliable insight into customer satisfaction. This will then be used to meet the business goal of being Australia and New Zealand’s most respected bank (One NAB Plan).

The customer satisfaction study will specifically be completed at branch level, the objective of the research is to:

  • increase customer loyalty
  • increase customer patronage
  • increase repeat purchases
  • increase cross-selling opportunities
  • improve service delivery and efficiency

This is done by identifying 5 key attributes that affect customer satisfaction then measure those in terms of importance.

From Greenland et al (2016) seven broad service areas were identified. We will focus on five of the main areas. On each, we will look at the overall importance score and compare it with the performance score of the bank and our next major competitor CBA. This is known as gap analysis research. This is used to cover themes of customer satisfaction. We want to know what is important to customers, how important it is and how we performed against each of those measures.

  • Tellers and basic branch transactions
  • ATM cards and Transactions
  • Branch Characteristics
  • General service provision
  • Accessibility/Ease of Obtaining Services

Information Required to Fulfil the Research Objectives

Once the business objectives and research objectives are set, it is important for the business manager to consider the most appropriate way to collect the information that is required and how it will meet those objectives. This is done by providing a research brief to three research agencies on objectives that are required to be met and then engaging with the agency that can provide the best research outcome within the monetary budget set by the bank. The manager will need to monitor the agency that conducts the research in order to reduce the potential for unreliable data. This will include monitoring the data collection approach and methodology used, the design of the questionnaire, the customer target group and sample size, the contact strategy and response rate, any training or supervision of the data collection team, and then the final processing of the data.

Initially, qualitative research, in the form of a small number of focus groups consisting of customers from the bank should be established by the agency to help determine the key customer satisfaction dimensions. Around four small groups will be satisfactory as any more than that is unlikely to uncover any addition dimensions. Once this is complete, a questionnaire that is specifically tailored to the research objectives, will be undertaken by the research agency. This should be done within the branch to catch customers randomly as they exit and after they have just been serviced by the bank. This questionnaire will capture the importance and performance ratings for each of the research objectives outlined.

An extract of the questionnaire is provided below:

There are many different aspects to consider when choosing a bank. So that we understand your needs, please indicate how important each of the following are to you
Please rate importance in terms of:                        (Please tick the appropriate boxes) Absolutely essential Very Important Slightly Important Not at all Important
1. Fast and efficient Teller Staff
2. Friendly serrvice
3. Accessibility to branch network
4. Access to ATM network
5. Range of products
6. Competitive interest rates

It will be expected that the results from the questionnaire will be collated in a table that measures the importance of each objective against the performance. Utilising 5 of the seven key measures identified from Greenland et al (2016), an output table such as the following is produced.

This output table provides an overall importance score of key customer satisfaction dimensions together with a score on how the NAB actually performed together with the performance score of its nearest competitor CBA. The 5 key customer satisfaction themes were Tellers and basic branch transactions, ATM cards and Transactions, Branch Characteristics, General service provision, and, Accessibility/Ease of Obtaining Services.

Using a SWOT analysis table, it is possible to identify weak points and strong points between the NAB and its competitor CBA. This will provide the manager with a valuable insight on what needs to be improved and what is working well. This will then help in the decision-making process. The table is shown below.

From the Swot analysis above, it is possible to identify that ATM Cards and Transactions is a weak point at NAB and it is also a priority. This is because NAB is performing 6% points worse than its competitor and it is also performing 12% points worse than the overall importance score of 92% that customers place on it for satisfaction. This sends a clear signal to management that it needs to place more focus on improving customer satisfaction with ATM Cards and Transactions. The analysis also shows that General Service Provision is also a weak point, however it is of a secondary importance. This is because the overall importance score of 72% is in the bottom half of importance ratings. NAB performed 6% points worse than its competitor CBA although it performed slightly better (+2%) than the associated overall importance score. The manager will be able to draw some comfort that the NAB is performing slightly better than importance score benchmark but should recognise that their competitor is outperforming NAB and should implement policies to try and reduce the gap.

When it comes to Tellers and Basic Branch Transactions, and Branch Characteristics, the SWOT analysis shows that the NAB is performing on par with its competitor CBA even though there was a 4% point and 3% point gap between them respectively. This is because anything less than 5% difference is considered roughly equal. The manager should take comfort in the knowledge that the NAB is performing 15% points better than the overall importance score of 70% for Tellers and Basic Branch Transactions. Improving the performance score of Branch Characteristics is probably not so important at this stage as both the NAB and CBA are roughly equal to the importance rating. The manager should work to maintain this.

Finally, from the SWOT analysis table, it can be seen that the NAB is outperforming its competitor CBA in the Accessibility/Ease of Obtaining Services category. From the graph, the difference in performance score between NAB and CBA is 11%. The NAB’s performance score is also 5% higher than the overall importance score of 87%. So, it is roughly performing equally with the overall importance score for Accessibility/Ease of Obtaining Services category. The manager can clearly see that this is one of the NAB’s strongest attributes and does not need to change anything in the decision-making process to affect a change in this category. The manager just needs to maintain this score by continuing to do what they are already doing in this space.

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Considerations in the Research Process

Key pitfalls and Managers consideration

It is obvious that in financial institution the customers need to be satisfied to get the best result for the company. Therefore, the measurement of the quality services should be done properly and in regular interval for the achievement of the better results in the financial institution. NAB is one of the most reputed banking institutions which is liked by many Australians. In this section we will be discussing about the key pitfalls and what the mangers should be concerned during the research process.

Customers loyalty: – It is obvious that a customer will be loyal to the company if the services offered meets the customer satisfaction. Relational marketing philosophy considers that the customer should be retained with the policies and services that will satisfy the customer for a long term rather than an immediate or short-term benefit from the customer. This retainment is one of the main pitfalls for the NAB to maintain as there are a number of banks providing various offerings to the customer which makes it difficult to retain the customer. Thus, managers should consider a long-term scheme to retain those customers. Along with this, there should also be various offers for the customers in daily transactions.

Products and offers: – It is seen nowadays that every financial institution is coming up with new and exciting products and offers for the customers to upgrade their quality of service. This is one of the main pitfalls for NAB as they need to introduce new scheme every now and then. The managers in this situation should consider how to improvise the existing products and offers and make the customer choose from those offers and products along with slight enhancement in the products and offers compared to other banks which would make the customer choose the product of NAB quality services provided alongside, even if there is only slight difference compared to other banks.

Customer involvement: – The cost of getting a new customer is approximately five times higher than keeping the existing customer. This is one of the pitfalls that mangers should consider through the research process. The advertisement done by the customer and the cost involved in it is less than what the company pays for the actual advertisements. Thus, NAB should be advertising its customer satisfaction through various events organised in the local community as well as encouraging the customer to participate in the events. The hidden risk of customers not being satisfied may lead to a huge back log for NAB as the customer who are not satisfied would definitely want to change the service experience provided to them and might choose a different service provider. Thus, managers should always be concerned about how to provide the quality service to the customer even if it involves a short-term loss which definitely will change to a long-term achievement for NAB.

Lack of reaching service criteria: – This is also one of the pitfalls that managers of NAB should consider while providing quality customer service. The managers should know the priorities and make standards accordingly to achieve the goals of the company along with this the priorities and services set by the managers should meet the customer needs through the real performance of the servicing staff.

Customer Expectations and Managements Conclusion of Customer needs: – The management might not know enough about the customer as the front staff of the company does due to lack of proper communication system in the company. The managers should consider the actual customer needs and how to achieve those needs through the communication from the front staff as well as the customer which would only then enhance the quality of the service provided to the customer.

Customer Expected services and Service presented by NAB: – Managers should consider the changing needs of the customer which might be repeated every now and then. To achieve those needs managers should implement new techniques to obtain the expected services from the customers and providing the customers with those services and maintaining the customer satisfaction. Even with the little changes expected by the customer should be addressed by the mangers and solution to those changes should be implemented in a rapid way following various customer interaction methods to set and achieve the goals of the company.

Decreasing the Distances: – Managers should consider various ways to decrease the distance between the customer and the company and improve the quality service through various methods and strategies such as

  • Determining what the customer expect by implementing various hearing and communication through which the company can get the feedback from the customer to improve the customer-oriented satisfaction
  • Developing various schemes and customer satisfaction servicing criteria in order to retain existing customers and attract new customers
  • Improving service performance when the staff and the customer communicate directly. This could be done by providing adequate technical knowledge to the staff, proper salary systems and so on. Proper human resources are one of the important factors affecting the operation of the company and the customer satisfaction.

Thus, the above discussion clarifies that the managers at NAB should be developing and implementing various methods and techniques to improve the quality service and also the customer satisfaction along with the smooth operation of the company and customers services.

Conclusion

The research approach is the plans and the processes that range from broad hypotheses to comprehensive processes of collecting, analyzing and interpreting the data. This plan includes a number of decisions, and they do not need to be taken in the order in which they make sense. The general decision includes the approach that has to be utilized to investigate a subject. The manager in business will look and oversee the entire business and make informed decisions from the findings obtained from the research. It is the responsibility of the research manager to select the suitable research methodology and supporting methods and processes to fulfill a specific research objective.  The manager also assists in the design and development of the research tools depending on the methods chosen. After the completion of the research the manager reviews the data that was collected and analyses the reports created and provides valuable business-oriented insights to the clients.

References

  • Apsc.gov.au. (2019). Leading productive people: A manager’s seven steps to success | Australian Public Service Commission. [online] Available at: https://www.apsc.gov.au/leading-productive-people-managers-seven-steps-success
  • Chrzan, K. & Kemery, M. (2012) Make or break: a simple non-compensatory customer satisfaction model. International Journal of Market Research, 54, 2, pp. 163–176.
  • Greenland, S.J., Combe, I.A. & Farrell, A.M. (2016).  Stakeholder preference and stated vs derived importance satisfaction research, International Journal of Market Research, 58(1), 35–56. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/292464396_Stakeholder_preference_and_stated_vs_derived_importance_satisfaction_research
  • Greenland, S., Coshall, J., & Combe, I. (2006). Evaluating service quality and consumer satisfaction in emerging markets. International Journal Of Consumer Studies, 30(6), 582-590. doi:10.1111/j.1470-6431.2005.00484.
  • Hinchcliff, M. (2018). Examining the complex relationship of customer satisfaction and loyalty within the Australian retail banking market: A multigroup analysis between high and low-involvement product types.
  • Idosi.org. (2019). [online] Available at: https://idosi.org/ajbms/2(1)11/4.pdf
  • Lewis, B.R. (1994) Customer service and quality, in McGoldrick, P.J. & Greenland, S.J. (eds) Retailing of Financial Services. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill, pp. 266–288.
  • Tontini, Gerson ; Søilen, Klaus Solberg ; Silveira, Amélia (2013) How do interactions of Kano model attributes affect customer satisfaction? An analysis based on psychological foundations, Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, Vol.24(11-12), pp.1253-1271
  • Thaichon, P., Quach, S., Bavalur, A. S., & Nair, M. (2017). Managing customer switching behavior in the banking industry. Services Marketing Quarterly38(3), 142-154.
  • Rarr;, V. (2019). 5 Gap Analysis Tools to Analyze and Bridge the Gaps in Your Business. [online] Creately Blog. Available at: https://creately.com/blog/diagrams/gap-analysis-tools/

Reflections on the group task: 

Our group consists of three members. Three weeks before the assignment deadline, one mailed everyone in the class using the group email feature in the learn line asking the students to form a group for Assessment 2. The others were in interested and three of us formed a group.

In the first meeting we discussed about the expectations of the assignment. We decided to allocate the tasks equally among ourselves. One who is currently working closely with a financial institution took the responsibility for doing the gap analysis.

In the second meeting we discussed about the research objectives and put up eight to ten objectives to get the report started. Meanwhile one started writing the considerations that are taken by the managers and another was responsible for assisting with the research objectives, introduction, conclusion and report enhancement.

The communication was done through slack and report progress was shared by each member in the group. After days of writing, reviewing and enhancing all the team members met together to create the final version of the report. The assignment would not be completed without the contributions of the team members.

 

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